Queen City Mischief & Magic returns to downtown Staunton on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 26 and 27. Admission is free. Volunteers run every part of it. And the crowd now tops 20,000 people a year, which is a lot of wizards, witches and flying monkeys for a few blocks of Beverley Street.
This year the festival has a companion website, and I built it. It lives at QCMM.app.
Some disclosure before I go further. I’m one of the volunteers who helps with QCMM, and I publish the Stauntonian. The app came out of my studio, BradThomas.io, and it runs as an independently operated companion affiliated with the festival. Official announcements still come from queencitymagic.com and the festival’s Facebook page.
A Paper Map Can Only Do So Much
Spend one festival weekend as a volunteer and you learn the questions by heart. Where is the sorting? When does wand dueling start? Which block is Ravenclaw? Is the BBQ place still open?
For years a printed map carried most of that load. Then the festival kept growing. The app now tracks 119 locations across downtown, from stages and event features to gift shops and restaurants. No sheet of paper holds that gracefully, and paper can’t tell you where you’re standing.
So I had three goals. I wanted visitors to find things on their own phones. I wanted to give our volunteers a break from pointing down the street all weekend. And I wanted the festival to feel a little more like a quest, because a town full of magic should reward the people who go looking for it.
Start With the Map
The Locations page shows every festival spot on an interactive map of downtown. Tap a pin and you get the name, the address, the block it belongs to and what kind of stop it is, whether that’s a stage, an event feature or a local business. A “Find me” button drops you onto the map so you can see what’s closest.
Each location also carries a status marker. Visit a spot, check in, and the app marks it as checked in. By Sunday afternoon you’ll have a record of everywhere you’ve been.
We’re building the groundwork for something much more interesting in the coming years.
Six Neighborhoods of Magic
The festival divides downtown into themed blocks, and the Collections page groups locations the same way. Gryffindor Block and Hufflepuff Block each hold 24 stops. Ravenclaw Block has 21, Slytherin Block has 14, and The Burrough has 11.
Oz Land brings 17 more locations of its own. Follow the yellow brick road through it and you’ll find the festival’s Oz crowd waiting.
Each collection works as a checklist. Try to check in at every stop in one block, or go for all six if your feet allow it.
Somebody Is Out There in a Cloak
My favorite part of the app is the Characters page. It profiles 67 costumed characters who will roam the festival this weekend, with a little background on each and a hint about where they might turn up.
You can sort the roster by group. There are professors and students, founders and supporting players, a trio from Beauxbatons and five baddies. The Oz contingent brings Dorothy, Glinda, Elphaba, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Lion and a Winged Monkey, among others.
The page puts the challenge plainly: “These characters are out there, somewhere.” Find one, add them to your roster, and you start collecting toward perks. Kids will take this very seriously. So will a surprising number of adults.
The Weekend, Hour by Hour
The Schedule page lists every event by day and time, along with where it happens. The fun starts Friday night, when Puffs, or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic goes up at Silver Line Theatre Exchange at 7 p.m.
Saturday fills up fast. Wand Dueling Workshops run at Blackfriars Playhouse at several times through the day. A Wizard’s Magic Show plays at the Society for Victorian Arts and Culture Foundation, and Queen City Music Studios stages selected scenes from Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather at 12:45 p.m. Quad ball training and finals take over the Virginia is for Lovers Stage across both days.
Sunday opens with a Hogwarts Pancake Breakfast at Trinity Episcopal Church at 9 a.m., then the Official QCMM Sorting at Staunton Wharf at 9:30. After dark, the Queen City Ghost Tour leaves from the New Street Parking Garage on several evening runs.
Times can shift during a live event, so check the schedule the morning you head out.
How to Use It This Weekend
There’s nothing to download. Open QCMM.app in your phone’s browser, and add it to your home screen if you’d like it one tap away. It costs nothing.
A little planning helps. Look over the schedule before you leave the house and pick the two or three events you won’t miss. Pull up the map when you park so you know which block you’re in. Charge your phone, because between photos and check-ins it will work hard. And when you spot someone in robes near the Wharf, check the Characters page before you walk past.
I built QCMM.app for the people who come to this festival every fall, and for the volunteers who make it happen. If something on it breaks, or you think of a feature for next year, find me this weekend or shoot me an email at Brad@Stauntonian.com.
The Stauntonian is offering 25 percent off a new annual subscription through Sept. 30 as a festival special.