Back to Hogwarts: Harry Potter experience comes to Abu Dhabi Mall

Muggles can try their hand at quidditch and visit Hagrid's hut at the pop-up exhibition

'Harry Potter' Hogwarts experience ran at Mall of the Emirates in Dubai earlier this year. All photos: Antonie Robertson / The National

The experience is interactive with broomsticks to sit on and games of Quidditch to play.

Hagrid's hut is an illusion room, making visitors look much bigger or smaller than each other.

Hogwarts's moving staircases are represented.

Try your hand at a potions class, which activates the cauldron and generates a cloud of green smoke.

You can buy robes for your choice of Hogwarts house - Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin.

Try and learn spells with the interactive wand and tutorials.

Guests can try on Gryffindor robes in the house's cosy common room.

The smoking green cauldron in the potions room.

'Harry Potter' merchandise is on sale.

The Harry Potter: Celebrate Hogwarts experience was open during the Dubai Shopping Festival.

Get up-close to a model of Dobby the house elf at the Harry Potter: Celebrate Hogwarts experience at Mall of the Emirates in Dubai.

Catch the Hogwarts Express on Platform 9 3/4.

There are models of Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter.

Experience the magic of Harry Potter for yourself in Abu Dhabi this month at the Celebrate Hogwarts mall pop-up.

Muggles can channel their inner Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin at Abu Dhabi Mall, as the most famous school of witchcraft and wizardry is brought to life with a series of walk-through activations.

Click through the gallery above to see highlights from the Harry Potter: Celebrate Hogwarts in Dubai earlier this year

Marking the back-to-school season and running from September 9 until October 4, the Celebrate Hogwarts experience will feature a recreation of popular settings from the Harry Potter films.

Harry Potter: Celebrate Hogwarts visitors will get the chance to climb Hogwarts's grand staircase, take a seat in the Gryffindor common room and pay Hagrid's hut a visit. There is also a life-sized recreation of the Hogwarts Express train to enjoy and a Forbidden Forest to walk through.

The most fervent of Potterheads will be able to test their knowledge with trivia quizzes on Saturdays and Sundays, and there will be fun games set up throughout the activation.

The experience is free to enter, but certain areas will only be accessible with Activity Passports. Shoppers can exchange Abu Dhabi Mall receipts from that day for passports; for every Dh100 spent, shoppers will receive two passports, and for every Dh200 they will receive up to five. All Abu Dhabi Mall shops are included, except the hypermarket.

The Harry Potter: Celebrate Hogwarts experience first came to the UAE earlier this year with a pop-up exhibition at Mall of the Emirates for the Dubai Shopping Festival. The Abu Dhabi version will have some familiar sets, along with "exciting new activations", according to organisers.

At the Dubai event, shoppers were immediately sorted into their Hogwarts house by the Sorting Hat as they entered, and then they took a seat on a broom for a quick game of Quidditch, tried a spell masterclass and cracked codes in the a potions classroom.

Harry Potter: Celebrate Hogwarts is not the only Hogwarts-themed themed activity coming to the UAE this autumn, as the stage show Potted Potter is set to be shown on October 22 and 23 at the Theatre by QE2.

The performance is a condensed retelling of JK Rowling' seven Harry Potter novels, created by, and starring, Olivier Award nominees Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner. The show features all of the series' most popular Harry Potter characters, with a special appearance from a fire-breathing dragon, a game of Quidditch, comedy costumes, songs and work arounds to bring Hogwarts magic to life.

Harry Potter: Celebrate Hogwarts experience is open from noon-9pm, September 9-October 4; Abu Dhabi Mall; abudhabi-mall.com