9 years ago today, millions of Harry Potter fans around the globe were diving into (what was believed to be) the final Harry Potter story. And funnily enough, on today’s anniversary nearly a decade later, we’re 9 days away from attending Cursed Child midnight release parties.
“Time is a flat circle,” in the words of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Indeed, 2016 is a year of rebirth for the Harry Potter fandom. Though in 2007 and 2011 we thought we were at the end of the Harry Potter book and film series, the circle of life is about to deliver us new J.K. Rowling / Wizarding World stories in the days, months, and years ahead.
Midnight release parties are an important aspect of any Wizarding World release. Before the Harry Potter books, midnight release parties for novels were unheard of, so it comes as no surprise that there are plenty of Cursed Child events to attend in exactly 9 days.
In light of the Deathly Hallows anniversary and the imminent release of The Cursed Child, I thought now would be a great time for all of us to share our Harry Potter 7 midnight release party experiences.
I was in London with several of my MuggleNet and MuggleCast friends for a midnight release party we were co-hosting at Waterstones Picadilly, the biggest bookstore in the U.K. We hosted a live episode of MuggleCast in the hours leading up to midnight, and then attended a party on the top floor of the bookstore where they had copies of Deathly Hallows stored in a treasure chest.
With alcoholic beverages readily available, many of us enjoyed some libations while counting down to midnight. One of us — I won’t name names — may’ve broken down in tears as the alcohol mixed with the thought of Harry Potter coming to an end. “I love you all so much,” he told us. It was a feeling every Harry Potter fan was experiencing whether they were buzzed or not: This chapter of our life was coming to a close.
Once midnight struck and the books started coming out of the treasure chest, we went back to our hotel room and started reading. Some of us fell asleep while others stayed up throughout the night to read. Laura and I were two of those people who couldn’t resist sleeping for a while:
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After we all finally finished — at some point late in the morning or early afternoon — we hopped on Ustream to give our thoughts live. Episode 101 of MuggleCast, with our initial reactions to Deathly Hallows, ended up being our most downloaded episode of the podcast ever with over 500,000 downloads.
Now here we are, 9 years later, all looking forward to The Cursed Child. We will celebrate again at midnight. We will podcast again to discuss the story at great length. And we will all look forward to a new Wizarding World movie coming out later in the year.
Time is a flat circle!