Harry Potter and The Cursed Child Naperville Book Release Party: All About That Wizarding Life By: JP hardboiled Accio didn’t summon Butterbeers to my outstretched hand, and wingardium leviosadidn’t help either.So I'm just a muggle in a wizards’ world. But nonetheless Naperville’s midnight Harry Potter and The Cursed Child book release was magical. Bippity boppity hippity hoppity boo. It was a great time for muggles, that’s normal people, and wizards alike. The Party That Shall Not Be Named book release event was really great for families with a lot of children’s activities.
It was a festive time with fans walking the streets like the Tri-Wizard Tournament or Quidditch World Cup brought to life, and cosplayers dressing as Harry Potter characters really made the experience memorable. There were a few Hagrids, a creepy Dobby, Hogwarts wizarding professors, and lots of people in Gryffindor robes. It adds to the other worldly atmosphere anywhere when people cosplay, and this event wasn’t any different. I've read all the books, marked up and highlighted the great parts and dog eared them since I'm a fiction writer myself, and saw all the movies. You pick up on the details when you know the creative world more, which makes it a memorable time. The library had a program that was laid out like the Marauder's Map that actually folded out. That was probably my favorite thing from that night.
Naperville actually shut down Jefferson Street, which is the main street running through Naperville’s historic downtown. People walked down the streets and into the shops like a wizard might in Diagon Alley with stores staying open late. The stores also had Harry Potter themes. You could get sorted into a house by The Sorting Hat near one store. TheSnap Kitchen became Severus Snape’s Kitchen for the night. If you wanted you could jump on trolleys to get places just like in the wizarding world, and the originators of this event had a great setup.Anderson's Bookstore had their windows setup with picture frames like Hogwart's portraits. They had people dressed up as Harry Potter, Bellatrix Lestrange, and other wizards in the frames acting and moving about like in the wizard portraits in Hogwarts. The library had a Harry Potter movie marathon for those stopping in for a second to reminisce and several events.Kids partook in a wizarding training camp, made Harry Potter Buttons, drew with glue sticks, made their own wands, and took Harry Potter themed pictures. Also, a main stage was prominently placed in the street. There were owl handlers, bagpipers, dancers, and other events on stage.
I have to really take my muggle hat off to Naperville. They are beyond amazing for putting in the time, effort, and dedication coming together to put on this event. I suppose the do it yourself spirit that helped them build their fantastic river walk as a community without the government is still alive and well. And as usual when people create something themselves versus hoping the government does it all for them, it works for something greater and accomplishes far more than a huge bureaucracy can. In this case it promotes literacy and creativity. Also, the book Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is actually a script so I’m sure a lot of people are going to learn a little bit about screen writing, acting, and performing along the read.It's something new for people to learn and discover.
This wasn’t Naperville’s first time doing a Harry Potter themed event, and it’s such a hit with families they should really consider doing a fest every year even if there are no book releases as I’m sure Harry Potter fans and the soon to be fans of every type would love that. Forget thug life. Wizarding life is where it's at.There's some hip hop originator named Grand Wizard Theodore so maybe I'll call myself Grand Wizard Hardboiled. I like the sound of that. Now if only I can get a spell to do DJ scratches on a turntable without me actually touching it. I'd even settle for making a turntable float with wingardium leviosa.
