Celebration of Harry Potter
The time of year has just passed where Potterheads everywhere who can't make the trip (over 9 hours by plane in our case) all the way to Orlando in Central Florida get insanely jealous. Celebration of Harry Potter in Universal Resort Orlando has been as tremendous success over the past 5 years and is one of the most "magical" events of the year at Universal being somewhat of a cash cow for them. As someone who has never had the chance to actually attend A Celebration of Harry Potter (Help me I'm poor), I will be writing this piece from what I have observed on Instagram, Snapchat and through various other forms and people I've spoken to. Thank God for being able to live vicariously through others! The main draws appear to be the celebration ticket holder events, the chance to meet the actors and people involved in the production of the movies, and of course the cosplays and picture opportunities.
This year some of the guests that attended included Natalia Tena (Nymphadora Tonks), Stanislav Yanevski (Viktor Krum), Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley), Oliver Phelps (George Weasley) and James Phelps (Fred Weasley). It gives the actors the chance to attend different panels and events as well as do a film talent Q&A session which gives us as fans a chance to get a bit closer to the actors. There were lots of other events too. The amazing Paul Harris aka wand duel choreographer for Order of the Phoenix was in attendance again this year doing a master class in wand duelling to make you a true wizard. This from videos I have seen is similar to whats on offer at at the Making of Harry Potter Studio Tour in London. The rest of the events were:
Opening night ceremonies
Kids' Dance Like a Beauxbatons, Battle Like a Durmstrang
Special Effects Secrets with John Richardson
Learn Wand Combat Skills with Paul Harris (kid and all age sessions)
MinaLima: Graphic Design for the Harry Potter Films with MinaLima
Harry Potter Knowledge Challenge
Harry Potter Chalk Art Walk
Film Screenings
The Magic of Costumes in Harry Potter
Harry Potter Film Talent Q&A
House Rally Meet-up (Costume Contest)
The Harry Potter Expo section has been a firm fan favourite over the years, as a normal ticket holder you can go, but expect long wait times for it as Celebration pass holders are given priority. Stalls this year included MinaLima (who are probably some of the nicest people ever), Sorting Hat, Scholastic (who had a difficult quiz so I hear), Audible, Fantastic Beasts and Cursed Child were there. The Cursed Child stall seemed really popular from the amount of photos of it I have seen online. They had the characters costumes and the house banners available for photo opportunities. It was a good way of showing the production qualities off to the American public prior to them opening on Broadway later in the year.
As always the cosplay talent was strong and gets better year after year. Here are a few of my favourites:
One of THE best Newt Cosplayers ever
Really unique Hollyhead Harpies cosplay