Thousands Pack Dublin Streets for Fake Halloween Parade Listed on AI Website

Thousands of people in Dublin received a rude awakening when they showed up to the city expecting a Halloween parade that never happened.

Those who were gathered on the streets of Ireland’s capital on Thursday, Oct. 31, had apparently been misinformed by MySpiritHalloween.com.

The website contained listings for Halloween events in Ireland, the U.K., the U.S. and Mexico. Among the events mentioned on the site was a parade in Dublin. 

According to images shared on social media, people were seen lining up in the city center waiting for the parade to start, BBC News reported. No police were present. 

A witness, Peter Farrelly, recorded video of the crowds congregating on O’Connell Street from his window. “It was funny,” he told the Independent.  “We are still smiling now.”

Farrelly added: “The Gardaí [Irish police] were trying to clear the street. It was also the festival of Divali last night, so a lot of people were out on the street [for that] as well.”

Bertie Brosnan told BBC News that he initially thought the event was legitimate based on what he saw online. Upon arrival, he realized something was amiss “because parades usually have barricades, security, police and some sort of organization,” and he didn’t see any of those — just attendees.

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In an X post on Thursday, Irish police further clarified what happened, writing: “Please be advised that contrary to information being circulated online, no Halloween parade is scheduled to take place in Dublin City Centre this evening or tonight.”

“All those gathered on O’Connell Street in expectation of such a parade are asked to disperse safely,” police added. 

In an interview with The New York Times published on Friday, Nov. 1, Nazir Ali, the owner of the My Spirit Halloween website, said there was no intention on his part to deceive people and maintained it was not a scam. He also said that artificial intelligence (AI) was used to create the website’s content. 

MySpiritHalloween.com plugged the parade as being organized by Macnas, an Irish theater company, CBS News reported. Macnas had previously staged a yearly Halloween parade in Dublin beginning in 2013, but there was none planned for this year, according to the Independent. 

Ali told the Times that he took the listing off the site after learning of the error and further added: “We were very embarrassed.” 

PEOPLE contacted Ali through MySpiritHalloween.com and Macnas for comment on Friday.