A Detroit company’s attempt to recreate the sumptuous galas like those on the Netflix hit show Bridgerton missed the mark and joined the ranks of legendarily bad events like 2017’s Fyre Festival and The Glasgow Willy Wonka Experience.

Netflix had nothing to do with the event, which was put on by a local company called Uncle & Me LLC. Ticket prices started at $150 per person for the event, which was billed as a chance for fans of the show to  “step into the enchanting world of the Regency-era … for an evening of sophistication, grace and historical charm…filled with music, dance, and exquisite costumes.”

In reality, the event, which took place on Sunday, September 22nd at the Harmonie Club delivered none of that. While not as dire as Fyre, everyone who attended and later spoke to news or on their own social media channels had a lot to complain about.

First, several people said that no one was checking tickets at the door, meaning anyone could have come in, not just those who paid big bucks to attend.

“It was definitely the price tag that had given us this expectation of luxury, regality, class, the Bridgerton experience and even arriving to the event we were told there would be valet service and we had to end up self-parking and paying for parking,” attendee Ayrton Hamrick to WXYZ-TV.

The food service was disorganized, with some guests having nothing to eat but Kit Kats. There was no one tasked with removing the plates of those who did get to eat from the buffet dinner provided from tables, according to one account of the event. Those employees serving the food did not dress in period costume, ruining the visual effect, complained one attendee.

As for music and dance, the pole dance seen above was the only one dancing. That may be because instead of an orchestra, one poor violinist was responsible for all the dance music, leaving many attendees with nothing to do but sit on the floor and scroll through their phones.

“We were going to have classical music, good dinner. There was going to be a play,” Amanda Sue Mathis told WXYZ-TV in Detroit. “They were going to pick Diamond of the Season,” she said, referring to an award in the series that gets presented to the most eligible debutante.

“There is nothing going on,” Ms. Mathis told the television station. “They have a pole in the middle of the dance floor. A stripper pole in the middle of the dance floor.”

There were cameras set up for photo ops in front of cheap backdrops, and one “Queen” seated on a throne who, according to attendee Nita Morton, started hustling anyone who stopped to get their photo taken with her.

“I couldn’t even get my bow in before she was trying to get me to pick up her business card,” Morton said in her TikTok video describing the event.

Morton said the event covered three floors, but there was nothing to do on any of them. “And as I’m starting to get up the stairs, I’m like…we’re not watching the same Bridgerton show.”

“The ticket included food, a bar, at least a table and chair for us to sit down and enjoy. It included an orchestra. What we really got was, it’s going to sound funny, Kool-Aid from a bottle, no bar. There was not enough seats and chairs for us,” said attendee Pedro Soto in an interview with Scripps Detroit. “We had to reuse cups, not enough plates. The backdrops were just paper. It was nothing special. The photographs were actually extra.”

The poor pole dancer who was tasked with performing at the event said this was unlike her usual gigs. “This is truly a horror story and I’m just completely awestruck seeing everything that happened,” local aerialist Tink who performed at the event told Scripps. “Normally it’s not like that.”

A rep from Uncle & Me said in a statement to WXYZ that they are “reviewing resolution options, which will be communicated shortly.”

“We understand that not everyone had the experience they hoped for at our most recent event Sunday night at the Harmonie Club, and for that, we sincerely apologize. Our intention was to provide a magical evening, but we recognize that organizational challenges affected the enjoyment of some guests. We take full responsibility and accountability for these shortcomings,” the company representative said.

The event had been scheduled to take place in a different venue back in August, but three days before the date was postponed to September and moved to a new venue. Ticket prices ran as high as $1000, and some who purchased the more expensive experience option went in expected a chance to win a ‘best-dressed’ prize of $2000, which seems not to have happened.

“We were all really angry about it because we had built up these expectations and the tickets were not cheap,” Camerin Morey told WXYZ. “I definitely think that the people in this company were just in it to make money and try to maybe copy cat off a successful event but they had absolutely no idea what they were doing or they just didn’t care and had no problem taking people’s money.”

“I think we should absolutely get refunds and honestly I want to see this company never doing business again,” said Morey.