Wanna know what the coolest, most exclusive, most internationally renowned exhibition of the year is?  If you thought it was something or other with Sean Gladwell’s or a bunch of Picassos, you would be wrong.  Because the best exhibition to hit Sydney is the Harry Potter exhibition, now on at the Powerhouse Museum. 

Prepare yourselves now: I am about to nerd out in a big way. 

This exhibition is an amazing collection of the various props and costumes from all eight of the films. But as soon as you walk inside the huge dark entrance room you realise this isn’t your normal painting-on-wall kind of thing.  A witch sorts you into your house—I got Gryffindor, standard—and you’re led alongside a real Hogwarts Express inside the exhibition. 

From there it only gets better. There are all these types of stalls set up for different moments in the books.  You see Harry’s dormitory and uniform alongside the real Golden Egg (of course the second clue in the Triwizard Tournament).

Possibly the coolest thing you see, apart from a real-life Buckbeak and Aragog, and a replica of Hagrid’s tent, and Voldermort’s costume and the Half-Blood Prince’s Potions book—ok, a cool thing you see is all three Deathly Hallows. The Elder Wand, Invisibility Cloak and the Resurrection Stone are all here; the power to master death is at your fingertips.  Then at the end you can buy Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans!  Snap those up faster than a Seeker on a Snitch! Ok I’ll stop.

I’d definitely recommend you go in a group; your fellow nerds will judge you if you’re alone.  And if you’re not a Harry Potter fanatic maybe this exhibition isn’t for you—stay home alone, you freak.  But if you are a fan, this slice of escapism is the perfect way to keep the magic of Harry Potter alive after we all cried when the last book came out, right? Right?

Make sure you book your tickets before, because they’re flying [ON BROOMSTICKS] out the door!