Celebrate Back to School with the Wizarding World and Its Partners
The wizarding world is going back to Hogwarts! On Monday, August 19, Warner Bros. debuted Discover Hogwarts at the Ohio State University, and the celebration continues at the University of Arizona on August 26 and 27 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Harry Potter fans are invited to the festivities, which include Hogwarts-themed photo ops, activities, and giveaways. LEGO, Funko, Jelly Belly, and Scholastic partnered with Warner Bros. for the events.
At the events, guests will be invited to interact with four different stations featuring the wizarding world. Participants are given a postcard at the first station that highlights each location. Guests can get their pictures taken at each station and post the pictures to social media using the hashtag #DiscoverHogwarts. After posting, participants will earn a prize and a stamp on the postcard. After having a blast at all four locations, guests can earn a grand prize bag.
The event is an amazing partnership to celebrate the start of the school year. MuggleNet was invited to participate, and we had an awesome time. Check out staff member Laura Hernan’s review and photos of the event at the Ohio State University, and head to the University of Arizona on August 26 and 27 for the next event!
The campus was packed with students when my guest and I arrived. We started at the photo op station that featured the four Hogwarts House-themed rooms. Each one of the rooms had specular details of each House. We were encouraged to celebrate our House pride with a picture in the room of our choosing. That station rewarded us with a House button and our first Hogwarts stamp on the postcard.
We followed our postcard to the next location on campus, the giant Funko box. This station allowed us to pick from House robes, scarves, glasses, or wands to enhance our picture in the Funko box. Appropriately, our prize at this location was a miniature Funko. Another stamp on our postcard and we were off to find the next location.
After a short walk through a sea of students, we found the third station. This location had a giant portrait of Harry Potter made from Jelly Belly jelly beans, including Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. They used over 12,000 jelly beans to create the portrait. This was a photo op that couldn’t be resisted. We colored the Scholastic banner, got our third stamp, received a box of Bertie Bott's as a prize, and ventured to find the last location on our card.
The final station had a life-size signpost made entirely from LEGO bricks showing the direction to Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. This location offered the opportunity to make your own Snitch out of LEGOs. The extended line of students proved this was a must-do event. We were also not surprised to find that the amazing Hogwarts lamppost was the photo op required to receive our last stamp. Our prize choice was either a miniature Hedwig, Fang, or a Niffler.
We were rewarded generously at the end with our four stamps. Our grand prize included pop sockets, a Luna Lovegood sleeping mask, coloring books, puzzles, buttons, and postcards.
Going back to school has never been this magical.