‘Bridgerton’-themed ‘ball’ with pole dancer and ‘raw’ food angers Detroit attendees

In a fiasco fit for the front page of Lady Whistledown’s scandal sheet, a ”Bridgerton”-inspired “ball” has gone viral for all the wrong reasons.
The Detroit Bridgerton Themed Ball, held on Sept. 22 in Michigan by an event company unaffiliated with Netflix, charged hundreds of fans between $150 and $1,000 to attend what was billed as an evening inspired by the steaming service’s hit show.
According to attendees, it failed to deliver on that promise.
From vendors allegedly selling Kit Kats in the middle of an undecorated conference room to attendees sitting slumped on the floor in their Regency-era finest, the Detroit Bridgeton Themed Ball seems to have been a world away from the gilded 1800s fantasy of the TV series its organizers claimed they were channelling. This unsanctioned event was not connected to “The Queen’s Ball,” Netflix’s official “Bridgeton” touring experience.
Forget swoon-worthy waltzes set to instrumental versions of pop songs: The only dancing that occurred, according to pictures shared on social media, was courtesy of a red-bikini-clad pole dancer.
Instead of the “evening of sophistication, grace and historical charm … filled with music, dance and exquisite costumes” organizers promised on the event’s website, ball goers say they were scammed, paying up to $1,000 for “complete chaos,” as one disappointed attendee told Detroit TV station WXYZ.
“The way it was described was this was going to be a ‘Bridgerton’ evening. We were gonna have classical music, good dinner. There was gonna be a play and they were gonna pick the Diamond of the season,” another attendee told the station, referring to the part the show where the queen chooses her favourite debutante. “There is nothing going on. They have a pole in the middle of the dance floor. A stripper pole.”
Other grievances aired by attendees: Tickets weren’t scanned, and “random people” seemed to have been able to get into the Harmonie Club, where the event was held. One couple who paid $250 for the “Duke and Duchess package,” which promised valet service, ended up having to find and pay for parking. On X, one attendee wrote that some of the food, which ran out after an hour, was served raw. On Reddit, another guest called the event “horrendous,” claiming there was nowhere to sit, the decor was “sparse and extremely tacky” and “not even Bridgerton-themed.”
According to a video shared on TikTok, someone dressed as “a queen,” whom guests could take photos with, seemed more interested in handing out her business card so people could follow her on social media than staying in character. For an additional $40, guests could pose on two “thrones” — chairs decorated with fake red roses.
The event’s organizer, Uncle & Me LLC, released a statement after the event. “Our intention was to provide a magical evening, but we recognize that organizational challenges affected the enjoyment of some guests,” they wrote, adding that they take “full responsibility and accountability for these shortcomings.”
The event has drawn comparisons to “Willy’s Chocolate Experience,” an unauthorized Willy Wonka-inspired experience in Glasgow, Scotland, that went viral earlier this year after it promised an immersive “chocolate fantasy” filled with “optical marvels” but delivered a barely decorated warehouse and actors reading lines written by AI.