For students interested in knowing where Quidditch on the Quad is this year, the Honors College Assembly has your answer.
“We are moving Quidditch on the Quad to the spring semester this year for a number of reasons, but most importantly among those reasons is so we can stay on the Quad,” Olivia West, a senior majoring in studio art, said.
West is HCA’s vice president of special events and is overseeing this year’s Quidditch on the Quad. This is the first year HCA will be responsible for Quidditch on the Quad, taking over from Creative Campus.
“Quidditch on the Quad has been wonderful and fun in years past. It brings the whole student body together and gives us something to look forward to participating in every year,” West said. “All of the things that Creative Campus has done, the good things that make Quidditch great, are going to stay the same.”
West said HCA will be making a few changes to Quidditch this year to make the event even better than it has been before. As a former Creative Campus intern, West said she knows the things that have made Quidditch great in the past, as well as what areas can be improved.
“I know moving Quidditch to the spring prolongs the wait, but we feel that having a big sporting event like this in the spring will give us something to look forward to, and it also helps avoid having to compete for the Quad during the football season in the fall,” West said. “Other than moving to the spring, I’m really excited about some of the ideas the leadership team in HCA are coming up with for Quidditch. I don’t want to give away too much right now, but you can expect to be seeing some of these ideas being put in to action by the end of the month.”
HCA director of public relations Daniel Connors has begun working on Quidditch’s strong advertising movement and is excited to unveil some of the things he has been working on. Connors, a senior from Enterprise, Ala., said students can expect a Quidditch promotional video very soon.
“The first thing we’re going to do is release a teaser to get students excited about Quidditch being in the spring,” Connors said. “With football season being so hectic and such a big deal at Alabama, I think everyone will benefit from Quidditch happening in the spring. We just have to help with the wait.”
Kirkland Back, a Creative Campus intern and HCA’s director of arts awareness, said this year’s Quidditch tournament will be bigger than it has ever been before.
Back said the anticipation of Quidditch draws students to the University from across the country.
“In its third year, Quidditch is going to be absolutely humongous,” he said. “It is so expected by people this year. There are a lot of people that literally came to the University with the sole intent of playing Quidditch. I hear freshmen talking all the time about how they came to UA because it’s awesome and we have Quidditch.”
West said Quidditch on the Quad’s purpose is to give UA students something fun to look forward to and enjoy every year.
“It is so exciting for people to have something so immersive and on such a grand scale happen here on our campus,” she said. “It brings something that you only read about in your physical life and allows you to interact in a way you would never have thought possible. You can play on a Quidditch team, you hear the theme song playing from Denny Chimes, you can walk down Diagon Alley, you can see actors playing out scenes from the books and movies. You really lose yourself in this Harry Potter world.”
