Vol. 4: Wrock for Darfur
What: Wrock for Darfur
Where: Waryas Park, Poughkeepsie, NY
When: August 23, 2008, Noon – 9pm
How Much: FREE! $10 suggested donation – it is a fund raiser after all!
Not long ago, while perusing the HP Alliance forums, I found a post entitled “Wrock for Darfur.” Naturally, I was intrigued by something combining my desire to provide aid to Darfur and my love of Wizard Rock! I followed the link provided and was faced with a beautiful, green background with a single Darfuri child standing at the side, staring at me with a look too mature for someone his age.
I wanted to know more and decided to contact some of the girls organizing the event. Before I go any further, allow me to tell you a little about these girls. There are 5 of them, and only one of them is 18. The rest are 15-17, yet they have managed to put together “an all-day festival organized to raise both awareness of and funds for the refugees from the Darfur region of Sudan.” Needless to say, I was very impressed! I had the opportunity to talk with Brenna, a 15 year-old going into her junior year of high school, and Haley, a 16 year-old also going into her junior year.
They told me they had started by creating their own HP Alliance Chapter “of sorts” at their local church. They call it the JUUstice LeagUUe (two U’s for Unitarian Universalist) and the Chapter Organizers attended a STAND conference. While they were learning more about the anti-genocide campaign, a joke came up about holding a “Horcrux Hunt.” After a time, they decided that this joke was actually a very good idea! It all led to a simple equation: Horcrux Hunt + Wizard Rock + Darfur = Wrock for Darfur!
What is a Horcrux Hunt?
“During the Horcrux Hunt, teams will hunt down injustice in the world and destroy it, following the model set by Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the seventh Harry Potter book.”
The Horcrux Hunt is a themed scavenger hunt. Each participant will go through 7 different stages with an actor in character as a guide. The guides will bring people through in small groups to the stages where each Horcrux is destroyed. There will be riddles to solve, just as Harry, Ron, and Hermione had to interpret clues and make guesses to find and destroy each Horcrux. To learn more about what the Horcruxes stand for, please watch the video Haley, Brenna, and the other coordinators put together. (It is also located on this page below this column)
The coordinators ask that anyone interested register online for a small fee of $10.
The Music
Now onto the even more exciting portion: the musicians that will be playing! Even though the event is called Wrock for Darfur, not all of the bands playing are Wizard Rock… but most of them are! I recently received an updated list of the performers, so allow me to present to you… THE LIST!
· FutuFutu
· Nagini
· Race to the Finish
The Wrock for Darfur stage will not only hold all these bands over the day, but will host Scott Warren and Daniel Kadishson, speakers the coordinators have asked to “share their knowledge of the ongoing genocide in Darfur” with the attendees.
This event will be absolutely amazing! I live in Northern California, but I have every intention of making it to New York for Wrock for Darfur. I hope you all take this opportunity to have an amazing time while learning about ways you can help people across the world! If you need a place to stay, I have it on good authority that Brenna and Haley’s church has plenty of room for weary travelers to stay the night if necessary.
Thanks again to everyone who has been keeping me updated on upcoming events! You are all amazing! I’m still (and always will be) looking for new events to write about, so don’t forget to keep me updated. Next week, look forward to hearing about the regular Wizard Rock shows that DJ Knockturn is planning in the UK.
‘Til next time,
Dinah Saur
Previous editions of Straight from the Dinah Saur’s Mouth are available here. You can contact Dinah via email at WrockDinahSaur@gmail.com
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