Harry
Potter fans swarmed the attractions along Germantown Avenue on Saturday for the
Chestnut Hill Harry Potter Festival. At Top of the Hill Market, Dan Lemoyne, a
Harry Potter/Daniel Radcliffe doppelganger, obligingly struck poses with
adoring fans for photos. Meanwhile Professor Dumbledore employed his sorting
hat to assign “students” into different Houses of the Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft. Lemoyne and friends Alyssa Alberto and Lisa Makhoul offered their responses to the question. “What role
does fantasy play in your life?” Watch video here.
Cynthia
Day and Therese Tiger gave out brownies to raise funds for “Autism Speaks” a
project of their daughters at the Springside School. Research is aimed at determining what environmental factors
may be triggering genetic predispositions to the sensory/social/developmental
disorder. Why table at the Chestnut Hill Harry Potter Festival? The crowds. But
Tiger’s husband George drew a parallel between his autistic nephew and Harry Potter, both teens facing the
normal teen challenges and, in
addition, possessing special powers. Watch video here.
Outside
the Ministry of Magic (Chestnut Hill Visitor’s Center) a man was taking a photo
of two young hooded women, one very colorfully attired, betwixt lifesize cardboard
cutouts of Professor Dumbledore and Harry Potter. The women simply had happened
to wander into the Harry Potter Festival wearing the garb of their homeland,
Saudi Arabia. Instructional technology students at Chestnut Hill College, they
were pleased to find themselves amid the festivities. “It’s fun,” said one who
had read the first two books in the Potter series. Watch video here.
