The internet loves a fiasco. Whether it be 2017’s infamous Fyre Festival, 2014’s sad ball pit at Dashcon, or last year’s muddy hike for freedom at Burning Man, we love to marvel at events that make big promises but flop spectacularly. It’s the online equivalent of slowing down in your car to look at a giant wreck.
Enter February 24’s disastrous Willy Wonka chocolate factory experience in Glasgow, Scotland, which instantly became a viral sensation when pictures emerged of the sad spectacle. Organized by House of Illuminati, whose AI-heavy website promotes the company as a place where “fantasy and reality converge,†the event was advertised as an immersive experience for families themed around the classic Roald Dahl novel and movie franchise (and with tickets that cost up to $44). But the end result was anything but magical.
The event took place in a largely empty warehouse/venue that had been decorated, so to speak, with a few scattered candy-themed props, hanging plastic backgrounds, and a small jumping castle. As bewildered families wandered the space, they were greeted by actors dressed in shoddy costumes who read from scripts they later said they suspected were “AI-generated gibberish.†Rather than feasting on an array of sweets, children were given a few jellybeans and a quarter cup of lemonade. Soon, angry parents called the police as they demanded refunds from organizers, who canceled the event before the day was out.
While many photos have emerged of the Wonka fiasco, one picture in particular has grabbed the internet’s attention. It shows an actor wearing the Shein equivalent of an Oompa Loompa costume and looking slightly dead in the eyes as she stands in a smoky room behind a table covered in so much scientific equipment that countless people online compared it to a “meth lab.â€
So who was she? Meet Kirsty Paterson.
While a subsequent photo shows there was at least one other Oompa Loompa at the table that day, it’s Paterson who has emerged as the viral star and defining image of the Wonka fiasco. X posts have proclaimed her as one of the standout memes of 2024 so far. People are comparing the image to works of art or making art of their own showing Paterson as the Mona Lisa. Others are wondering if she is really the missing Kate Middleton in disguise. Many are predicting, with good reason, that she’ll be among the Halloween costumes you see this year.
Paterson, who first spoke with the Daily Mail about her experience with the event, opened up in an interview on Wednesday about what it’s been like to go viral for one of the most mortifying days of her life, and for a picture, she stresses, does not actually resemble her in real life.
Tell me about yourself. What do you do when you’re not dressed as an Oompa Loompa?
I’m 29. I want to act more in children’s entertainment because I enjoy it. I’ve got a lot of energy, and I like being around kids. But it’s more of a side hustle. I’m also a fire dancer, and I’m just trying to build up my yoga teaching at the moment.
How did you get roped into this event? Was it listed somewhere?
It was listed on Indeed. I don’t normally get my acting jobs through Indeed, but I just thought, All right. To be honest, I was a wee bit skeptical, because it was not through an agency. They were offering £500 for two days of work, so I decided to go.
You went to the warehouse on Friday for a dress rehearsal. What happened at that meeting?
I was shocked, to be honest with you. I wasn’t expecting it to be like that. It did seem like there was a production going, but to me it wasn’t a finished production — just the start. It was the first time me and the other actors met. I’ve never had a script the night before ever in my life, so when I got the script the night before I was like, Oh, this is not …
They kept going on about how you could just improvise. I was skeptical of them saying that, too, because if you’d written a script, then you’d probably pride yourself on what you’d written, right? You wouldn’t want people to improvise! I kind of thought it was AI-generated, but by this point I’d signed the contract.
Were you shown the costumes that day? The set?
This is the mental thing about the costumes! Given the amount people were paying to go and the amount they were paying us, I thought they’d have sufficient costumes. So at this point, I was like, “What is it you want us to wear? What’s the makeup like?†Because it’s a Willy Wonka experience, you need to have good costumes, because it’s all meant to be a bit imaginative. But we didn’t know what we were wearing at that point.
They said they were going to be working through the night or whatever, so I just assumed it was going to be a lot better.
What happened when you turned up on Saturday?
