The overview
What started as a small light display on a porch has turned into a hard-to-miss exhibit sprawling across the front yard of a two-story house, and a portion of the neighborhood’s yard to the right.
After eight years of different variations of the Diagon Alley ATX light display, Joel Pace, creator of Diagon Alley ATX and “proprietor of the castle,” decided with his family to set their wands down and host their final year of the showing.
Pace, a full-time lawyer who does the construction and crafting during free time on weekends, said putting on the display is a time-consuming undertaking. Some parts of the display can take months to plan and build. A scaled-down replica of the Hogwarts Express train took about five months to construct and refine the intricate artistic details.
After years of working on weekends, Pace said he wants to spend more time with family and to travel. While the show is ending, he is grateful for the past years hosting the event, he said.
“We've had a great time with it,” he said. “I will always have wonderful, fond memories of it. I hope there are a bunch of kids who grow up to think of that crazy old man in their neighborhood who used to build the castle on his yard.”
The Harry Potter world came to Austin in 2016, after Pace’s wife, Amanda, had the idea to decorate their porch with floating candles, recreating the Great Hall setting from the film franchise. At the time, the display was small and a gesture to their son, Grant, who was a fan of the series.
In the spring of 2017, Amanda was diagnosed with cancer. She asked Pace to decorate the house for Halloween to cheer her up. Pace expanded the display to the front yard and the tradition took off.
In 2018 after Amanda recovered, the family “went nuts” with the display and added more props and decorations, recreating Diagon Alley—a magical shopping district from the films—on their driveway.
The recreation was an immersive walkthrough, with various shops on either side of the driveway. At the head of the driveway was a replica of Gringotts Wizarding Bank with the Gringotts dragon on top.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, a display of Hogwarts Castle replaced the immersive walkthrough so that visitors could see the decorations from the street. That same year, the Pace family launched the Christmas light show.
Since then, the Hogwarts Castle display has found its spot on Pace’s yard, getting hundreds of visitors each night, Pace said.
The display takes months of preparation and planning, Pace said. In addition to the five-month prep needed for the Hogwarts Express train, other props can take weeks to months to build. Pace begins working in early October for other elements of the Halloween display, then switches the spooky-theme for more festive decorations to get ready for the holiday season.
Pace uses materials from foam insulation boards to wooden platforms to create the castle buildings and other props. For the Christmas display, he uses about 15,000 lights and over 30 electrical cords to run the show. He also programs two computers to turn on the lights and play music.
Pace said his previous years as an engineering student have given him the knowledge to put the display together. A love of LEGO, using tools and years of trial-and-error have also been useful in learning what works and what doesn’t, he said.
While he works as a lawyer during the week, he still likes to use his engineering skills on the side.
“I'm a repressed architect-slash-engineer in a lawyer's body,” he said.
His scaled-down Hogwarts Express train represents a full-circle moment to close out the display, he said. It was the first big prop he made for the display when it first started. He also points to the full-service Leaky Cauldron bar as an upgrade to his portable Leaky Cauldron in 2022.
The combination of refined props, enhanced bar service, and a carefully crafted and decluttered display factor into his satisfaction with his recreated Harry Potter world, he said.
The gesture for Pace’s son, then for his wife, turned to the broader community in 2019 when Diagon Alley ATX decided to fundraise for Variety, The Children’s Charity of Texas as it was experiencing financial strain, Pace said.
Diagon Alley ATX began donating funds to the nonprofit, as well as Foster Angels of Central Texas and the ZACH Theatre.
Pace said the fundraising initiative adds a new purpose to the display.
“We’ve changed it for something that's just funny and goofy, to something that's actually meaningful,” he said.
Visitors at the display said they appreciate what Pace and his family have done with the display. Jana Williams saw Diagon Alley ATX on Instagram and decided to visit with her daughter Lilly, who is a fan of the series. She said she admires the meaning behind the display.
“What a cool thing to do for your community and share with everybody,” Williams said.
Pace said while it’s the last year for Diagon Alley ATX, he is grateful for the past eight years.
“Thank you to everybody for being so kind and appreciative and patient with us,” he said. “We've had a wonderful experience, made a lot of great friends and met a lot of people we never would have met. It's been a fun ride.”
The display will continue throughout Jan. 1. The Pace family is planning on holding special-event nights to serve treats inspired by the Leaky Cauldron from Harry Potter.
The Leaky Cauldron serving window opened on Dec. 14 and sold Butterbeer cupcakes in exchange for donations. The cupcakes sold out after an hour-and-a-half into the event and over 1,000 people attended the event that night, Pace’s wife Amanda said.
The next Leaky Cauldron nights will be on Dec. 22 and 28, featuring Harry Potter-themed mochi donuts from Bom Bakeshop for purchase.
- Open through Jan. 1
- Circle C Ranch neighborhood, intersection of Slaughter Lane and Bungalow Lane
