Lumos maxima!
Hi Mad Family!
Long time no see! Today I'll talk to you about my first ever press event I got invited to! The Harry Potter Exhibition in Brussels Expo! There's gonna be a walk through photo report of the exhibition along with my personal opinions on the different scenes, things I loved and loved less, comparision to the Studios Tour in London and some practical info if you're planning to visit the Exhibition in London.
I solemnly swear I am up to no good...
A few months ago, the word came out! Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom) announced that the Harry Potter exhibition was coming to Brussels! My friend Hilde and me decided to apply for a spot on the press list. The months we waited were barely unbareble, but two weeks ago the best news came: we were invited to the press event! As a Potterhead having visited the Leavesden studios and Universal Orlando high on the wishlist, it felt like such a big privilige. The invite consisted of a guided 1 hour tour of the Exhibition with a limit group and a round table interview with the creators of the exhibition and surprise guests.
We arrived in Brussels waaaaaaaaay too early (because with the traffic you never know), so we decided to have a chill at the Atomium first and took some pictures in the parks around and at the entrance of the exhibition. At 2pm we were allow to enter! Are you ready?
Not a fan of the world of Harry Potter? Let's get the haters out! Cave inimicum! Colloportus! Repello Muggletum! Protego!
Still here? Good! You're a wizard now! Off to Hogwarts!
Area 1: The Sorting Hat
So put me on!
Don't be afraid!
And don't get in a flap!
You're in safe hands, though I have none!
The first scene is the Sorting Hat. There's a small stage where we are welcomed by the creators of the exhibition and they are walking the exhibition with us, so we can ask any questions we want. A volunteer is asked from the crowd, so exciting! The Sorting hat takes the stage and puts the boy in front in Gryffindor! Brave at heart, daring, nerve and chivalry! To me this was an amazing entrance, not as big as the one in London (I will not spoil the big entrance there), but a lot more interactive and personal in my opinion! Score!
Area 2: Intro
We are invited into the next hall, were we see 8 frames with the movie posters. Next up, is a short summary of some of the best moments in the movies and for a moment, you think you're alone in a theatre. A beautiful dedication to the Wizarding World created by J.K. Rowling and perfectly timed we are tended to look to the right, were a gate opens and we see the Hogwarts express dooming from the fog. The word WOW is the only thing we hear, everyone is stunned and speachless! In the mist, there's a Hogwarts student pointing us the way.
This big breathtaking moment was slightly interrupted by the fact that we were almost immediately asked to move over to the other room. Everyone was still like living the moment, like they just got off the train, but even at Hogwarts, sometimes you have to rush.
Area 3 & 4: Gryffindor Common Room and Classrooms
Caput draconis!
Luckily the fat lady hadn't changed her password since the last time I visited the Gryffindor common room, we could pass! But not before listening to her song! Here you can see the beds of the dorm rooms and tons of outfits from the movies along with tons of small props. The way the props are displayed are just amazing! The space to display the scenes and props is a lot smaller than in Leavesden and it feels more 'packed' (also because the walking area a smaller), but the decorators did the most amazing job displaying everything in the most visible way with little panels with descriptions on there. I do think they do a better job 'grouping' the prop in the scene. In London, different scenes aren't filled with props, you can also see all the 'smaller' props in one place, while in the exhibition everything is groups per character or per class etc. 10 points for Brussels!
In the same hall there are impressions of the classrooms. This is where London outstands Brussels. In London, these are actual seperate rooms where you can walk into or watch from the side, here it's more a backdrop with some costumes of the professors and props of that class. Yet again, the display of the props is a lot better.
Just before walking into the next area, there was one of my favorite things in this exhibitions. When visiting Leavesden 2 years ago, I had hoped to see this, but it wasn't there, so my heart dropped a little finding this here. As a centerpiece there was the group of pots with Mandragora's (Mandrake root) of Herbology, which you could pull out their little pots and they started crying just like in the movies! Luckily I didn't faint!
Area 5: Quidditch
One Quaffle
Three Chasers
Two Bludgers
Two Beaters
One Snitch
One Seeker
Area 6 & 7: Hagrid's Cabin & The Forbidden Forest
The Forbidden Forest looked as though it had been enchanted, each tree smattered with silver, and Hagrid's cabin looked like an iced cake.
From the bright colors of Quidditch, we walked into the dark, foggy area of the border of the Forbidden Forest. First we meet Buckbeak the hippogriff who is next to the costume of the Butcher and one of the scarecrows found in Hagrid's pumpkin patch. Walking along into Hagrid's Cabin, you just feel at home in his overloaded cabin full of stuff. On the table there's Norbert's Egg.
Walking out on the other side, there's a few creatures from the Forbidden Forest. There's the Hungarian Horntail from HP and the Goblet of Fire popping his head out his cage, Aragog and the upper bodies of the centaurs.
Area 8: Dark Forces
We've all got both light and dark inside us.
What matters is the part we choose to act on
That's who we really are.
Keeping it on the dark side, we walk on to what's in my opinion the BEST part of the Exhibition. Everything concerning the dark side of the movies is grouped into a sanctuary of Dark Art. First thing you see is the ending scene from the very first movie, with Harry's & Quirinus Quirrell's clothes, the Philosopher's stone, the flying key and the mirror of Erised. Alongside there's a display with all Voldemort's Horcruxes and props from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. How detailed is the wax figure of Colin Creevey? The tomb stone from the most epic scene of all the movies: The Graveyard Scene of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and some of the large Wizard chess pieces. Next, the Death Eaters are displayed showing the Dark Mark. Morsmordre! Lord Voldemort's clothes are also there... Have you spotted Nagini?
