Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Brat Summer feels like yesterday, and Raygun feels like a lifetime ago, yet neither of these things are true as we reach the end of 2024. To help make sense of another baffling 12 months, we’ve picked the pop culture moments that have kept us sane, occupied and, most importantly, distracted this year.
Sad Oompa Loompa: The Willy Wonka Experience The year began strongly when photos began circulating in February of an incredibly depressing industrial warehouse in Scotland that claimed to be “The Willy Wonka Experience”. The sad Oompa Loompa at the disastrous Willy Wonka chocolate factory experience in Glasgow, Scotland, which instantly became a viral sensation. Taking a leaf out of Fyre Fest’s book, the experience was billed as an interactive exhibit paying homage to Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory .
Instead, fans rocked up to a draughty warehouse with sad-looking employees and a half-inflated bouncy castle. Ten out of 10, no notes. The long, hot Brat summer If 2024 had a colour, it would definitely be brat green.
While we might have been shivering through winter, it was hard to avoid Brat Summer, with British musician Charli XCX releasing one of the most-played albums of the northern summer, with no shortage of TikTok hype to go with it. Brat was everywhere, and everyone wanted a piece of it – even Vice President Kamala Harris – until it was over, with Charli XC.