Willy Wonka Experience: New York club nights, ice dance routines, merchandise - how failed Glasgow event inspired world

The Willy Wonka Experience in Glasgow has inspired a club night in New York and got a mention on Saturday Night Live

It is one of the most talked-about events of the year, sparking news stories across the globe and becoming the subject of memes and jokes on social media.

Now the notoriety of the failed Glasgow Willy Wonka Experience has gone a step further – inspiring events from a club night in New York to an ice dance routine by an Olympic medal-winning Japanese figure skater.

In New York, a rave is being advertised based around the disastrous theme event, which saw police called after disappointed children and parents turned up to a half empty warehouse in Glasgow’s Whiteinch area to be given three jelly beans and half a cup of lemonade last month.

The £35-a-head Willy Wonka-themed event at the Box Hub Warehouse made international headlines when images of an almost-empty warehouse, devoid of entertainment, decoration or chocolate goodies, were shared on social media.

The New York event, organised by Flipphone Events, will be held on April 4 at Brooklyn nightclub 3 Dollar Bill. It promises a “Glasgow Wonka costume contest”, “Pop-up Glasgow Wonka acts” and a “Cartchy Tuns” dance party – in reference to the spelling error-riddled Artificial Intelligence-created marketing materials used to advertise the Wonka event.

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"Step into ‘a pasadise of sweet teats” and dance to ‘cartchy tuns’ at a rave inspired by the ‘catgacating” world of Wonka in Glasgow,” Flipphone Events said on Instagram in an advert for the rave.

An advert for the Glasgow Willy Wonka Experience rave night in a New York nightclub.

Japanese ice dancer and Olympic medallist Tim Koleto separately joked he and his partner, Misato Komatsubara, could use the Glasgow event as inspiration for next season’s routine.

"It's all fun and games until somebody does a ‘Dance Party’ themed to the Willy Wonka Glasgow Experience,” he said, in reference to a recent announcement by the International Skating Union for the theme for the 2025 season competitive programme, which has been selected as “21st-century dance party”.

He added: "By somebody, I mean me. To be clear.”

Skating fans welcomed his comment.

The event did not live up to expectations.

"As someone from Glasgow, I would eat that UP,” said one. "I would pay to see that,” added another.

Merchandise, including t-shirts, have also sprung up for sale on the internet.

One design, by Allbluetees T-shirts, shows a photograph of the now-infamous, sad-looking Oompa Loompa actress hired by the event’s organisers, alongside the lines: “I went to the Willy Wonka Glasgow Experience and all I got was the crushing realisation that magic is not real and reality is a bitter disappointment.”

Meanwhile, the Glasgow event also got a shout out on hit US TV show Saturday Night Live at the weekend, when host and actress Sydney Sweeney referenced the Willy Wonka Experience in a skit about interior designers who create bland Airbnbs.

“You may know our work from cosy casita steps from LAX,” Ms Sweeney said in the skit, which showed a real Airbnb listing of an airplane flying over a house. “And the Wonka Experience in Glasgow.”