It is undoubtedly true that anyone who spends their time lost in books, films, and all manner of fictional worlds, dreams of living in the universe they are enamoured with. For me, this is Harry Potter. I’ve spent years of my life wishing that I could be a real witch and hoping that I could be a Hogwarts student. For one night only, on the 3rd December 2019, this dream came true!
As a Wizarding World Gold member, I was invited to join many other fans to a private event at the WB Studio tour in Leavesden. The event promised surprises, a private tour of the studios, special guest appearances, and, most excitingly, Christmas dinner in the Hogwarts Great Hall! Needless to say, I was out of my mind with excitement, and could seldom think of anything else on the run up to the event.
I’m so happy to say that the evening was every bit as magical as I had hoped it would be! Along with my friends, Izzy and Laura, I arrived at the Studios at 6pm, all dressed up in my house colours (red and gold for Gryffindor!) and had my first surprise upon signing in – we were given a voucher for free drinks, a free Butterbeer (and tankard) and a free wand! From that moment on, I knew that the event was going to be absolutely splendid, and I wasn’t let down in any way!
After being received with drinks and canapés in the lobby, we moved through to the new holding area to enter the Great Hall. I haven’t been to the studios for a good year and a half, and so had not seen the newly refurbished areas, so me and my friends spent time looking at all the new pictures, photo props and even at the new huge dragon hanging over the lobby! After time spent milling around and catching up with all our Potter Pals, it was finally time to go through to the Great Hall. Any one who has visited the Studios before will know that immediately before entering the Hall, one must watch a short introductory video featuring Dan, Emma and Rupert. Our next surprise came after this video, as the screen lifted to reveal the special guest and host of the evening, Warwick Davis.
Whilst this was definitely exciting, I was distracted by the excitement I felt about what I was going to find behind the doors to the Great Hall. I have visited the studios at Christmas before, and so know that throughout the season, the Hall is decked out as it would be during a festive celebration at Hogwarts, as well as including sets from the Yule Ball! However, this time was much more exciting knowing that we would get to sit and dine among the sets!
The dinner itself was divine. After finding our seats on the seating plan, we headed to our tables. I was personally shocked and amazed at the level of detail gone into each place setting! We all received an envelope of stickers to be used in our Keys and Curios journal, a personal menu, a commemorative ticket from the event and the WB Studio Tour exclusive Gold badge. Our name cards even had tiny house shields on them next to our name (check out my cute little lion!) the food was of course, delicious, and we received even more surprises throughout the dinner, as we were joined by a group of Death Eaters, who must have gotten lost on their way to another event!
We enjoyed the dinner and took about a thousand photographs before moving on to the next part of the tour. However, it was quite hard to leave the Great Hall! Getting to eat within that setting, and enjoy the company of some of my great friends whilst surrounded by fellow Potter lovers felt like such a dream, and I cannot believe I was lucky enough to experience it! As everyone in my little group had been to the Studios before, we didn’t take our time too much whilst heading through the first sound stage, eager to reach Platform 9 ¾, and along with it, get our desserts!
When we reached Platform 9 ¾ (what a crazy sentence to write) we were given our desserts to eat whilst milling around. There was also another bar to replenish our drinks, Warwick Davis was walking around chatting to people, and an artist was drawing a giant piece that included people’s favourite things about Christmas in the wizarding world. As you can imagine, it was quite a lot to take in, but such good fun!
From then on we went to collect our free Butterbeer. Like marmite, people either love or hate the drink, but I personally LOVE it, so I was very very happy! Even though the event was six hours long in total, we were quickly losing time, so we decided to speed through the regular parts of the tour so we could spend a few minutes admiring the new Gringotts Bank set. Although I had seen photographs, nothing could have prepared me for the sheer massive scale of this room! It was absolutely gorgeous and I really hope I can go back one day soon to spend a lot more time exploring the set and to properly take it all in!
The last stop on our tour, but most certainly not the least, was the giant model of the Hogwarts castle. This is breathtaking at the best of times, but the model was covered in snow to celebrate Christmas, and I would be lying if I said a tear hadn’t spring to my eye! And to top it all off, I walked up to the edge of the viewing platform, looked down, and saw a couple getting engaged!!! I couldn’t imagine a more magical occasion for such a beautiful thing to happen!
The night was quickly coming to an end, so we sped through the shop (another newly updated feature that I cannot WAIT to go back and explore) and chose our wands to take home. As a wand collector, I took this task very seriously and spent all evening weighing up my choices, but landed on Neville Longbottom's. A good choice I think!
There was a disco taking place in the lobby underneath the dragon (another incredibly surreal sentence to type) but for fear of missing the last train, we dashed out. Overall, the event was absolutely incredible, and I still cannot believe I was lucky enough to be able to go! To spend the evening, celebrating Christmas with my friends, at Hogwarts, was such a huge blessing, and something I have not taken for granted! The evening has also left me incredibly excited to see what Wizarding World Gold do next; I can’t wait to find out!
Thanks so much for reading! Stay magical, Bertie x
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