Area 9: Great Hall
Some amazing magic to end with. We are walking into the Great Hall. The feeling is not the same as in Leavesden, where the Great Hall is the centerpiece in my opinion, here it's a lot smaller scaled, but it still has the same magical, yet homey feel to it! I'll just let the pictures speak for itself.
To end, you walk into the small boutique, where you can all kinds of bits to take a little bit of magic home.
My favorite things & some random opinions
- Dobby & Kreacher: can I have one at home please?
- Fawkes the Phoenix
This Exhibition is more interactive than the permanent one in London. It has a more 'homey' feel to it, which makes it feel more packed. The Studios are actually studios, so the environment is more 'neutral', in this Exhibition, every single corner is decoration, so you feel more in the story, every tho some decors/scenes aren't as big as in Leavesden. Some of the parts are very dark with limited light, which might make it difficult to take photos. The thing I loved most, is that I've actually seen things that weren't displayed in London, which I didn't expect.
If I could choose something to take home, I'd go for a dress (no surprise right?) Either the Beaubatons dress or Hermoine's Triwizard Tournament Ball dress would come home with me for sure!
If I could choose something to take home, I'd go for a dress (no surprise right?) Either the Beaubatons dress or Hermoine's Triwizard Tournament Ball dress would come home with me for sure!
My plan is to definitely go back later this summer, to take more pictures and go take another look at some of the amazing stuff I missed wandering around or that I just noticed on the pictures.
Round table
To end our afternoon, we were sat down for a Round Table interview. First up were the creators of the exhibition. Who drowned us with the most amazing random but cool facts about the exhibition.
- The creators visited the Studios in Leavesden to personally pick out the items that they wanted to take on the travelling exhibition
- The build up takes 4 weeks
- There's 24 sea containers of decors, props and clothes fitted into this exhibition
- The biggest piece of the exhibition is the Great Hall stained window which is 6,5m tall. Arriving at Brussels Expo, it didn't fit the venue, so they had to higher the roof at that particular spot to make the window fit.
- In the movies, there was a real stone floor set in the Great Hall. At first, the executive producer didn't approve, but argumenting that there were probably gone be more movies after the first one, the producer approved. They wanted to create a real feel of authenticity.
And last but not least, there's was time for the surprise guests of the day. The word had kind of come out the day before with the actors posting Instagram pictures from Brussels. So the special guests were James & Oliver Phelps, playing Ron Weasley's twin brothers Fred & George. There was no preplanned interview, all questions were allowed to come from the crowd. This is what we found out:
- They auditioned for their role when they were 14 years old
- They are to only actors from the Weasley family who weren't naturally ginger, so they had to dye their hair
- If they could choose one item from the exhibition to take home, they would like their own wands. They funnily said that's the reason why they are behind glass, because otherwise they would've taken it already for sure. Oh, and remember the scene in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in the Room of Requirement where the twins hold their wands in a quite funny way? They had actually broke it, but didn't dare to tell the filming crew!
- If they could choose one scene for the movies that they weren't in, but get written into. They'd choose the Swamp scene from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Hilde and me had thought of two questions, which they kindly answered.
1/ What advice would you give to young people who are tired of going to school like Fred and George and just want to do what they like instead of wasting time at school?
Well, I'd say, start your own joke shop in Diagon Alley. *laughing* No, just kidding. Just make sure you've made your mind up about what you want, be yourself and just do it. Keep an open mind about what others think about it, but you really should do what you feel you have to do.
2/ How did you decide who was gonna be Fred/George and did you stick to your character through all the movies?
Oh, I like that question, because it has a funny story. Before starting the filming, we were doing different read throughs the script of the first movie and we randomly switched up reading Fred & George's lines. The last read through was 30 minutes before filming the first scene, but yet no one had told us who was gonna be Fred or George. We were nervous and didn't want to bother the crew too much, but we really had to know, so we went up to one of them to ask who was gonna play who. The crewmember answered 'haha, good joke', but we said 'no no, we're serious, we don't know!'. So the crew took a moment to deliberate and decided on James playing Fred and Oliver playing George. We never played each other's role, we always stuck to the brother that was assigned to us.
Practical
Venue: Paleis 2, Brussels Expo, Belgieplein 1, Brussel
Date: from June 30th for a limited time in Summer 2016
Opening times
- Monday to Friday: 10.00 - 19.00, last entrance at 17.30
- Sunday & holidays: 10.00 - 20.00, lasst entrance at 18.30
- Nocturnes every first friday of the month: open until 22.00, last entrance at 20.30
Ticket prices
- Adult: 19,90 euros (16,90 on tuesdays)
- Child (4-14): 14,90 euros
- Seniors & students: 17,90 euros
- Family Pass: 65 euros (2 adults & 2 kids)
- Group price: 16,90 euros (at least 10 people, preregistration online is required)
- School groups: 12,50 euros per student (preregistration online is required)
I would like to thank the organisation Firestarter, Brussels Expo, Encore B, Global Experience Specialists and everyone involved for giving us this amazing opportunity to visit this magical world.
Mischief managed!
xo
Gaëtane
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