The bizarre ‘Unknown’ character from the disastrous Willy Wonka experience that led to furious parents calling the police over the sham has unmasked herself for the first time.
Willy’s Chocolate Experience, set up by organisers House of Illuminati, became the subject of national mockery after families in Glasgow arrived for a fun day out only to be met with a near-empty warehouse.
It led to the event being cancelled halfway through after furious mothers, fathers and grandparents demanded a refund for their £35-a-ticket event that left some children in floods of tears.
Last night, 16-year-old Glaswegian teenager Felicia became the latest of the actors involved in the comically-bad event to reveal her identity after clips of the experience went viral.
The teenager, who was happy to be handed her first paid acting job said: ‘When I first read the script, I really did not like it. As most of you guys know, I am 16 and it was my first ever paid acting job.
The bizarre ‘Unknown’ character from the disastrous Willy Wonka experience that led to furious parents calling the police over the sham has unmasked herself
One parent who was at the event described The Unknown as ‘a terrifying chrome-masked character that scared many of the kids to tears’
Glaswegian teenager Felicia became the last of the actors involved in the disastrous event to reveal her identity after the experience went viral
‘I was quite nervous but the actors were so so lovely and they took me under their wing.’
Felicia had initially been cast to play a Wonka character but was suddenly told she would play The Unknown, an ‘evil chocolate maker who lives in the walls’, on the day.
There were no dress-rehearsals planned so the budding actress got to set early that day only to find that nothing had been set up.
‘We were all saying it was a mess and there hadn’t been any organisation, but we were just hoping that together it wouldn’t be that bad. But it was,’ she said.
She explained: ‘On the day of the actual event we just got told to patch the script and improvise it and the only direction I got given was to act creepy. So I tried to imagine what a man living in the walls should be like.’
Felicia donned a black cloak and a silver mask, revealing herself by creeping out from behind a mirror in front of crowds of scared children.
One parent who was at the event described The Unknown as ‘a terrifying chrome-masked character that scared many of the kids to tears’.
The actor first became concerned about 45 minutes into the event when people started ‘straggling in’ unsure of what was going on.
Despite the backlash, Felica said the day had become a ‘genuinely life-changing experience’ and she is ‘really happy’ she took part.
The company said it had been ‘let down in many areas of our event and tried our best to continue’
Families were left stunned when they arrived and were greeted with a near-empty factory with a few Wonka-themed props and a small bouncy castle
Jenny Fogarty pictured in her costume prior to the event which was cancelled by organisers
Referring to the viral clips, she added: ‘Some people loved it, some people hated it, some were left traumatised. Some people had no clue what was going on – including myself.’
Other staff members, however, were not left as pleased with the way the event turned out.
Photos Kirsty Paterson, who was promised £500 for two days work, dressed as a sad-looking Oompa-Loompa standing by a chemistry set with fumes billowing out has led her to be described as a ‘m***-lab’ went viral.
Ms Paterson told MailOnline she had not received the cash and had not been briefed on what the role would involved.
She explained: ‘I was angry at the time because I felt like this is embarrassing for me, and I felt bad for the people coming in as well.
‘I actually ended up shouting at the guy. I just said to him he’s a joke and this is like embarrassing, and how can we basically live with himself, doing this to people.
‘This is really embarrassing for me. My job is teaching kids yoga and I go into schools and stuff and I do kids’ entertainment.
‘This is none of our faults at all. We got the job and then we got given the script.
A glum-looking actor dressed as an Oompa Loompa appears to be conducting experiments in another snap
Angry families gathered outside and demanded refunds after the event was prematurely shut down
Furious parents slammed the £35-a-ticket event in Glasgow as ‘an absolute shambles’ after being promised ‘a universe where your dreams come true’
‘By that point I’d signed a contract and they said they were going to put us £500 for the two days which is a lot of money which is a lot of money to say no to.
‘I got stuck to the jelly bean bit and by that point I felt awful. There was a part where they were saying it was like a science lab, and you were supposed to hand out jelly beans, and by that point they had run out of jelly beans, so I was just trying to make slightly exciting for the kids.
‘Then I walked off scene because I was so embarrassed.
‘I went mental about the guy and feel awful about the whole thing, like I really honestly do, and I walked off because I was just like feeling so shit for the kids. The whole thing has just been awful.
‘The whole thing’s just been a complete and utter shambles. It was shocking honestly.’
Fellow actress Jenny Forgarty added: ‘It was horrendously embarrassing. We didn’t want to walk out just because I feel like that would make it even worse. ‘When we arrived we were handed a script to learn in 12 hours or something like that.
‘We arrived for a dress rehearsal on the Friday evening, and were handed a script for the Saturday and Sunday – it wasn’t planned out at all.
Attendees, including tiny excitable children, had been promised ‘a universe where your dreams come true’ but were instead met with a sad grey room, half filled with plastic mushrooms and AI-generated posters.
When it transpired that not only was the event not as advertised but it also hadn’t stocked enough chocolate to feed the crowds, parents called the police on organiser Billy Coull who was recorded grovelling to the mob.
Adverts on House of Illuminati’s Facebook page in January described it as an experience where ‘dreams become reality’ and said there would be an ‘enchanted garden’, ‘imagination lab’, and a ‘twilight tunnel’
One parent wrote on social media: ‘What an absolute shambles of an event. Took two minutes to get through to then see a queue of people surrounding the guy running it complaining’
Clarifying their intentions and fighting off allegations of dishonest marketing Mr Coull said: ‘We guarantee a full refund from Monday. We used artificial intelligence to create some images for the event.’
Before he deleted his LinkedIn account following Saturday’s debacle, Mr Coull described himself as someone with ‘a wealth of experience in crafting marketing campaigns and events.’
In a statement on its Facebook page, the House of Illumaniti said: ‘Today has been a very stressful and frustrating day for many and for that we are truly sorry.
‘Unfortunately last minute we were let down in many areas of our event and tried our best to continue on and push through and now realise we probably should havd cancelled first thing this morning instead.
‘We fully apologise for what has happened and will be giving full refunds to each and every person that purchased tickets.
‘We planned a fabulous event and it just did not take shape as planned and for that we are truly sorry we are devastated at how this has turned out and understand people’s anger and frustration that everyone has had, refunds have already started being issued and the rest should be over the coming days, again we are truely [sic] sorry to everyone.’
They said refunds would take about 10 working days.