It was the exact same! I was like, I don’t know if I actually want to do this. But I’d signed the contract, and part of me didn’t want to disappoint the kids going to this. Honestly, it was bad enough. I knew it was shocking, but I know I’m good at what I do, so I was like, If I can bring a wee bit of something good to this …
At this point, they gave us the costumes. They were so inappropriate for what it was. It was just strange, and they were really cheaply made. It was almost like they were secondhand.
Were you wearing orange body paint in that photo? I couldn’t tell.
No! They didn’t have any makeup or anything. It’s something I’ve never experienced ever in my life.
By this point, I’m judging myself for letting this go on as long as it did. But we got the costumes, and I started seeing the kids coming in, and they were all dressed up, and I was just feeling so guilty.
Tell me about that moment as the kids started coming in. Did you see the innocence leave their eyes?
They were quite upset. I think they were confused. But it was more the parents. I just looked at them, and I think they must have known when they looked at me. An older couple said to me, “I really, really hope you get paid well for this.†And I was honest and I said, “I’m this close to walking out. This is not what I signed up for.†But I didn’t want to let the people around me down. The actors I was working with are amazing people, and this has got nothing to do with them. So I just thought, I’m going to make the best of this.Â
When the first round of kids came in … Don’t get me wrong, it’s still an incredibly, shockingly bad set, but we did our lines and everything well. We just had a bit of fun with it. I don’t know how else you can put sprinkles on shit, but we were trying to be the sprinkles on shit.
I was going around and feeling really embarrassed. After we did it the first time, the organizers were like, “Just abandon the script and let the guests walk through.â€
When you say “walk through†— how long are we talking here to walk through this event?
I’m telling you this would have taken about two minutes. I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life.
Let’s talk about this photo that’s gone viral. What are you doing at this moment here?
It doesn’t even look like me! I was thinking when it came out initially, Oh, people aren’t going to know it looks like me. Maybe I can get away with this. But no, it went completely global.
In the exact moment of the photo, they’d told us to abandon the script. They had this “Jellybean Room,†but they eventually ran out of jelly beans. I was already rationing the jelly beans to three per kid, and that was me being generous. I wanted to give the kids all the candy. So we had no jelly beans, and people were coming up to me. It was just humiliating. I was starting to get angry. The other Oompa Loompa came over at this point and I went, “Where is everyone?! Why am I left here on my own?! Where is everyone else?!†You know how they talk about “me contemplating my life� This is me contemplating my life.
I’m laughing about it now, but I was so angry for the kids and the parents. I know people spent a lot of money coming here. It’s a disservice to what I do. Eventually, I just walked off. I was like, “I’m done.†But someone got a picture of me.
Are you aware just how viral this picture is?
I’m not going to lie or sugarcoat this: This has been quite a lot for me. I find it funny and I can make a humorous joke about it, but the flip side of this is that this is embarrassing for what I do, and I hope this doesn’t tarnish that. It’s as if it’s been edited. Obviously, because it’s such an ugly photo, people were commenting on it and saying I look ugly or like a meth head. I found the negative comments really hard, but I do see the funny side of it. I know I’m all-right looking.
I suppose that’s good it doesn’t resemble you.
Me and all my close friends recognized me! And my friends know I’m the only one who would do something as daft as this.
To be honest, I don’t know how viral this has gone. I turned off my phone for a day because I was like, Right, this is too much. My phone was going off constantly, and I didn’t know how to navigate it.
So how big has this gone? Because this is the first interview I’ve done where I’ve really spoken about it.
It is very viral. I’m not going to lie. But a lot of pictures from the event have gone viral.
I don’t blame it for going viral. I just hope everyone gets their money back, because I’ve not been paid for this. None of the actors have. So it’s like we’re kind of going through all this for nothing.
I just need to see the funny side of it. Anyone who knows me knows I can take a joke. I just didn’t expect it to go this wild.
Have you seen the people saying they’re going to dress up like you for Halloween?
No, but if you want to, you can!