BEDA Day 21: Harry Potter Exhibit RECAP!

I'm going to start out with a big DISCLAIMER.

DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU HAVE ANY INTENTIONS OF GOING TO THE EXHIBITION. THE BEST PART OF THIS EXHIBIT WAS THE UNPREDICTABILITY OF IT, SO IF THERE IS ANY CHANCE OF YOU GOING, DO NOT READ THIS.

Okay, so now basically nobody is reading this, but I can go back and read it whenever I want so I'll never forget it :)

So first there's the line up, which isn't awesome except for the fact that EVERYONE is talking about Harry Potter and there's a wall with a movie poster for each of the released films.

Then, once you finally get in, which is by groups of about 20 people each, there's a woman wearing a cloak speaking in a British accent holding the Sorting Hat. Well, actually, I don't think it's THE sorting hat, but I don't know, lemme know if you saw it. Three volunteers get to go up onto the stool in front of the group and tell the woman 2 houses they'd like to be in and then they get sorted. It's awesome because they have the voice of the sorting hat from the first movie actually sorting them :)

After that, there's a set of doors that opens into a slightly smoky room with 4 television screens. Once the doors close behind us, a video starts that includes clips of scenes from all the movies and Harry Potter music. I might have cried a little. It's really neat because all 4 screens aren't playing the same video, during some parts there's Harry or Ron or Hermione in each movie so it shows how much they've grown up, and in other parts (for example the Hogwarts Express) it's a continuous scene that's like on each screen. I can't really explain it. But it was awesome.

When the video was over, a door to our left opened and then we saw why the room was so smoky. There, as we turned towards the doors, was the Hogwarts Express spewing out steam! And another man with an accent wearing a cloak and holding a lantern. We didn't get to go into the train, but we walked by it and through another set of doors into the room of the exhibit.

Now I should mention, there was no photography allowed. We had to turn our cameras and cell phones off. That made me kinda sad.

Anywaysss, so you come in and see the fat lady from the Gryffindor commonroom singing and trying to break the glass and you can walk through the real portrait-hole.

I'm not going to describe everything in the exhibit, because honestly, that's impossible.

But my favourite things were:
-Umbridge's office + costume
-Professor Sprout's costume + the mandrakes
-Ron & Harry's beds and bed side tables!
-Walking through the tent (4th movie, Quidditch World Cup) into the next section
-Buckbeak, scene with pumpkin's, including the executioner's costume and Harry & Hermione's costumes
-HAGRID'S EFFIN HUT!! His costume (which is HUGE), his chair (you get to sit in it, you can see a big worn-out spot from him), and all his stuff :)
-Quidditch uniforms
-The Angel of Death Statue from the graveyard scene (4th movie, where Cedric dies)
-Harry & Ron & Draco's costumes from the 1st movie. THEY WERE SO TINY! <3
-The great hall entrance way with about half of Umbridge's proclamation plaques
-THE REAL GREAT HALL DOOR!
-Yule Ball : fake food, costumes, fake ice sculpture
-Great Hall : Feast fake food, flickering candles hanging from the ceiling, Dumbledore (both the original and Michael Gambon's) costumes, Professor McGonagall's costume.
-Portraits clapping as you leave.

OH! And something I forgot to mention is that all throughout the exhibit there are video screens that play clips from the movies to show you where the props and costumes and set pieces you're looking at were in the movies. :)

The exit goes into the gift shop, which is waay over-priced, but let's be honest--it's worth it.

All-in-all I'd have to say my favourite part was seeing everyone's costumes and being able to visualize how tall they are/were in real life because that's something you can't really do in the movies.

Hope you enjoyed this!

xox Tia