Downtown Kent took on a new look for the weekend as decorations transformed Acorn Alley, Water Street and Hometown Bank Plaza into the world of Harry Potter.
Main Street Kent brought magic to Kent Saturday for the eighth annual Wizardly Weekend, filling downtown with activities such as a real-life falcon and owl, face painting and a build-your-own-wand station in Hometown Bank Plaza, renamed Goblin’s Plaza for the weekend.
“It’s a way for the kids to create their own wand and put their personality into it,” said Alison Haynes, a volunteer at the wand station from the Kent Junior Mothers, an organization dedicated to teaching children proper safety measures around helmets, train tracks and water.
Wands start as a wooden dowel, which is wrapped with a pipe cleaner followed by 14 beads of the creator’s choosing.
“You add the beads to the shinier stem, and then you wrap them around,” she said. “Once they bring the wand back to us, we spray it with the magic spray, which is glitter.”
Throughout the weekend, Erie Street was closed off for local businesses and organizations to set up tents as part of the vendor village. Down the road on Franklin Avenue, next to The Pub in Kent, two black dragon sculptures stood guard over the parking lot.
The dragons belong to Bill Starcher, a local artist who creates sculptures out of old industrial materials and household items.
“Some of them are made out of tires, recycled tires, and some are made out of recycled silverware that I get through Goodwill flea markets, yard sales,” Starcher said. “People are actually dropping stuff off at my house.”
Both dragons are sturdy enough to climb on, he added.
“I’m simply here to put smiles on people’s faces for free,” Starcher said.
Events were split between Friday and Saturday, with Friday activities including the “Run that Shall not be Named 5 3/4K,” a free showing of the movie “Matilda” and the Wobbly Wizard Bar Crawl.
Keleigh Veraldo-Zuccero, a Main Street Kent volunteer, said the two-day festival started in July 2016 with the release of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” a play created by series author J.K. Rowling that acts as a sequel to the main line of books.
“Everyone was very excited,” Veraldo-Zuccero said. “This came out at a time that worked with Harry Potter’s birthday, so the idea was brought to Main Street Kent by some of the business owners and it was picked up by lovers a lot of all kinds.”
For those who think a whole weekend of wizardry isn’t enough, Harry Potter’s birthday is July 31.
Michael Neenan is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].
