Things get Harry at the Queen’s b-day ball

British Ambassador Warwick Morris, far left, next to his wife Pamela, enjoying their evening with other guests. By Jeong Chi-ho

Harry Potter visited Seoul last Saturday night, to attend the 81st birthday of Queen Elizabeth II. As delightfully implausible as this may sound, the two were indeed brought together, at least in spirit, by the British Association of Seoul for the annual Queen’s Birthday Ball. The young magician from J.K. Rowling’s much-beloved series of books was the theme of this year’s annual charity event, which has grown to be one of the staples of the expatriate community social calendar.
Every year, until the moment the ballroom doors are opened, the theme is as shrouded in mystery as a philosopher’s stone.
“We open the doors and hopefully everyone will say, ‘Wow!’” said Sophie Dencher, welfare officer of BASS and an organizer of the event.
British Ambassador Warwick Morris, however, had access to the privileged information.
“I’ve known about the theme for a while,” he said, as guests swirled around the atrium of the Grand Ballroom at the Hyatt Hotel, waiting for the doors to open. “But my wife swore me to secrecy.”
Warwick said that the queen had no plans to visit Korea in the immediate future, but pointed out that she had visited in 1999, and that Korean President Roh Moo-hyun went to England on an official state visit in 2004, a first for a Korean president.
“That’s two state visits in the last eight years,” said Ambassador Warwick. “It shows a closening relationship between the two countries.”
For her part, Queen Elizabeth, busy as she is, sent her “warm good wishes” by way of a letter from one of her secretaries.
Those whose attention was not totally absorbed trying to figure out who was wearing the most beautiful gown (“There is always an undercurrent of competition,” said Dencher), had figured out the theme before long. In the atrium, bubbly was served up by waiters in school ties and round glasses, an ice sculpture of Hogwarts crowned the center of the room, and the firmly closed doors to the main ballroom were decorated in the heavy, oak-paneled Hogwarts style.

At 8 p.m., the hall was filled with a loud train whistle and a conductor announced, “All aboard the Hogwarts Express! Please join the dining car now.” Several muted wows could indeed be heard as the crowd shuffled through the doors, over the smoke-covered floor into the ballroom. It had been converted into the dining hall of Hogwarts, complete with owl sculptures swooping from the ceiling, an entire wall depicting a Quiditch pitch (the game, played on flying broomsticks, is the main sport in Rowling’s books), and banners of the four school houses, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, hanging from the ceiling.
“It was a fabulous, magical night,” said Suzan Walsh, another organizer. “The band The Lightyears, who came from the U.K. just for tonight, were the highlight for me.” The Lightyears are an up-and-coming rock band based in Reading, who also performed at last year’s event. More than 200 million won ($215,000) was raised and will be donated to St. Colomban’s Home for the Sick in Chuncheon, along with other subsidiary charities.

By Richard Scott-Ashe Contributing Writer [richard@joongang.co.kr]