July 20, 2007
"Harry Potter Place" Gets Ready for Fans
Earlier this afternoon, we watched Scholastic transform Mercer Street between Prince and Spring Streets in "Harry Potter Place" in anticipation of the 12:01AM release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - early reviews be damned! Not only was the Whomping Willow ready, there were owls (stuffed), messages on the Muggle Message Board, and a copy of the book signed by JK Rowling.
There were also already people on line to buy the book. The first on line are friends 17-year-old Chelsea, dressed as Hermione, and 18-year-old Leah, in a Gryffindor shirt (pictured at top). They traveled from California and had been saving up for a weeklong visit to New York since March - it's a graduation present to themselves! They arrived at Harry Potter Place at 7:30AM this morning armed with food, water, books and hopes that Harry and Ginny do get together. Chelsea's favorite book is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, while Leah's favorite is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
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Third in line was Natalie Jacobsen; we met her mother, who told us Natalie couldn't wait for the publication of the fifth and sixth books, so she wrote her own versions. This trip is Natalie's 18th birthday present.
There are other Harry Potter celebrations: Here's the Barnes & Noble locator for them (the big one is at Union Square, with Jim Dale, who narrates the audio books), and info from Border's. Children's book shop Books of Wonder has a big event, too. We hope all you Muggles waiting on line have fun!
Update: We went to Harry Potter Place, which was teeming with excited fans (young and adult alike) and added some more Harry Potter Place pictures to our slideshow - the Whomping Willow has got a kid! Also: Joe Holmes has a set of beautiful pictures from Harry Potter Place.
Then we stopped by Columbus Circle Borders, which had a Grand Hallows Ball complete with wizard ice sculptures and a Harry Potter Spelling Bee, and as well as some events for little ones - Harry, Harry, Snape (like Duck, Duck, Goose). And the line outside the Barnes & Noble on Broadway and West 66th wrapped around the block.
Wizards at Borders - fellow Time Warner Center business Landmarc was handing out cotton candy to kids
Eager fans at the Columbus Circle Borders
Ice sculptures and talking portraits at Borders
The NY Times' ArtsBeat blog has been covering Harry Potter events around the world.
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Crazy, but how did the line compare to the iPhone lines?
No protesting god-botherers?
S.D., they're less nerdy.
here's another picture of those girls. they were walking around down there around 3 pm...not too many others were.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thousandrobots/860931085/
My favorite Harry Potter book is the ONE WITHOUT THE ANNOYING SLIDESHOW THAT AUTOMATICALLY STARTS WHEN YOU LOAD THE MAIN PAGE.
I just took a walk during my break at work. The line outside Toys R Us in Times Square is a freak show. In a good way.
Who's Harry Potter? Didn't they make a movie or something about him a while back? Is he opening a restaurant in SoHo, or is it a bookstore?
If you are over the age of 15 and like Harry Potter than you should get used to a life where everybody hates your ass. Harry Potter is gay.
Hey, that's me in pic#24!
#3
HA !
Absolute losers. Good lord.
It's ALWAYS white people who are waiting in line, be it Iphone, some bag, or this book.
White people. Tell 'em its the newest something, and they will form a line for it.
alright racist #12; how about when KFC gives out free chicken, dont see any white people in those lines
alright racist #12; how about when KFC gives out free chicken, dont see any white people in those lines
Check out the Starbucks lines on Free Coffee Day. It's White Yuppie Heaven.
#8, you said what i was going to say--those are all the people who forgot to grow up and still wonder why they've got no friends and why they get pushed around more than other people on the trains. weak as sh-t. and i'm white, and i am glad i don't know any white people who were lame enough to get in these lines or iphone lines...at least we're not all f-ing ridiculous.
KFC gave out free Fried Chicken? stop lying.
anything Free in this city, it's mostly whitey on line. I said MOSTLY. You would think if whitey is making so much money, he wouldn't need the free shit.
I bet you there's a picture of whitey on a KFC line for free fried chicken at lunchtime.
I wasnt actually being serious about the free KFC chicken; hell I'd be in line! I was just pointing out the ignorance of #11's comment.
black potter fan
black dude in iphone line
I meant ignorance of #12's comment.
Sorry #11, you're spot on
I was there too! http://community.kaboose.com/blogs/blog/view/20135/