The release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a solid five months away, but bookstores are already putting together plans for midnight release parties.
First, a brief catch up: On February 10 J.K. Rowling announced that the script for The Cursed Child stage play primarily following Harry and his son Albus Severus would be published in book form on July 31, 2016. It’s fantastic news for the large, large majority of fans who won’t be able to see the play, officially billed as “the eighth story,” live in London this summer.
This is the first time since 2007 that a new Harry Potter book (or story, or whatever you want to call it) will be hitting store shelves. It’s been nine years. Nine freaking years since this happened:
So of course Harry Potter fans want to celebrate the release of The Cursed Child by partying like it’s the early 2000s!
Hypable has been polling readers to see if they’ve heard any early murmurs concerning midnight release events, and so far the results are encouraging. We’ve also heard from a few bookstores who’ve confirmed they’re planning parties.
Books-A-Million, the second largest bookstore chain in the United States, tells Hypable they’re already ON IT
@whimsium @MuggleCast We're putting together our plans and we'll announce them on here once we're ready!
— Books-A-Million (@booksamillion) February 11, 2016
A spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble, the biggest bookstore chain in the U.S., confirms to Hypable that they have ‘major’ plans for Harry in 2016
Their statement:
Barnes & Noble has major plans for Harry Potter this year and we’re working closely with the publisher, Scholastic, but have nothing to share just yet. To all the Harry Potter fans out there we’re saying watch this space for some exciting announcements!
In addition, one of our readers who is a B&N employee told us that her particular store is working on a ‘Cursed Child’ event (but cautions that there’ve been no messages from corporate — yet):
@MuggleCast I work at a B&N and we're already planning a midnight release party. It's the end of our Get Pop Cultured month so it'll be big!
— Aubrey Leigh (@AubreyLeigh2010) February 11, 2016
@MuggleCast Sure! To be clear, we have no directives from corporate yet, this is just our store getting a jump on things.
— Aubrey Leigh (@AubreyLeigh2010) February 11, 2016
Finally, Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley, Massachusetts tells us…
@MuggleCast midnight release party in the works with HP trivia, games, costumes, munchies, and the most excited @odysseybks employees
— Odyssey Bookshop (@odysseybks) February 11, 2016
And we’re sure more local booksellers will follow!
We’ll be keeping a close eye on Cursed Child midnight release party news to make sure you hear about events in your area.
Whether you’re a bookseller or a fan, you have to keep this in mind: who knows if or when this kind of opportunity will come up again? We can’t let this moment slip by!
Just to be safe, it may be a wise idea to pre-order the book now through Barnes & Noble or Amazon.