Props from the disastrous Willy Wonka event in Glasgow that went viral after attendees called the police have been auctioned off to raise thousands of pounds for a Palestinian charity.
After the fabric backdrops used in the controversial event were found in a bin, they were given to a local record store, whose manager decided to sell the now infamous gear to raise money for a medical aid charity operating in Gaza.
Michael Kasparis, manager of Glasgow’s Monorail Records, auctioned the props on eBay, where they eventually sold for over £2000, all of which was donated to the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).
Willy's Chocolate Experience became an internet sensation when photos and videos from event went viral.
Priced at £35 per ticket, the event at Box Hub in Glasgow promised an unparalleled chocolate fantasy where “dreams become reality”.
However, attendees were greeted by a virtually empty space, featuring just a few Wonka-inspired decorations and a modest-sized bouncy castle.
Furious parents also reported that their kids were only given a few sweets and a quarter can of cheap limeade.
The shoddy nature of the event, including its badly written AI-generated website, turned it into a global story, with even the New York Times covering it.
The House of Illuminati, which ran the event, threw the backdrops away, only for them to be found by someone who passed them on to Kasparis, who saw the opportunity to turn the situation into a positive development.
“Personally, I had some slight reservations,” Kasparis told The New Arab.
“I thought perhaps the jarring nature of having this silly story against what’s going on in Palestine would be a bit distasteful but really the need to raise money for the cause is more important than these misgivings.”
The money will be given to MAP, a British-based charity that is helping to alleviate the catastrophic humanitarian situation that faces Gaza in the face of Israel’s devastating war on the enclave.
More than 31,000 people have been killed in the devastated Palestinian territory and now famine looms, with at least 27 people, most of them children, dying from the effects of starvation in the past two weeks.
“Individually, it's something we all care about and we've each done our own things to try and raise money and awareness for the cause and for MAP,” Kasparis said.
“Glasgow has had a pretty active response in the form of marches and protests. You can't not be moved with the horror that's happening in Gaza. When this situation presented itself there was only one cause that we had in mind for it,” he added.
