This year, the event will be held for one day inside the Heritage Center on Saturday, Sept. 30, with a family-friendly event during the day and adults only event at night. Last year, the event spanned over two days with three events, and more than 400 tickets were sold.
Fritz said last year’s event was successful, and it was great to be able to bring it back for the first time since 2019. The event was canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19 and again in 2021 due to cases increasing.
“We were able to expand considerably throughout the downtown and have many different partnerships thanks to funding from one of the grants given through the city of Springfield,” she said. “That funding was not available this year, so we’ve gone back to our original format the first two years of staying inside the Heritage Center, but we still have community partners and support to make this year possible.”
The day will include opportunities to take classes and do activities while learning more about the county’s “magical” history, and the night will include an evening of an evening of dinner and dancing.
“Professors will welcome witches, wizards, current students and alumni who will be sorted into their houses, meet and greet their local owls, participate in some specialized crafts and activities, and compete for house points,” Fritz said.
One of the biggest additions this year is an end of the evening fire show, by local Fire Troupe Kaiyakura, who will be closing out the ball with a special performance.
Other features include Glen Helen the owl during the day; a daytime parody music performance by Mockery Max; the Bugman station; Magic Market (located on the south side of the building in the main parking lot between the Heritage Center and library, instead of the market alley where the farmers’ market is); and a new “transfiguration” class that features paper origami and live team trivia.
The open house wizardry showcase will be held from noon to 4 p.m. for all ages. It will include crafts and activities to create souvenirs and keepsakes, competitions for house points, spells practice to duel your friends, local history lessons about Springfield’s past through games, as well as wizarding classes, photo opportunities and more. The cost is $20 for adults and $10 for students and seniors.
The Wizards’ ball will be held from 6 to 10 p.m. for those 18 years or older. It will include dinner, a cash bar, a candy bar, dancing, dueling, house points contests, a raffle, classes, games and more. The cost is $40 adults and $25 for students and seniors.
There are about 60 tickets sold for the daytime event and about 50 for the evening event. Tickets can be purchased in advance, which is preferred, but can also be bought on site at the event. Online ticket sales will shut off on Saturday.
For more information or to buy tickets, visit https://heritage.center/sww/ or the Springfield’s Wizarding Weekend on Facebook.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
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