I Am In Literal Tears Over This "Bridgerton Ball Experience" In Detroit, Where Fans Reportedly Experienced A Pole Dancer, Raw Chicken, And "Dollar General" Decor

Where February gave us the chaos and memes from a disastrous Willy Wonka Experience in Glasgow, September gives us another themed event gone wrong. Welcome: the Detroit Bridgerton-themed Ball, an experience that was supposed to resemble a real-life example of an extravagant ball in Netflix's Bridgerton, but instead resembled, according to some fans, a Dollar General-decorated mess.

In an original post advertising the event, the event organizers, Uncle & Me LLC, promised "dancing, live entertainment, exquisite refreshments, and enchanting surprise." Ticket prices started at $150 and went up to $1,000, according to attendees. They even had a proper invite from Lady Whistledown.

Kimberly Pineda, a 22-year-old from Detroit who went viral for sharing the fiasco on TikTok, told BuzzFeed, "We were supposed to be getting a dinner, valet parking, a carriage ride, some on-site musical performance. So we're expecting violins, cellos, almost like an entire orchestra. The huge Bridgerton florals. So I guess as a consumer, and the idea that we were being sold on, we were pretty much expecting to be completely transported into a Bridgerton episode."

Quickly, however, Kimberly realized that was not the experience she would receive.

When she arrived, she was confused why "an influx of about 60 people" were pouring out of the event. "In my mind, I'm like, maybe it's a little hot in there. Maybe they just need to breathe," she said. But nobody was scanning the $150–$1,000 tickets people bought. No event organizer was in sight.

It was off to a bad start, but Kimberly wanted to give the event the benefit of the doubt, especially after how much she spent. "I'm like, maybe they're just being a little picky, right? I'm gonna go in with an open mind. Maybe they just need some time to kind of gather all their things," she said.

Soon, Kimberly realized "enchanting surprises" would surely be had, but not quite as she expected...

Like the screen-printed backdrops and "party city/dollar general-level" decor...

Twitter: @rayleearts

Or a speaker that glitched music...

...Or the very long line for food, only to be served what guests say was raw chicken and reused cups.

"I asked them, like, 'Hey, how's the food? Should I stand in line for it? Is it worth it? I don't mind missing out on it, if that means I can go watch the performances and all that,'" she continued. "They're like, 'Don't do it. I don't know what I just ate. That tasted horrible.' They gave me one meatball. It was cold. It wasn't good. I also heard many attendees say that when they cut into the chicken, it was raw, and the greens tasted fishy. Well, there was no fish served at the event."

The event was also starkly...bright white? Not quite the moody candle-lit Regency vibes of Bridgerton. Attendees said for a while, "there was nothing to do." People were seen sitting on their phones.

Twitter: @rayleearts

Until...the "live entertainment" came out in the ballroom...

...Reader, it was one pole dancer.

Kimberly explained that the ballroom, where attendees expected the main Bridgerton-style ball to be, was instead set up like a "flea market" of vendors — there was a minibar of Kool-Aid and mocktails that you had to pay for (she said the ticket originally advertised alcohol), a DJ, and a "chip guy" (yes — apparently, there was a random guy selling chips???). Not quite the elegant ballrooms of Bridgerton. Still, Kimberly explained, "If it hadn't been for [the chip guy], half of us wouldn't eat at all."

So, while they were purportedly listening to DJ-period music in a bright-ass flea-market-style ballroom and eating chips from the chip guy, the pole dancer came out. "I'm like, okay, like, this is exciting. I don't know why there's the pole in the middle of the ballroom, but I'm expecting, like, 8 to 10 dancers," Kimberly said. "You know, these tickets weren't cheap. We were sold on a Bridgerton experience. So I'm expecting something amazing, right? Then one performer comes out and just starts pole dancing in a G-string."

Tink told WXYZ Detroit, "I just feel very bad for all the patrons who showed up to the event just because my goal as a performer is to bring happiness and cheers to everyone. So it kind of just bummed me out knowing everyone was so unhappy with the outcome."

Anyway, I'm not sure the event organizers really understood the "Regency-era" assignment, but they did hire a violinist.

