Fifth annual Harry Potter Festival to return to Chestnut Hill this October 17-18
For its fifth year in a row, Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, will host its Harry Potter Festival Weekend, in which the neighborhood is magically transformed as though straight from the pages of the Harry Potter books. As Visit Philadelphia writes, the festival isn’t the only Harry Potter love being shown by the City of Brotherly Love:
Coinciding with two major Chestnut Hill College happenings, the weekend welcomes both the second annual Harry Potter academic conference on Friday, October 17 and the fourth annual Philadelphia Brotherly Love Quidditch Cup Tournament on Saturday, October 18.
Enjoy an enchanting weekend of wizards, potions, spells, scavenger hunts, falconry, [W]izard[‘s] [C]hess, parades and more.
On October 17, the excitement will include a pub crawl and wizard rock:
On Friday, the weekend begins with the official Harry Potter Conference with presentations that are free and open to the public from 3 to 5 p.m.
After the literary events, starting at 7 p.m., pop in and out of pubs on a Chestnut Hill Pub Crawl. Tickets for the pub crawl go on sale Wednesday, October 1, and we suggest scooping up passes quickly since the crawl has sold out in past years.
Plus, fans can catch a film screening of Harry Potter [and t]he Sorcerer’s Stone at Teenagers. Inc. Center or a live concert by Harry and the Potters at Chestnut Hill College.
On Saturday, October 18:
A 5K fun run kicks off at 8 a.m., the 4th Annual Philadelphia Brotherly Love Quidditch Tournament runs all day starting at 10 a.m., and the entire community embraces the transformation into Hogsme[a]de with activities like the Hunt for the Horcrux scavenger hunt, Dumbledore’s Powers Maze at Woodmere Art Museum, Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, [S]orting [H]at demonstrations, fortune tellers, specialty food and drink, and so much more.
To create an immersive atmosphere, Chestnut Hill neighborhood businesses, shops and restaurants on and around Germantown Avenue transform into familiar locales from Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade like the Leaky Cauldron, Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Shop and Weasley[s’] Wizard[…] Wheeezes.
If that wasn’t enough, MuggleNet’s very own managing editor, Keith Hawk, and friend John Granger (The Hogwarts Professor) will be hosting MuggleNet Academia LIVE from the event on October 17! This is an event that you won’t want to miss!
For more information on the weekend’s events, you can visit this article. The festival is free and open to the public, aside from nominal fees and age restrictions for events such as the pub crawl.
Are you planning on attending? Have you been to the Festival Weekend in the past? Be sure to tell us about it in the comments!
