A Visit to Hogsmeade: Chesnut Hill Harry Potter Festival
October 31st, 2016 by Karen
If you’ve been paying any attention at all, then you know that both Nancy and I are GINORMOUS Harry Potter fans. We’ve been to LeakyCon (more than once), we’ve been to the Quidditch World Cup (again, more than once), and we’ve been to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (you guessed it — more than once). So when we heard about a Harry Potter Festival not too far from our home of New York City, we said, “Blimey, let’s do it!”
The event: the 2016 Chestnut Hill Harry Potter Festival in Philadelphia, PA. They block off the street, set up booths, and invite wizards, witches, and Muggles alike to enjoy Butterbeer, browse magical artifacts, watch shows, and just generally bask in the magic.
Unfortunately, Nancy came down with spattergroit right before the festival. (Or maybe it was just the flu — but she didn’t go to St. Mungo’s for an official diagnosis, so who can say for sure?) I was obviously sad about this, but I was also determined to make it to Hogsmeade. So I grabbed a substitute friend, and off I went!
Click on my photos to see some highlights from my trip:
-
- Waiting to board the “Hogwarts Local”
-
- Dumbledore
-
- Hermione and Ron
-
- Draco
-
- Cho, Ginny, and Colin Creevey
-
- Decorations in the train station
-
- Decorations in the train station
-
- Arriving at Hogsmeade station!
-
- Harry-o-lantern
-
- Hallows-o-lantern
-
- Clever Gringotts transformation
-
- Follow the spiders!
-
- Kids, get away from that guy!
-
- Silver doe
-
- Aunt Petunia
-
- Butterbeer? Yes, please!
-
- Hot and cold butterbeer
-
- More butterbeer options
-
- Butterbeer whoopie pies?!
-
- Themed lunch menu
-
- Our snitch creations!
-
- Hagrid fighting the wind
-
- Chamber of Secrets
-
- Gryffindor potty?
-
- Station for typing your own Hogwarts letter
-
- “Selfie park”
-
- Potions class
-
- Potions class close-up
-
- Slughorn
-
- Snitch ice sculpture
-
- Store sign
-
- Mad-Eye Moody
-
- Store display
-
- Fluffy
-
- An unlikely duo
-
- Wizard wrock the vote!
-
- Broomstick shopping
-
- Trelawney
Unfortunately, I didn’t get photos of all the amazing costumes and sights that day. Wish I had asked Colin Creevey to share some of his pics! But you can see some additional pictures in the event’s official photo gallery. How would you dress up for a Harry Potter festival?
— Karen
Karen wore a Hogwarts shirt to the festival, but sadly it was so cold that she covered it up with her jacket the whole time. How she longed for the Hufflepuff scarf she had left at home!