Nov. 1 (UPI) — Thousands of people, deceived by an AI-generated Pakistan-based website that quickly spread online, lined the streets of Dublin, Ireland, for a Halloween parade that didn’t exist. The website My Spirit Halloween falsely promoted a Macnas Halloween Parade, leading large swaths of people to gather on the streets.
Macnas is a performing arts group that had staged Halloween parades in Dublin since 2013. The COVID-19 pandemic stopped those parades until last year, but the group had not scheduled one in 2024.
Initial crowds were in the hundreds and appeared to swell into thousands.
“It seems to be an online scam. It’s really sad to see that people are being scammed. Everyone is trying to have a fun and safe Halloween. Having a parade to go to sounded really good,” Sinn Fein councillor Janice Boylan said.
“I know an awful lot of people turned up. It’s a terrible pity that there is people out there that are trying to scam people.”
The thousands who showed up waited for about an hour before it dawned on them there was no parade.
They gathered on O’Connell Street near Parnell Street in Dublin’s city center. The hoax claimed the parade would start there and end at Christchurch Cathedral.
As they began trying to clear the streets, the Irish police force known as Gardai put out a statement that said, “Please be advised that contrary to information being circulated online, no Halloween parade is scheduled to take place in Dublin city center this evening or tonight.”
The festival of Diwali was happening in Dublin as the fake parade crowd showed up.
The website that touted the fake parade appeared to have removed the listing Friday morning.