Magic converges on Kent during ‘wizardly weekend’

Wizards and witches, along with some muggles too, converged in Kent on Friday and Saturday for some magical fun.

The annual “Wizardly Weekend,” hosted in down- town Kent, attracted about 10,000 people on Saturday, according to one estimate from Main Street Kent board member Todd Kamenash. The festival is a spinoff of the Harry Potter books, but does not mention Harry Potter specifically in any of its promotional materials.

Some people arrived dressed in costumes and wound scarves around their necks with the colors of their Hogwarts houses - blue and silver for Ravenclaw, gold and red for Gryffindor — and others came as their usual selves.

Haley Shaw, a Kent State University stud e nt who dressed up as a Gryffindor student, said this was her first year attending the festival.

“I love seeing the fact that Harry Potter is still so important to people,” Shaw said, noting the first book in the series came out in 1997.

Sisters Caroline Marrone, 10, and Margaux Marrone, 8, came ready to participate in the costume contest. Margaux came as Ginny, a Harry Potter character, complete with one of her dad’s ties, while Caroline came as the Golden Snitch, with a gold pool toy around her waist and gold wings on her back.

When asked why she chose her costume, Caroline said, “Because I thought it was a creative costume and I wanted to do something different.”

Their mom, Jennifer Diet- rick, said the girls had been coming to the festival since it started. Both girls said they were big Harry Potter fans.

Vendor Denise Seman of Trumbull County said her business was “doing very well” on Saturday afternoon. Her store, Crafty Shop of Horrors, doesn’t have a physical location, but she set up a tent on Saturday downtown where she sold plush animals and jewelry, among other items.