On August 6, 2008, hundreds of wizard rockers and friends converged at the Hilton Chicago for Wrock Chicago - one of the largest wizard rock festivals ever! Today, MTV has released their coverage of the event, which you can view on their website.

If you attended Wrock Chicago, see if you can spot yourself - many fans (myself included!) were captured on camera dancing and jumping during the shows.

Attention Wizard Rock fans! Wizrocklopedia columnist, Harry Potter Alliance staff member, and MuggleNet frequenter Dinah Russell has just released her third ”Straight from the Dinah-Saur’s Mouth” column!

Her article includes an exclusive interview with Paul DeGeorge of Harry and the Potters regarding their current tour with Math the Band and Uncle Monsterface, the Unlimited Enthusiasm Expo!

If you haven’t already read it, please check out her column here!

Volume Two of the charity compilation Wizards and Muggles Rock for Social Justice is now on iTunes! Many contributors are wizard rock bands, and even the muggle bands have wizarding members! Proceeds from the sale of this album will benefit the Harry Potter Alliance and Marriage Equality Rhode Island. Until the hard copies are released in December or January the album is only available in the iTunes store.

Mark of the amazing wizard rock band Marked as His Equal has announced in his latest blog that he will be unable to attend and perform at Portus 2008 as scheduled due to being diagnosed with cancer and having to go in for further surgery.

Mark is confident that the cancer will not be fatal, though he needs to have several lymph nodes removed as a precaution. Further details can be found in his blog. Please leave him comments, love, and well-wishes on MySpace!

The Associated Press released a story today about Wizard Rock! Titled “Harry Potter devotees put wizard tales to music,” the article details the Wizard Rock phenomenon, pointing out the distinct fashion, the library shows, and the weekend-long Wrockstock festival.

Including statements from Matt of The Whomping Willows, Abby Hupp (director-extraordinaire of Wrockstock), and Harry Potter Alliance founder Andrew Slack, this story can be read on the Yahoo! News site.

Last month at Wrockstock 2008 (the weekend-long Wizard Rock festival), Andrew Slack of the Harry Potter Alliance announced a brand new project that has now been officially launched: Wizard Rock the Vote!

The HPA and Wizard Rock community are seeking volunteers (two per event) to be present at every Wizard Rock concert across the nation to assist those in attendance to register to vote.

As the HPA website specifies, “It is our choices that make us who we are as individuals, it is also our choices that make us who we are as a society.” Find out how you can support this effort here.

On top of all of the news we've been bringing you today out of the wizarding world, it's time to highlight a big part of our fandom that looks to be crumbling apart quickly.

Several Wizard Rock bands have announced major changes to their bands. Here are a few of them:
- Harry and the Potters have announced they will be breaking up and releasing solo albums.
- The Remus Lupins have announced they will be changing to The Snapes. Additionally, Alex will no longer give hugs.
- The Whomping Willows, who is made up of solely one person (Matt), will be breaking up. No word yet on how one person splits up his own band, or a reunion.
- Draco and the Malfoys have announced that they are actually the Original Harry and the Potters.

If any more disturbing announcements occur, we'll let you know here.

Update: The Whomping Willows have announced that the earlier announcement was, in fact, an April Fools joke designed to draw attention to their real news: Warner Brothers has signed Matt on to an exclusive recording contract and will be setting him up as the "Official Band of Wizard Rock." His new name will be M-Bezzle and he is adding four other men to his line up.

Further Update: Matt has posted another blog informing his fans that as the pressures of the major recording contract proved too much to handle, The Whomping Willows are officially over. He will, however be continuing a solo project to be called "The Whomping Willows".

On March 2nd Wizrocklopedia.com announced the 2008 Wizard Rock People’s Choice Awards winners! Fans around the world voted for their favorite bands in several categories, such as Best Male/Female Vocals, Best EP, Band of the Year, Best Holiday Song, and Best Album Art. The Lifetime Achievement Award goes to The Whomping Willows! Congratulations to Matt and to all of the winners! See a full list of categories and winners here.”

This year’s Wrockstock tickets are now on sale! The weekend-long festival will be held May 23-26 at the YMCA Trout Lodge in Postosi, Missouri. Wrockstock is a fantastic way to meet fellow wizard rock fans and musicians!

The bands that will be playing this year include: Draco and the Malfoys, The Whomping Willows, The Remus Lupins, Catchlove, The Quaffle Kids, Tom Riddle and Friends, Justin Finch-Fletchly and the Sugar Quills, The Moaning Myrtles, Ginny and the Heartbreakers, Hogwarts A History, Gred and Forge, The Bandon Banshees, and The Mudbloods.

Proceeds from this exciting event will benefit the HP Alliance! Visit the Wrockstock website for details and to register!

With stupendous reviews from wizard rock fans and bands alike, Joe and Paul DeGeorge of Harry and the Potters have announced that they plan to continue the Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club in 2008! They have already donated $13,000 to First Book with money raised from the 2007 EP of the Month Club.

Members of the EP of the Month Club receive three exclusive, limited-edition albums from wizard rock bands at four different points in the year. This year, the bands include Harry and the Potters, The Whomping Willows, the Hermione Crookshanks Experience, The Mudbloods, Catchlove, Gred and Forge, Justin Finch-Fletchly and the Sugar Quills, The Nifflers, The Giant Squidstravaganza, The Basilisk in Your Pasta, and Gryffindor Common Room Rejects. The proceeds from this year's project will be split evenly between two fantastic organizations: The Harry Potter Alliance and First Book.

Also, remember to check out MuggleNet's brand new Wizard Rock section! With interviews and song samples from over 170 bands and several podcasts, there will surely be something for fans of every genre. Don't forget to write a review for your favorite wizard rockers!

Four months in development, today we're bringing you our latest project: MuggleNet's Wizard Rock section! With over 160 bands in our database, you can read interviews, listen to samples, write reviews, and more! It's the perfect place for you to discover the fandom phenomenon that is the music genre of Wizard Rock.

MuggleNet will begin covering more Wizard Rock-related news now that we have an area to archive it all. We also have more plans for this section, so check back regularly as it continues to grow! A huge, GIGANTIC thank you goes to Christine Roberts who has conducted interviews with all of the bands and organized all of the information you see. We'd also like to thank Matt, our fantastic coder, who did a perfect job of creating the back-end of our database. This project would not have been possible without either of them.

Get listening, get reviewing, and enjoy!

Having shot a special piece on Wizard Rock back in June, MTV has now released a Top 10 list of their favorite Wizard Rock bands:

1. Switchblade Kittens
2. Harry and the Potters
3. The Parselmouths
4. The Remus Lupins (seen in picture at left)
5. Ministry of Magic
6. Draco and the Malfoys
7. The Moaning Myrtles
8. Catchlove
9. The Owl Post
10. The Whomping Willows

Congrats to all of the bands who were featured! We'll have more on Wizard Rock in the coming months, but in the mean time, we recommend you check out all of the latest Wizard Rock news at WizRocklopedia.com.