That notorious Willy Wonka experience is being recreated in L.A.—but it’s not quite what you think

The internet moves fast, but you undoubtedly haven’t forgotten Willy’s Chocolate Experience: The “immersive” event haphazardly staged in Glasgow this February was so misleadingly bad that police were called to the scene. But for the rest of the world, the unlicensed Willy Wonka train wreck was a chocolate river full of instant memes, including the now familiar photo of a forlorn Oompa Loompa standing behind a chemistry set and a cloud of smoke.

So it was surprising—and questionable—to see early-April headlines in U.K. tabloids reporting that the experience would see a second serving in L.A. with some famous names attached to it (which were quickly removed) as well as the Scottish actress who played the Oompa Loompa. What was actually going on here?

Willy’s Chocolate Experience L.A., it turns out, is an unaffiliated, detail-oriented homage to the original event’s most memorably miserable ingredients, but with the addition of a for-charity assembly of “full weirdo experiential” performers pulled from L.A.’s alternative arts, music and nightlife scenes. Slated for April 28 on the edge of Downtown, its Eventbrite page preempts many of your questions by blaring “yes, this is a real event,” and that its $44 tickets will benefit the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Despite naming themselves after the folks behind the first Willy’s Chocolate Experience, organizer House of Illuminati L.A. has no connection to the Glasgow company. Instead, it’s an anonymous network of creatives who saw the secondhand joy in the viral event’s excess of absurdity and complete lack of charisma and wanted to bring some of that fun to L.A. Though those involved have separately staged or partaken in local events, Willy’s marks the debut for House of Illuminati L.A., and the event will mark the first time that most of the participants meet in person. We spoke, via email, with an unnamed representative who’s been managing the logistics of wrangling together the event’s artists, comedians, curators and underground nightlife promoters.

The L.A. edition of Willy’s will absolutely attempt to emulate the things that made the Glasgow original so memeable (even the price is a currency-converted nod to the £35 entry fee). Organizers tell us you can expect an oversized warehouse space with astroturf, a lollipop (singular) and a scarce amount of jellybeans. As in the original, AI will be abused and specifically used to generate a script for a play about the origins of the Unknown, the silver-masked, black-cloaked fiend that’s become an indelible part of the Willy’s canon.

The centerpiece, though, is the “sad Oompa Loompa with a heart of gold” herself, Kirsty Paterson, who’ll be reprising her role and emceeing the evening. In fact, the entire event hinged on Paterson’s involvement, and in many ways the organizers see it as a celebration of her. “We found her quite endearing in her public postmortem,” they tell us. “She tried her damnedest to make the best out of a bad situation by cheering the kids up in any way she could. And not to mention how she’s handled being meme-ified to high heaven.”

The rest of the lineup reads like a showcase of L.A.’s gonzo underground arts scenes, with a performance by comedy duo (and experienced Oompa Loompas in their own right) Clowns of Color; inflatable decor by Molly Balloons plus pieces from installation artist Layne Marie; screenings by Tiny Cinema, a four-seat silent movie theater wedged inside of a traveling cargo trailer; magic by Ace Ehlman; music by TIPSY and Chaki the Funk Wizard; and a DJ set by the pop culture-sampling Mabson.

On paper, the Willy’s parodies were maybe a little too convincing when the event was first announced. The initial ticketing page teased that it would simply take place in “a nondescript warehouse in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles”; it’s since revealed its location as 2346 Porter Street, the street address for an event space just south of the Arts District on the other side of the 10. It also now plainly spells out that this event has no affiliation with Glasgow’s House of Illuminati, and it all reads with a more obviously tongue-in-cheek tone than the drier first draft.

The page is also now very clear about who is and isn’t showing up. The original event listing playfully but perhaps clumsily said that Nathan Fielder and Zach Galifianakis were rumored to be “vying for the chance to moderate the Q&A session” and that “Hollywood heartthrob Timothée Chalamet has expressed interest in attending.” The organizers tell us that while they did approach and hoped to win over Fielder and Galifianakis, nothing was ever confirmed; stories in the U.K. press, however, resolutely attached the comedians to the event, which compelled the organizers to quickly revise their pitch and scrub their names from the listing. “To our credit, not a single person purchased a ticket with those names involved,” they tell us. “We saw the U.K. article run earlier in the morning and knew it was going to be a problem and changed the copy on the event listing before it went viral and before we sold a single golden ticket.”

As for Chalamet, the organizers say they never bothered to reach out to the Wonka actor. “We don’t care about him despite hearing rumors that he maybe possibly really wants to come.”

If you maybe possibly really want to come, you’ll find Willy’s Chocolate Experience L.A. at 2346 Porter Street on Sunday, April 28 from 5:30 to 9pm. Admission costs $44 and all proceeds will be donated to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.