VIDEO: Treats galore for UCC’s Harry Potter Yule Ball

It was butterbeers, firewhiskey and pumpkin juice all round as hundreds of UCC’s best witches and wizards attended the magical Yule Ball.

The university’s Harry Potter Society plays host this weekend to Triwizard Tournamnet with NUIG, DCU and UCD, and in preparation the function room at the Clarion Hotel was transformed into a winter wonderland with Christmas trees, fake snow, fairy lights, balloons and candles hanging from the ceiling mirroring the Great Hall at Hogwarts Castle.

“We were trying to keep it as close to the book as we possibly could. It is basically a Christmas ball which is what it is in the movie,” founding member of the Harry Potter Society Kelly Coyle said.

This is the first year of the Harry Potter Society but it seems students are already bewitched by what the club has to offer with Ms Coyle saying the society has had a “huge interest” in the Yule Ball.

“Tickets were extremely popular when they went on sale. We started selling them at 8.30am and we sold 150 afters which was the maximum number we could sell and we sold 200 full straight away too.”

Die-hard Harry Potter fans had a “siriusly” good night as they enjoyed a prosecco reception followed by a three-course meal and musical entertainment.

Those lucky enough to attend the ball follow a black tie dress code.

“The boys are all expected to wear suits and the girls are all expected to wear formal dresses so it has that aura of classiness about it. We want to create that formal feel,” Ms Coyle said.

However some infamous characters also made an appearance throughout the night including notorious gossip columnist Rita Skeeter.

“One of our committee members is dressing up as Rita Skeeter who is the journalist in the book. She’s going to go around and take quotes from people on the night and we’re going to release a Daily Prophet article afterwards,” Ms Coyle said.

The magic doesn’t end after the Yule Ball as the club will be joining forces with three other Harry Potter societies around the country this weekend when they come broom-to-broom against each other in Quidditch as part of the famous Triwizard Tournament.