Music and Magic: The Harry Potter Festival at Chestnut Hill
The music program was well-represented when the Harry Potter Festival came to Chestnut Hill on the weekend of October 20th and 21st. Donning all-black attire, the chorus and band students were able to fill two buses on Friday morning, and set off from Carroll to Chestnut Hill College. Once there, brief rehearsals took place, where the band was joined by some of Chestnut Hill’s student and professor instrumentalists. Finally, the band and chorus groups made their way over to the performance hall. The Carroll band opened the show with a medley of various themes from the Harry Potter films, and from the central stairway below, the chorus performed several pieces. These included songs from Harry Potter, as well as religious music and a song from the hit Broadway show Hamilton. Thereafter, the students returned to the rehearsal hall for pizza and packing up, returning to school before the end of the day.
Saturday, however, was surely the highlight of the trip. Arriving early by bus, the Carroll students performed a brief musical show next to the “Quidditch” field, including music from the previous day, a pep band tune, and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Following this, the students re-boarded the buses and were shuttled up the hill to the town, where the festivities were taking place. A spectacle of human devotion to the works of J.K. Rowling, thousands of people shuffled along in crowded cobblestone streets, between mystically-decorated store-fronts, proudly showing their love of the Harry Potter universe through their garb and patronage. In any direction you turned, something new would catch your eye. An “apothecary” tent was selling exotic plants, a Sorting Hat Ceremony took place on one side street, and Harry Potter merchandise could reliably be found within a hundred feet of one’s location at any given time. Dancing, Harry Potter watercolor art shows, hand-knit Hogwarts scarves, and a variety of non-alcoholic “butterbeers” were among the many different attractions. However, the afternoon quickly came to a close, and the students were soon back on the bus for Carroll. Leaving such a place was like leaving an entirely different world, where magic is real and tacky little $20 clay wands are enough to revive waves of nostalgia for one’s childhood. Following the festival last year, things have truly taken off, as an increasing amount of business owners and ordinary visitors come to the festival. The Harry Potter Festival was a must-see event, and hopefully next year it returns with the magic it possessed last weekend.
