One of the biggest news stories this week is also the most amusing unless you’re one of the parents who forked out £35 for the shambolic Willy Wonka-inspired event in Glasgow.
It’s the story that keeps on giving. The more details that emerge the greater the disbelief at what the organisers were thinking when admitting to a paying public.
Those expecting an ‘immersive’ wonderland found underwhelming props dotted around a warehouse as empty as the organiser’s promises. In a video clip taken from the event, a mum pans the camera around to show a handful of props, including a bar of Wonka chocolate, a blue pipe, candy sticks and a solitary Oompa Loompa behind a pop-up table.
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Countless memes of this visibly embarrassed Oompa Loompa hired for the event were shared online. The despondent employee playing the part has since come in for praise for not only summing up the experience in a single facial expression, but for resolutely trying her best despite the hand dealt.
Another viral moment has been kids at the event becoming visibly frightened at ‘the unknown’ – a creepy mask-wearing villain who emerges jerkily from behind a full-length mirror. Strangely, this character created as part of the event’s AI-generated script appears to have since gained a considerable cult following and may have run George Galloway close in Rochdale had ‘it’ ran.
But such was the initial disappointment at the ‘Willy Wonka Chocolate Experience’ police were called when angry parents vented their rage at organisers of the event, which was later shut down.
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Another surprise come out of it is a kernel of truth in the old adage – there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Since it shut down, thousands have signed a petition to reopen the ‘shambolic’ Willy Wonka experience.
The event’s organisers have since promised to refund those who had bought tickets. The whole thing has echoes of ‘Blobbyland’ – the Crinkley Bottom-inspired 1990s theme park in Morecambe that closed just weeks after opening to great fanfare.
But here at the Manchester Evening News there will be no broken promises or disappointment in the selection of interesting stories I’ve picked out for you to enjoy this Saturday.
“Our town’s more than the ‘new Didsbury’. We just don’t know where it’s going”
The M.E.N’s senior reporter, Stephen Topping, has been speaking to business owners in Prestwich – a town that has found itself at a crossroads. In the coming years, Bury council are hoping to build on the town’s stunning green spaces and some of the best bars and restaurants in the region, with a £100m regeneration project.
But emerging from the pandemic straight into a cost-of-living crisis, business owners have been speaking about challenges the town faces.
You can read Stephen’s story here.
‘The pain is never not there – sometimes I just wish for a lethal injection’
Lauren Bolton has bravely spoken about her rare degenerative condition which effects the movement of her jaw, ears, and temple. Lauren, who began experiencing jaw problems when she was 15, said: “The pain is never not there. If I don’t eat or talk and keep on top of pain medication it is more manageable, but it is always there – from the second I open my eyes in a morning to the second I fall asleep, it is exhausting.”
You can read more about Lauren and her debilitating condition here.
Inside the secret ‘mole gang’ and their ‘elaborate’ plot underneath a car park in Manchester
Everybody loves a caper so if you didn’t catch this one of mine earlier in the week then it’s a good one to start your Saturday with. With the demolition of Fallowfield Retail Park underway, we look back to when a ‘mole gang’ spent months digging a secret tunnel under the retail park’s car park and into Blockbuster Video to steal from a cash machine.
The heist mirrored a plot in the hit Channel 4 TV show Shameless, which aired just after. One detective sergeant with Longsight CID said: “In all my years of service, I have never seen anything quite as elaborate as this. These people had obviously spent a long time plotting this crime.”
You can read more about the ‘mole gang’s’ elaborate heist here.