October 19, 2015
Bastiaan Slabbers/For PhillyVoice
Two attendees at the 2016 Chestnut Hill Harry Potter festival are seen here dressed as the main character from the books and movies. Chestnut Hill's 2018 Harry Potter Festival will not take place under the same name, as Warner Bros. – which owns the rights to the franchise based on the series of children's books written by J.K. Rowling – is prohibiting the use of any names or imagery associated with Harry Potter at the annual Philadelphia event and other events in the U.S.
There are few moments in life where one is truly, blissfully happy. Happy in a way that can never be replicated and must be savored and immediately committed to memory because you know it can never, ever happen again.
Friday night I had one of those moments while standing on a chair at an outdoor bar in Chestnut Hill, peering over the dense crowd below. As I watched, Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall and Rubeus Hagrid began to dance to "All I Do Is Win" by DJ Khaled.
Neville Longbottom, Rita Skeeter and Luna Lovegood – or, rather, fellow fans dressed as their favorite "Harry Potter" characters – waved their hands in time with the chorus.
Up, down, up, down, up, down.
The man dressed as Hagrid had won a costume contest and celebrated by immediately donning a set of gold sunglasses and a fat gold chain. Dumbledore posed for selfies and a very convincing Daniel Radcliffe lookalike moved through the crowd to a stream of double takes.
This was the Harry Potter Pub Crawl, part of the Harry Potter Festival in Chestnut Hill held in honor of J. K. Rowling's famed books. Over the past six years, the event has grown from an independent Quidditch Tournament at Chestnut Hill College to a two-day extravaganza with a day-long academic conference, a Saturday night Wizard Rock concert, movie screenings and many more ceremonies, activities and games. The Pub Crawl is arguably its most popular event; this year's 650 tickets sold out in under 20 minutes and many more attend without a ticket at all.
PHOTOS: Harry Potter Weekend in Chestnut Hill
As a lifelong adult fan of the series, I can assure you that there is nothing quite like holding a terribly disgusting themed drink in one hand and a glow stick wand in the other while dozens of characters you've seen on pages and on screens come to life before your eyes. While I've never attended a full fan convention like LeakyCon, I imagine this is what it must feel like: overwhelmingly validating and heartwarming.
The charm of Chestnut Hill's fan fest is simply seeing so many people who are passionate about the same thing all in one place. It's about witnessing fully grown adults act like children again, brandishing a wand at an actor hired to look like Alan Rickman. It's about seeing children light up at the sight of said actor, convinced he's the real deal. It's about waiting in seemingly endless lines for Butterbeer just because it exists in real life.
After all, the festival has become so big in recent years that it can no longer be about actually participating in the themed, vaguely magical activities. The streets get so packed that it can be difficult to navigate, only so many "students" can sit under the Sorting Hat and the Butterbeer eventually runs out. But seeing so many happy fans in one place is worth all the cheesy cocktail menus in the world.
Martha Sharkey, executive director of the Chestnut Hill Business District, which organizes the event, is pleasantly surprised with how the event has evolved since its first year.
"I think we weren’t really sure what to expect, but I think Harry Potter touches so many generations and has had such an impact," she said, "so I think it’s great to see so many people enjoying the stories and getting together to celebrate."
This year, she said, she fielded calls from attendees coming in from New York, Maine and Tennessee.
The festival can really only get bigger and better from here. This year, many outdoor courts and side streets were blocked off for pedestrians to enjoy; if the crowd keeps growing, the Business District would definitely have cause for opening up Germantown Avenue for a real block party. Live Wizard Rock, a larger costume contest, extra vendors, discussion panels and trivia contests could all be added to the daytime fun.
Perhaps extra activities could also be added so lines could move quicker – surely the many adults in attendance aren't heartbroken when they miss the caricaturist or a performance, but the children might be. (Saturday's crowd, in fact, seemed pretty evenly split between families and young adults who grew up with the series.)
Chestnut Hill's weekend is already well-known in the region and the fandom certainly isn't going anywhere. If the event continues to attract witches and wizards from all over the country, Philadelphia could become a top travel destination for Potterheads everywhere.
