Count us bummed. This writer has been vocal on MuggleCast, at the Harry Potter fandom panel at Comic-Con, and on this very site about his hope for Casual Vacancy midnight release parties.

The publisher confirmed today that the book will not go on sale at midnight, therefore nixing the possibility of parties.

The official on-sale date is Thursday, September 27 at 8 AM GMT. That’s 3 AM ET, 12 AM PT.

Therefore, the only book stores that could legally host midnight release parties would be those in the Pacific time zone. There’s still hope for this writer.

Below are the results from the poll we hosted back in February:

Thanks to Pottermore Owl who first reported the story. We went on to independently confirm with Little, Brown.