The Clark County Historical Society was nominated for public programming from last year’s adults and children wizardry events.
This year’s wizarding weekend begins Friday with the Heritage School of Wizardry and ends Saturday with the Wizard’s Ball. The society combines the local history of Clark County with wizardry to create a glimpse into a “magical” world.
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“I always had it in the back of my mind that we have a great building to do something like this - it looks like a castle,” said Fritz. “We’ve been to similar local events where they’ve put their own local spin on it.”
Attendees can expect wizardry biographies of local historical figures, portrait galleries, a “shrunken town,” a greenhouse with a herbology class, and several other wizardry classes like a potion class or a magical creatures class.
The Heritage School of Wizardry for children sold out a few weeks ago, but the Wizard’s Ball for adults has tickets available for purchase online at www.eventbrite.com.
The Wizard’s Ball is 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday at the Heritage Center of Clark County, 117 S. Fountain Ave. in Springfield. Attendees are encouraged to wear dress robes, costumes, or semi-formal attire to explore the museum, take wizard classes, play games, and dance. Tickets are $50. Un Mundo Cafe will provide a cash bar with specialty drinks like butter beer.
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Last year, a limited number of tickets were sold for the Wizard’s Ball, Fritz said. This year additional tickets are available to accommodate local residents wanting to come to the ball last minute.
“We knew there was an audience for it,” Fritz said. “We knew it would bring in a new audience that maybe wouldn’t normally come to a museum event. But they can come in and still get a taste of local history.”
This week Fritz and other staff members began working to transform the upstairs hall to a wizard’s ball. Three weeks ago, boxes and shelves filled the hall as cleanup continued from a pipe burst, Fritz said.
“We’ve had a big push in the last few weeks or so. The majority of the flood damage was in our collections area which is on the second floor,” said Fritz. “We had to empty those rooms so they (Reliant Restoration) could get into those rooms and repair the floors and ceilings.”
Reliant Restoration finished just in time for the wizardry weekend.
“They worked long hours, we worked long hours,” Fritz said. “It was such a fun event last year, we didn’t want to not have it.”
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