Twitter: @rayleearts

The violinist, who is a high school student, shared on TikTok that she was the only entertainment hired besides the pole dancer. "I'm so confused they had a stripper when there were minors in the building," she said. She claimed she was hired less than a week before the event, had to pay for $60 parking to perform at the event, was promised food but didn't get any, and still hasn't gotten paid.

Aside from the disappointing event, ball-goers also said they were promised cash prizes and a "Diamond of the Season" award, as they do in the show, that never happened.

Twitter: @rayleearts

The best-dressed ceremony was also disappointing to some attendees. Apparently, a man in a suit, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat won. "I'm so irritated for all the people, especially the women, who put time and effort into their look, into their moment, their hair, their makeup, down to their shoe. They were overlooked," @mysterwhitfield shared on TikTok. Some attendees admitted to spending hundreds on dresses, hair, and makeup for the event.

DressArtGoods / Etsy / Via etsy.com

WXYZ Detroit also reported that this isn't the first time this company has put on a criticized experience. Viewers told the news station of a similar Bridgerton-themed tea party the company hosted in June.

"I’m like 'this sounds familiar,'" Tamela Everett, a tea-party goer who paid $80 for the June event, told WXYZ Detroit after hearing about the ball. At the event, she said, "It’s a tea party; there’s no tea at all, running out of mimosa, running out of serving glasses for the mimosas. It’s just really unfortunate for such a beautiful event... I feel like something needs to be done. This company is making a lot of money off of regular hard-working people, and it’s not really fair."

Overall, people are saying the Detroit Bridgerton ball might just have exceeded the chaos of the failed Willy Wonka experience in Glasgow.

Some have even called it Detroit's Fyre Fest and "Scamerton."

Twitter: @sapioslut

In a statement to WXYZ Detroit, the event organizer, Uncle & Me LLC, apologized to attendees and said they are "working diligently to address all concerns to ensure that all guests have the enjoyable experience they deserve," including working on "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," they said in the statement. "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 Harmonie Club provided a separate statement to WXYZ, addressing that they are “in no way affiliated with the promoters and/or organizations that rent our venue for events such as the Bridgerton Ball.”

Still, many attendees aren't pleased. Kimberly told BuzzFeed, "The statement feels very backhanded. They said they know some people weren't happy and didn't get their expectations met. They know very well that no one was happy with the event. No one's expectations were met... I can honestly say that we're not expecting a refund from them."

Many people online who say they attended are asking for their money back. "Really hope this ends in a lawsuit because I want my $300 back," user @rayleearts, creator of a the viral thread about the event, wrote on Twitter. Kimberly said some attendees are disputing the tickets with their banks, and others are getting together to build a lawsuit.

Twitter: @rayleearts

And for those saying the attendees should have known this was questionable, Kimberly told BuzzFeed, "People are trying to blame all the consumers, saying that we should have known better, but there's nothing to blame the consumers. They were pretending to sell an experience, and they just completely, I want to say, scammed us out of that experience."

In 2022, Netflix hosted an official Bridgerton experience affiliated with Shondaland. The experiences were successful across many US cities, too — celebrities attended, the decor was on point, and from the wisteria flower tunnel to an impressively designed ballroom, budgets were clearly spent.

While many Detroiters didn't achieve their Bridgerton dreams, Kimberly is hoping to change that. While she wasn't affiliated with the original event, she's teaming up with different event organizers to create a re-do ball in Detroit so that ball-goers can experience what their Bridgerton-inspired ball should've felt like. "I'm trying to reach out to many of the attendees and have them save their dresses because we want to deliver the experience that we should have had, and we were robbed of," she told BuzzFeed.

In the meantime, while Detroiters wait for their redemption ball, there are plenty of memes to enjoy about the whole debacle. Here are some of my favs:

Twitter: @GabriMaria2

Twitter: @8rain5tew

Twitter: @groovisphere

Twitter: @DLVermeer

Twitter: @bisantian

Twitter: @MattBellassai

Twitter: @rayleearts

Anyway, shoutout to all the attendees who went through that experience and the underpaid workers hired — pole dancer, violinist, DJ, and chip guy included — who still did their best to keep it together for the people there.