FAYETTEVILLE, WV (WOAY)- It’s time to dust off your broomsticks and take out your favorite wand. The town of Fayetteville is gearing up for its Wizarding Weekend.
The magical festivities fly in on January 24-26. This three-day-long event continues to grow like a mandrake every year.
“It started out really small. I think we did it like at the back of the Gaines Estate, just in the field,” explained Tabitha Stover, Executive Director of Visit Fayetteville. “And it’s kind of taken over town for this one weekend now, so it gets a little bit bigger every year. The event lineup gets bigger and more places kind of jump on board. So now, we have participation from about every business in town doing some sort of activity. So it’s really exciting.”
This year, they’ve added a magician performance at the Historic Fayette Theater, but they also have a new forbidden adventure.
“This year we’ve got a new thing, a Forbidden Forest Hike with Active Southern West Virginia. It’s going to be a night hike at the park where you dress up in costume and go into the woods, and that’s going to be super cool,” said Stover.
For a grand event such as this, many wonder why the magic happens in the middle of winter.
“We do it in the winter because this is the time of year where town is kind of dead. So it’s something that we hope gives a boost to local businesses. It brings people to town in our slow season,” explained Stover. “And because it is a slower season in town, we have the capacity as a town to really make it a magical weekend. So January is where it’s landed to kind of keep everybody going through the winter and just to offer something fun for the community when there’s not a lot happening at the end of January, it kind of gives everybody a winter morale boost to do it.”
According to Stover, the schedule is always being added to and people are encouraged to visit the link below for all the events of the weekend. Everyone of all ages is encouraged to come out and join in the fun, it doesn’t matter if you have never been or have come every year.
“If you have never come out. It’s a really magical experience. It’s a lot of fun,” said Stover.
www.visitfayettevillewv.com/event/fayettevilles-wizard-weekend/