I’m a geek. There. I said it. My friends know I’m a geek, hell, I have a giant tattoo of Harry Potter on the back of my arm so it’s no surprise when I got invited to spend my Thursday night at “Wizardfest” that I said yes with no hesitation. I grabbed a group of my best girlfriends and after a couple of drinks and some pizza while being serenaded by the Harry Potter soundtracks and songs from Harry & The Potters (no, really– it’s a real band– same with Draco & The Malfoys and many other groups that nailed it on the Harry Potter music) we loaded into an Uber and made our way down to The Cabooze.
Although we didn’t know what to expect when walking to the venue, we were ready for whatever was coming our way and our tastebuds were ready for a Butterbeer. As we walked in, I was less than surprised to see a fairly small crowd of people. Although a geek like me was going to go no matter what was going on just because it was Harry Potter themed, many people seemed unsure of exactly what this event even was. Add to the fact that it was a cold and sleepy Thursday night and it would be hard for any event to get people out of their warm houses. None of that was going to stop us so after getting our hands stamped we headed straight to the bar for round one of Butterbeer.
In case you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t seen Harry Potter- Butterbeer is a favorite drink in the wizarding world. Did reading the description of vanilla vodka, cream soda and butterscotch schnapps really have my tastebuds excited? Absolutely not but when in Rome… Honestly it was delicious and within the first sip I felt like I was at Hogwarts (okay, I’m being dramatic but you get where I’m going with this). We wandered around the venue with smiles on our faces and stopped for photo opps with the Harry and Draco cutouts against the back wall. Our journey continued to take pictures with the dementors hanging from the rafters but we were quickly sidetracked by hearing the words “Trivia is starting in five minutes” come over the speakers.
My friends and I had been practicing for this all night. We got our trivia sheets, found an open spot at the bar and got super serious for the ten minutes that trivia lasted. We all knew most of the answers but couldn’t for the life of us remember what Mad Eye Moody’s saying was. (It was “Constant Vigilance” in case you were wondering) so we didn’t win the trivia but cheered as loud as we could for the winner who definitely deserved her free t-shirt from the merch table. When trivia was over and done, the music kicked back in and some of the geeks took to the dance floor while other wandered towards the back for Quidditch pong. Unfortunately, the hoops that made the beer pong games more than just beer pong seemed to be missing but that didn’t stop teams of fans from grabbing some ping pong balls and getting a couple good rounds in.
Some people were dressed up while some were not and that was the beauty of Thursday night’s event. Did you want to dress up like Dobby the house elf? Go for it! Did you want to show up in your clothes that you wore all day? Perfect! Want to dance like nobody is watching? Go ahead, nobody cares! Would you rather just stand towards the back of the venue while sipping on your Butterbeer? That sounds perfect too. Last night was a night for the introverts to come out and play. Some of these people probably rarely leave their houses and go to venues but they saw an event advertised as a Harry Potter event and they just couldn’t resist. The entire night was full of this vibe of nobody cares– you do you, and have a good time. That’s literally all that matters.
Last night wasn’t perfect. I feel like there were a lot of missed opportunities on making the event more Harry Potter-centric but it was definitely one of those “it is what you make it” nights. Being able to completely geek out at a venue where I’m usually busy rocking out at was definitely something different yet fun. I may try to hide my geekiness most of the time but I was wearing my Harry Potter tattoo loud and proud last night!
