Saturday night at 11 p.m., more than 100 eager Harry Potter fans gathered in Shelburne Town Hall for the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. What I loved about this event was the age range of the participants. We had kids as young as six (who were up far past their bedtime) to folks in college. The college students were the most excited as they were the ones who grew up having to wait patiently as new Harry Potter books were published. They recaptured some of their childhood joy at the midnight party. Were the crowds as crushingly large for this event as for book seven? No, not by a long shot, but the Town Hall was full of eager readers wanting to spend more time with their friends from Hogwarts.
We greeted party goers with fancy lights.
I arrived at Town Hall at 9 p.m. ready to help set up after attending an event for the Pride Center of Vermont where I was manning a booth at Brewers Festival giving out condoms and talking about healthy sexuality. To say that this was a massive shift of gears is an understatement, but I once I saw the lights on the steps of Town Hall I got right in the spirit of things. We had several different stations set up throughout the hall. A snack table, an activity table, potions and divinations. Elizabeth also created an amazing photo booth that was the hit of the party. In all, it was a fabulous night.
E’s poster. Note a little wording change from the original poster, to make it gender-neutral for all young’uns.
A jelly bean station, with eye ball cupcakes!
Please excuse the sideways orientation. Elizabeth created these Hogwarts acceptance letters with sealing wax and strung them from fishing line in clusters, ‘flying’ around the event space.
Some parents were up far past their bedtimes.
Others were just a little cranky at the wait till midnight.
Patiently waiting for midnight.
Sandy was amazing at Divinations.
Me, explaining how my potion went from blue to pink to foaming.
I think this photo sums up the magic, mystery and joy of a Harry Potter release party.
One of my favorite parts of midnight release parties is the next day when kids come back to the store to talk about the book they stayed up all night reading. I tried, and failed, to stay up to read the book, so I covered my ears as they talked to David, our college-age staffer, who did stay up to read. To have the store full of customers going over the finer plot points of the book was music to my ears.
What a wonderful post to read on the (blessedly) rainy morning in this crazy political time! I’m now full of smiles!