Dementors roam downtown Springfield for Wizarding Weekend event

Springfield’s Wizarding Weekend, put on by the Clark County Historical Society at their Heritage School of Wizardry, brought some interesting characters from the world of Harry Potter to Springfield, including two 9-foot-tall dementors, who were roaming around the downtown area looking for souls to suck out of the crowd of participants Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022. The dementors were actually Daniel Gaertner and Alec West, who were walking around on stilts. According to Natalie Fritz, archivist and director of Collections Outreach & Social Media for the Clark County Historical Society, the event brought a good number of wizarding school students and adult alumni guests from the Harry Potter fandom downtown for each of the three events held Friday and Saturday. Fritz said, “The weekend’s magical success couldn’t have been possible without partnerships with other downtown businesses, organizations and locations, and the help of many volunteers and local performers who made it possible to offer a wide variety of classes and activities.” BILL LACKEY/STAFF