‘Two years on my daughter still has nightmares of the Unknown from Glasgow’s Willy Wonka experience’

Performers and survivors of the ill-fated Willy Wonka experience in Glasgow have spoken of the disaster that spawned a thousand memes.

There are ‘you had to be there’ moments through history, there was the Sex Pistols gig at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall, Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock and then there was the Willy’s Chocolate Experience in Glasgow.

The event promised to be ‘a heart-pounding experience’. It certainly was – just ask any of the irate parents who called police on ‘out of his depth’ organizer Billy Coull.

The Scot had thrown together some cheap posters, hired but not rehearsed with dozens of actors and then invited hundreds of sugared up children to an abandoned warehouse on an industrial estate and expected it to be ok.

The experience, costing a now-meagre-seeming £35 a ticket to be at the seismic show event, in a supposed ‘enchanted’ warehouse on a Glasgow industrial estate.

Children were met with sagging posters and demented AI-generated storylines which would have Roald Dahl rolling in his grave.

Then there is the Unknown. A terrifying rival to Willy Wonka, decidedly not part of the Wonka lore and ‘looking like Diana Ross at an Eyes Wide Shut party’, still appears in one girl’s dreams, according to her mother.

Maryanne Mccormack, took her then 11-year-old daughter Perri, to the event, not knowing it would go down in folklore for centuries.

‘She barely remembers it but she remembers that mask’, she told Metro.

‘She was very scared for quite a while going to bed. The character they created was terrifying for a kid and she often was scared at night seeing the mask.

‘But we managed that because we found out the wee girl under the mask was only 16 and she was in fact a member of my little girl’s cub group at the time.

‘Perri even knew who she was, so she felt better knowing it wasn’t real. I don’t know how long we would have been dealing with her being afraid.’

‘Looking back I don’t feel like I’m part of history’, she explains.

‘Even though we laugh now if I see Billy in person I’d definitely ask for my money still.

‘I just haven’t bumped into him yet.’

Speaking of trauma, Michael Archibald, drafted in to play one of the unofficial Willy Wonkas at the last minute, said he had trouble being thrust into the limelight after the tragic event went viral.

Lured in by the promise of £500 at just 18, Micheal turned up to his first ever acting gig expecting a professional role in a play. Instead he became part of the Willy Wonka experience.

He told Metro: ‘Well, I never intended on being an actor to begin with but it certainly put me off.

‘It was just something I’d decided to do one day since I was good with public speaking and needed the money at the time, being an estranged 18-year-old.’

‘The attention on my end honestly was atrocious though.

‘I had a lot of random racist comments since I’m mixed, I am from Scotland and never had been abroad at the time of the experience, but since I’ve got a funny American accent I had a lot of the whole ‘get out of this country’ or ‘he’s not even Scottish’ comments. It sucked.

‘There was a lot of backlash on my appearance too which had sent me into a pretty big spiral for being as young as I was.’

He added he was still owed £250 of his promised wages but had almost no hope of getting that back.

‘But I’m really happy with where I am now, I’ve got a comfy job and a permanent contract, so I just work a 9-5 Monday-Friday and it’s been really great.

‘I’m super proud of where I’m at and think I’m happier living a nice, quiet life.

‘I saved up enough to get a mortgage which has been my main focus over the past year, really.

‘I’ve grown up, started going to the gym and got the stability I was looking for when I’d initially gotten into the gig.’

He was coy on a possible reunion, but admitted’ I’m still friends with the Unknown as well and actually was at her 18th birthday party recently – it was smashing.

‘It feels almost impossible to fully move on since it’s a huge inside joke in my friend group. It still pops up on social media from time to time. You can never truly escape it.’

organizer Billy Coull went on the missing list when it came time for refunds for the disastrous event.

He did apologize, saying: ‘I’m really shocked that the event had fallen short of the expectations of people on paper.

‘My vision of the artistic rendition of a well-known book didn’t come to fruition.

‘For that, I am absolutely truly and utterly sorry.’