"Honestly a little bit disrespectful to do it now": Fans react to Harry Styles lookalike competition being held in London
A Harry Styles lookalike contest is being held on Saturday, November 9, in London’s Soho Square. It also boasts cash prizes for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners, as well as for the "worst lookalike." However, some fans of the former One Direction band members were seemingly not pleased with the announcement of the event, considering fellow bandmate Liam Payne’s recent death.
As per journalist Katrina Mirpuri's Instagram post, the event will begin at 1 PM on the aforementioned date. Further details about the competition are yet to be released by the netizen. Meanwhile, Katrina wrote in the caption, “More details to be announced! There are prizes to be won for 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place, and the worst lookalike.”
The competition comes after a similar event was held in New York City, where people attempted to crown the best Timothée Chalamet lookalike. The Dune actor attended the same as well, with the police shutting down the contest at one point.
The upcoming Harry Styles competition has received mixed reactions. Although some were keen to find Styles' lookalikes, others found it insensitive, considering the singer would be grieving the loss of Payne, who tragically passed away in Buenos Aires after falling off of a hotel balcony.
Several X users commented under @PopCrave's post about the event, as one netizen wrote:
"Honestly a little bit disrespectful to do it now."
Others expressed similar sentiments on X, with comments reading:
“Not the moment fr Harry doesn’t deserve this leave him alone,” a user said.
“This is outrageously inappropriate considering the circumstances. Good god, can people really be that insensitive,” another user commented.
“Did people forget he is literally grieving a friend,” a netizen questioned.
Previously, Harry Styles took to Instagram, along with his fellow bandmates Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, and Louis Tomlinson, to share that they were “devastated by the news of Liam’s passing” and were taking “some time to grieve and process the loss of our [their] brother.” Meanwhile, other netizens appeared to be excited about the upcoming event, as comments read:
“I will be there and I will take one of them home,” an X user said.
“London’s about to be packed with 1000% more scarves and charm,” a netizen commented.
“I wonder if he’s going to show up,” another user said.
It remains unclear as to whether Styles would attend the event himself at the time of writing this article. Meanwhile, other reactions read:
“Someone bout to get arrested again,” an X user said.
“Harry Styles is Harry Styles, not gonna work,” another user stated.
A Paul Mescal lookalike contest took place recently amid the Harry Styles event announcement
The Paul Mescal lookalike contest was held in Dublin’s Smithfield Square area on November 7. Further, Jack Wall-O’Reilly was crowned the winner of the competition and was allowed to choose between his three pints or €20, plus the “bragging rights” prize. He had shown up in GAA shorts, silver chains, and shades.
The contest took place just outside the Lighthouse cinema, where Mescal himself showed up a few hours later, for the Irish premiere of Gladiator 2.
Now, many await to see the outcome of the Harry Styles lookalike competition.