Students dressed as Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley, Dumbledore and other Hogwarts characters gathered Friday in the Memorial Union for a night of wizard rock and dancing at the inaugural Yule Ball.
“Halloween only comes once a year and sometimes you need [an] excuse to dress up,” said history and classical language and culture junior Dani Tomlinson, who was dressed as Severus Snape.
About 50 students attended the event, a semi-formal get-together for fans of the Harry Potter series, hosted by the recently formed ASU club Dumbledore’s Army.
History freshman and club president Holly Solis, who dressed as Dumbledore, said the event was an end-of-the-year party for club members, but was open to the public to attract future members.
Wizard rock music, or wrock, was blasted through speakers in the room from Solis’ laptop. Wrock music ranges from parodies of pop songs to original compositions.
Some of the songs played included a parody of pop song “Like a G6” by Far East Movement called “Like It’s Quidditch” by Nice Peter and the original song “Marauder’s Map” by Ministry of Magic.
Before the event started, Solis helped club members decorate with crepe paper and balloons in Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor-themed colors — until she realized she had misplaced her iconic Dumbledore’s beard.
“Where’s my beard?” she said as she tore through piles of wands and purses for the final piece of her costume.
The issue was finally resolved when friends helped Solis construct a new beard of white crepe paper.
Dumbledore’s Army started at the beginning of the spring semester because Solis wanted a Harry Potter club oriented around “bring[ing] the books to life” through activities like live wizards chess, horcrux hunts and now a Yule Ball.
Solis, who cofounded Dumbledore’s Army, said her ultimate goal for the club was to gather all Harry Potter fans at ASU and have fun.
“I get to do all this cool leadership stuff but then I’ve made so many friends in this club,” Solis said. “I just feel connected to everybody. This is my family, and I feel like that’s what Dumbledore was thinking [about the students] when he was at Hogwarts.”
The club also plans to raise funding for an end-of-the-year trip next year to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a Harry Potter theme park at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla., said Kimmer O’Reilly, a filmmaking practices junior and club vice president.
“I’ve been having so much fun. These are the coolest people,” said O’Reilly, who cofounded the club with Solis.
Other Harry Potter clubs at ASU include The Harry Potter Society, which meets weekly to discuss a reading from the books, and the ASU Quidditch League, which practices twice a week for tournaments with other universities.
Dumbledore’s Army advertised for the event with posters around campus and a Facebook event, Solis said. USG provided money for catering at the Yule Ball.
This was the first Yule Ball held at ASU, but other variations of the Harry Potter-themed dance have been held in cities such as Boston and Miami.
The Yule Ball also featured a costume contest and a “death eater” attack later in the night.
The death eaters attacked by turning off the lights and turning them back on for the Yule Ball guests to find several members dressed as major characters lying on the ground, pretending to be dead.
The family of ASU professor Shannon Lank, who teaches the Harry Potter and American Culture course at the West campus, won the costume contest for her Professor McGonagall costume, her husband’s Mad Eye Moody costume, and her four toddlers’ Harry Potter costumes.
Another winning costume was a representation of Nymphadora Tonks by creative writing sophomore Lorraine Lubanski, who won second place for her bright pink wig and striped socks.
Club secretary and pre-med and psychology sophomore Christian Guerrero dressed as Hermione Granger.
He said he loved Harry Potter because of author J.K. Rowling’s ability to immerse the reader in the wizarding world.
“Her allusions to something greater in the world are awesome,” Guerrero said. “We don’t know everything in the wizarding world, but she alludes to different things that you want to know more about. She keeps it very mysterious.”
Reach the reporter at hhuskins@asu.edu
