Over 400 Harry Potter Fans united for the first ever Wrock Festival this weekend held in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on Sun. Sept. 21.
What is Wrock? The Festival’s website describes it as, “Wizard Rock, or Wrock, is a burgeoning independent music movement fostered by the Harry Potter fan community. The artists write music inspired by events, characters and objects from the Harry Potter series of books and films.” Most of the artists have cute clever names that come from the character names or events that happened throughout the seven books. Some examples are Draco and the Malfoys, The Whomping Willows or The Cedric Diggorys. Some of the features of this festival included some magical merchants: Wizard Ties and PotterTees. All ages were welcome and activities were held throughout the day to keep children occupied while adults went and “wrocked'” out. Doors opened at 12:45 p.m. and the festivities lasted until around 9 p.m. After 9 hours of a Wizard Rock one must wonder where are the wizards that are part of the Slytherin house located, why aren’t they playing their evil songs about conquering Hogwarts? In the “Wrock Community” all wizards no matter what house, are considered equal. Matt Maggiacomo of the Whomping Willows says it best, “There are no BAD Wizard Rock bands. Half of these bands are just kids [explative deleted] around with Garage Band or whatever free program they can get their hands on. Half of these bands are populated by kids who are just learning to play an instrument and record music. The beauty of Wizard Rock is that for many of the bands, it’s nothing more than a learning experience. We, as the elder states people of Wizard Rock, should not be encouraging young people to worry about categorization and public image. We should be encouraging them to have fun.”
The Wrock community got started by a group of hardcore Harry Potter fans naming themselves “The Group That Shall Not Be Named!” Taking the “Shall Not Be Named” part from Voldermort’s nickname throughout the books. The group has developed a community where fellow fans can meet and forum about the books and as well as the movies. They have meetings every first Thurs of the month. They are based out of New York, and currently have 344 members. This Harry Potter fandom dates back to 2002. Most recently there was a film project documenting the Wizard Rock phenomenon “The Wizard Rockumentary: A Movie about Rocking and Rowling” released on April 11, 2008.
Interested in finding out more about “Wizard Rock” or Harry Potter conventions, or just want to discuss Harry Potter? Then visit Harrypotter.meetup.com/447/.