Monorail Music in Glasgow are auctioning off bits of the shoddy Willy Wonka Experience set

8 March, 2024

Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka in 1971

Monorail Music, a record store in Glasgow, is auctioning off artefacts from the set of the disastrous Willy Wonka Experience.

The event, which went viral last month, was advertised as “a celebration of sweetness and imagination” that was inspired by the hit movie Wonka and the Roald Dahl book behind it. Outraged parents began demanding a refund shortly after it opened, describing it as a “farce” run by “cowboys”.

The event’s organisers, House of Illuminati, decided to pull the plug just hours into its opening day. Tickets cost £35 and promised audio and visual effects, dancing Oompa-Loompas and chocolate fountains, but delivered little more than a barely decorated warehouse with a smattering of plastic candy canes and a small bouncy castle.

And now, the Glasgow record shop Monorail Music are auctioning two of the original backdrops from the event via Ebay.

“This is real,” the shop posted on their Instagram account. “Glasgow Willy Wonka Experience “House Of Illuminati” orig backdrops, for sale, from us. Auctioning 2 original backdrops and the Time Tunnel on Ebay. Rescued from the bin by a pal of the shop. All profits to Medical Aid For Palestinians.”

Bids will be accepted here until Thursday (March 14), with the highest bid at time of writing being £575. You

Since taking the internet by storm, the event has taken on a life of its own. There is set to be a documentary about it, Willy Wonka: The Scandal That Rocked Britain, on Channel 5 on March 16.

Sydney Sweeney also poked fun at the event during a skit on her recent Saturday Night Live appearance.

One of the actors at the event, Kirsty Paterson, has spoken out about the disastrous experience, revealing she had not yet been paid the £500 she’d been offered for the gig.

“The whole thing’s just been a complete and utter shambles. It was shocking honestly,” she told the MailOnline.

Later, Paul Connell, one of the actors hired to impersonate Willy Wonka, revealed more about how the event unfolded. “The script was 15 pages of AI-generated gibberish of me just monologuing these mad things,” he told The Independent.

There is also now reported to be a horror movie, The Unknown, based on the event in development by Scottish production company Kaledonia Pictures. It is expected to be released in late 2024.

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