Timeline

The Institute convenes

May 9–13, 2013 · The Margate Resort, Laconia, New Hampshire

Our first MISTI-Con. The Minister of Magic authorized the creation of the Institute to find the brightest, most talented wizards to fill the positions lost in the Second Wizarding War, and we took over the whole Margate Resort to do it. Every guest in the hotel was an attendee, and the grounds, the suites and the pool area were dressed as the Ministry, with full-scale vignettes inspired by the films.

We were The Group That Shall Not Be Named, New York City’s Harry Potter meetup, and we paid for the con partly with a Kickstarter. It ran five days over a May weekend: opening ceremonies, a nightclub-style wizard rock show, a 24-hour common room, a literary track with featured authors, MuggleNet’s live Alohomora! podcast, fandom editions of Family Feud and Jeopardy, and two young actors from the Deathly Hallows and Doctor Who casts as special guests. We closed with the Ministry Masquerade, a regal evening gala in the resort’s outdoor events tent.

The Wizarding World’s Fair

May 21–25, 2015 · The Margate Resort, Laconia, New Hampshire

With the Institute’s strength renewed, the Minister declared a new initiative to repair relations with our wizarding brethren around the world, and convened a World’s Fair. We sold out. The Margate became Ministry headquarters, with posters, signs and trinkets everywhere, and people showed up in full cosplay for five days over Memorial Day weekend.

The opening ceremony had Irish magicians and Japanese taiko drumming, and the weekend ended with fireworks. The keynote luncheon brought together a philosopher, a psychologist who uses the books in therapy, and a political scientist who studies what the series does to readers’ beliefs. A panel of designers from the Wizarding World theme parks told us how they built the places from the books. Chris Rankin, Percy Weasley in the films, came as our guest and led the crowd out to the fireworks. The Fair’s vendors sold wands, decals and T-shirts, and the Masquerade Ball closed things out with dance performances set to song.

Coming Home

May 18–22, 2017 · The Margate Resort, Laconia, New Hampshire

Twenty years after Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published, the Ministry decreed that the Institute meticulously recreate the world as so many of us first met it: the locations, the events and the stories of that first book. We called it Coming Home, and we packed the weekend with more than a hundred hours of formal programming.

The keynote luncheon, “Journeys of Women in Harry Potter,” invited women to share their stories of moving through and beyond fandom, with Melissa Anelli of The Leaky Cauldron as our featured guest. A twelve-band Wizard Rock Festival kept the music going all weekend. The Bewitching Bazaar set up in the tent, where the Harp Twins made an appearance. We held our first Hogwarts Lip Sync Battle and the Speakeasy Cabaret. There were live podcast recordings, GNOMEs trivia, karaoke until two in the morning, and the Ministry Masquerade Ball in the main tent, with floating candles, movie clips projected on the ceiling, themed drinks, a silent auction and cake.

We called it the best MISTI-Con yet, and it was our last at the Margate for six years. Afterwards we announced that the next one would be somewhere bigger, more accessible, and closer to a major airport.

Wizarding Through the Ages

July 18–21, 2019 · DoubleTree by Hilton, Tarrytown, New York

The Ministry’s interest turned to time, past and future, and the Institute was called back into session to explore the amazing past accomplishments and the future developments of the wizarding world. For the first time, we met somewhere new: Tarrytown on the Hudson, within an hour of four airports and reachable by train, in a hotel with enough rooms for everyone and far better accessibility. We moved the dates to July so the academic side of the con could be as robust as we had always wanted it to be.

Our emcee opened the con with a storyline that ran all weekend, and on Friday night the Grand Ballroom hosted “Albus & Scorpius’s Excellent Adventure,” a zany musical parody performed by professional actors and a few wizards plucked from the audience. Two wizard rock shows featured seven acts: Hawthorn & Holly, the Blibbering Humdingers, Ashley Trix & the Wzrds, Grace Kendall, Muggle Snuggle, Abby Lynne and Ludo Bagman & the Trash. The Lit Track brought editors from major publishing houses and working novelists to the con. Our keynote luncheon, “Evanesco Representation, Accio Inclusion: Diversity in Harry Potter,” with a panel from Black Girls Create, took on race and racism in the wizarding world and in the fandom as a whole.

Saturday brought the Craft Fair & Author’s Alley by day and the Founders’ Ball by night, a trip back to the time of the Hogwarts founders with DJ Swish. The Merlie Awards made their triumphant return on Sunday. Hogwarts Lip Sync Battle II, a late-night 18+ show from the bawdy nerd-folk band the Misbehavin’ Maidens, and an official photographer capturing portraits rounded out the weekend.

The 10-Year Reunion

May 19–22, 2023 · The Margate Resort, Laconia, New Hampshire

After a long hiatus, the Ministry leapt into action and convened a Reunion of the original Institute at its original location, so we could remember, regroup and rebuild after even more difficult times. We made it deliberately smaller and more informal than a full convention: capped at 350 guests, one or two tracks of programming at a time instead of eight, with vaccination and masking required so the whole community could be in the room. You didn’t need to have been to a previous MISTI-Con to come to the reunion; first-timers were just as welcome as old friends.

From the announcement in September 2022 through the close of the con, we ran a fundraising campaign for the Transgender Law Center. We asked for ten dollars per person in honor of ten years, with every dollar going directly to TLC, because MISTI-Con stands with our trans, intersex and non-binary wizarding folk. By the end of the reunion we had raised over $3,800. Our call for programming asked how a fan community could heal and grow, and reimagine the wizarding world in ways that reflect all of us.

Friday night opened with the Throwback Merlies, a runway of cosplay from MISTI-Cons past, and Hogwarts Lip Sync Battle III. On Saturday the Craft Faire moved into the main tent, with a silent auction of ten years of decorations (including the glass blocks with our logo that stood on the stage), and that night Back in Blackstone brought wizard rock back to the con with Hawthorn & Holly, Dream Quaffle and Kalysta Flame. There were trivia and game shows, workshops on spell-writing and zines and magical crafting, a campfire wrock sing-along, a live reading of My Immortal for anyone who could last a page, and To Absent Friends, where we celebrated the lives of the community members we had lost since the last con. The MISTI-Con 2023 fanfiction collection went up on the Archive of Our Own. Sunday night was Decadedance, where DJ Swish spun the dance hits of yesterday and today and we celebrated a decade of MISTI-Con.