Poland’s College of Wizardry Is The Real Life Hogwarts

Are you a Harry Potter fan? If yes, then hold onto your magical wand and grab your broomstick because the College of Wizardry is the name of the event that was organized recently by Denmark’s Rollespils Fabrikken and Poland’s LARPing (Live-Action Role Playing) communities. The event involved bringing a total of 200 persons from 11 different countries to participate.

Live Action Role Players (LARPers) participated in this event to celebrate the love for Harry Potter by taking part in the first session of the Czocha College of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This event qualified as the biggest and most detailed Harry Potter themed LARP adventure to be organized so far. The LARPers were able to play roles of students, teachers and other characters from Hogwarts.

Magic couldn’t be brought to life due to certain reality-checks, so the focus was on bringing every other detail into play. This was achieved by ensuring that almost all of the aspects of Hogwarts were attended to. The Czocha Castle from medieval times located in the Polish countryside was decided as the place. Once the place was decided, the next process was to begin addition of different elements in order to make the environment rich and create an experience as close to reality of Hogwarts and to make it look authentic.

Students were sorted out into 5 unique sections – Duentius, Faust, Molin, Libussa and Sendivogius. Once the sorting ceremony was completed, the school session began where the students were to work hard and complete the SPELL (Senior Protective Enchanter’s Lifelong License). The school also had a wide spectrum of teachers.

As expected of any Hogwarts-similar event, Quidditch was organized as well! In words of the organizers, “It’s essentially the same as when kids use curtains as robes and sticks as wands and run around pretending to be witches and wizards. Except we’re grownups with nicer costumes and a lot of experience in designing interactive experiences with each other. We want drama, escalation of conflicts, and de-escalation back to normalcy again.”

LARPing is the 3^rd most popular activity in Denmark after soccer and handball and about 10,000 of Danes actively take part in it. For the Harry Potter simulation, the Nordiclarp movement was followed. The movement is the name to the creation of an authentic world and setting the characters loose without any script or prompts. Hence, the adventure continues as events happen and scenarios play out on their own.

The event was carried out in November and lasted for a total of 4 days. Admissions are open for next sessions now and applicants must be 18 years old or more than that. The next session has been scheduled for 9-12 and 16-19 April, 2015. Cost per head is $345 and the plan is to invite a total of 114 participants. So, who’s interested?

http://vimeo.com/114352729