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Some of you may have followed my journey through Universal Studios, especially the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Diagon Alley, Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, it was epic fun. HOWEVER had I known this kind of thing existed I would have skipped all that and headed to Poland. No, I probably would have done both but now I would like to introduce you to the College of Wizardry! Please, enjoy the explanation below and the video above.
College of Wizardry (CoW) is a larpinspired by the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling. It is a fan event created by volunteers from Denmark and Poland, and takes place at the Polish castle of Czocha. In the larp, participants play the roles of students, teachers and other people at the fictionalCzocha College of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
It is a collaborative experience in the Nordic larp tradition, and is created by the players and organisers together, with everyone pitching in and helping make the magic come alive. It’s essentially the same as when kids use curtains as robes and sticks as wands and run around pretending to be witches and wizards – except we’re grownups with nicer costumes and a lot of experience in designing interactive experiences for each other.
At the first CoW in November 2014, around 190 participants from 11 different countries played in this shared magical universe for 4 days, and in April 2015 we are doing two more events. We have received immense international interest, having been featured on websites such as MTV, io9, TeenVogue, etc. If you want to write about us or talk to us, please mail us – we’ll do our best to explain what it is we do.
We are also lucky enough to have been visited by the documentary film makers Cosmic Joke, who have put togehter a little teaser trailer that gives a small insight into what the experience at CoW is like. The teaser trailer features the College of Wizardry theme created by Finnish composer and larper Anni Tolvanen.
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