People will have the opportunity to experience the magic of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them less than a week before its theatrical release.
The Ohio University Harry Potter Alliance, with help from the OU Quidditch Club, will be hosting its second Yule Ball in Central Venue, 29 E. Carpenter St., at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is $12 for individuals and $22 for couples, and tickets can be purchased online.
Aliza Ali, the vice president of the Harry Potter Alliance and philanthropy chair for the Yule Ball Committee, said the money earned through ticket sales will be donated to two charities — Adyn’s Dream and Lumos. Adyn’s Dream is a local charity that provides financial assistance to families living with spinal muscular atrophy, according to its Facebook page. Lumos is an international charity founded by J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series. The organization aims to prevent families from splitting up and to prevent children from being put in orphanages because of a lack of financial resources, according to the charity’s website.
“There were a lot of great charities that we were going to (donate to), but in the end we narrowed it down to two,” Ali, a junior studying pre-medicine and world religion, said.
The theme for the Yule Ball is Yule in the '20s — the decade in which Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them takes place. The Harry Potter spin-off series will premiere nationwide Nov. 18.
“It’s just the essence of a Yule Ball from Harry Potter,” Jordan Francisco, the secretary for the Harry Potter Alliance and a music and entertainment chair for the Yule Ball Committee, said. “Everything is still Harry Potter-themed, but since the movie Fantastic Beasts is coming out, it’s set in the 1920s.”
Fantastic Beasts, as it is being colloquially called, follows Newt Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne, who is a wizard zoologist who lets loose a multitude of magical creatures in America. The underground wizarding world in America has to find all of the beasts before the No-Maj — the American equivalent to muggles or people who do not possess magical capabilities — discover the wizard population. After Scamander captures all of the beasts, he writes a textbook of the same name that Harry Potter and his friends read while at Hogwarts.
People attending the Yule Ball are not expected to dress in 1920s attire, Francisco, a junior studying environmental and plant biology, said.
“You can go in whatever you want as long as it’s not your birthday suit,” he said. “You can go in your pajamas — we don’t care.”
For those who do not want to dance, attendees can play blackjack, roulette and darts, Ali said. There will also be a silent auction featuring homemade, Harry Potter-themed crafts.
Chocolate frogs, cupcakes and chocolate covered pretzel wands will be available for people to eat as they dance. The Harry Potter Alliance will also brew up butterbeer, love potions and Felix Felicius for patrons to drink.
Holly Corns, a junior studying English education, said she is looking forward to the seeing the different foods.
“I like all the ways we are taking the food and fitting it into the Harry Potter universe,” Corns, a member of the Harry Potter Alliance, said.
The Harry Potter Alliance will have different decorations to transform Central Venue into a setting that mirrors the 1920s style, Corns, who is a co-chair for decorations for the Yule Ball, said. There will be floating candles and golden snitches, as well as balloon columns and painted wine bottles that will serve as table centerpieces.
Francisco said there will be some jazz music, and tunes from The Great Gatsby soundtrack will be played to adhere to the '20s theme.
“We’re looking a lot of current songs that have been taken and thrown back. We’re looking at postmodern jukebox,” Ali said. “For the first 45-ish minutes we’re going to actually do a throwback to the '20s before we kind of turn it up to 2016.”
Arleth Bravo, a freshman studying pre-nursing, said she is a fan of Harry Potter, and she is interested in the event. She added that she plans to “make” her roommate go with her.
“I’ve always imagined myself in the Harry Potter world,” Bravo said. “It would be cool to immerse myself in that.”
