“To Harry Potter, the boy who lived!”
Today, July 31st 2014 is Harry Potter’s 34th birthday. J.K. Rowling turns 49 today. There is also something special about the year 2014 as a few weeks ago commemorated the seven year anniversary of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows being published.
It has been seven years since the last book came out, seven years since the last release party and seven years since I stayed up late into the early hours of the morning, crying in my bed over the death of my favorite characters.
I have a confession to make; I am a die-hard, overly obsessive Potter fan. I have been a performer at one the worlds largest Potter conferences, I am the President of a nationally ranked Potter club at my college and in a few months, I will be hosting a Potter panel at a convention upstate New York.
Ever since Potter “ended” in 2007, the world has wondered what would happen after. Will the fandom die out? Will the magical world cease to exist? Ultimately, what happens when there are no more books and no more movies?
Nothing. Nothing happened. We are alive and thriving just as we were back in 2007. Children are still discovering the stories; movie marathons courtesy of ABC Family are still rampant; and now we have a theme park. We are doing pretty decently if I say so myself.
Naturally there have been losses as Mugglenet, one of the top Potter fan sites, did experience a 50% drop in viewership since the last film came out and the books have yet to crack a best sellers list in years but that is no reason to assume the fandom is dissolving.
But are we falling apart? Not at all. There remains to be so many different ways for fans to interact with the series and this fandom continues to create new ideas to continue this community.
[ new page = Quidditch, WWOHP & LeakyCon ]
Have you heard of Quidditch? If you have read one book from the series or seen a film then chances are you have. How about the International Quidditch Association? The first game of Quidditch was played in 2005 at Middlebury College in Vermont and this April 80 of over 300 teams will be traveling to North Myrtle Beach in South Carolina to compete in the 7th annual Quidditch World Cup. The IQA was founded in 2010 as a non-profit organization dedicated to the rules of the sport while inspiring players to lead active and social lives.
Quidditch, which the IQA describes as, “a co-ed contact sport with a unique mix of elements from rugby, basketball, and dodgeball,” has gone on to have documentaries made about it and was even shown in the Vince Vaughn film The Internship. The IQA is made up of a number of member leagues including US Quidditch, Quidditch Canada, Quidditch Benelux, Belgium Muggle Quidditch, Muggle Quidditch Nederland, QuidditchUK, Australian Quidditch Association, French Quidditch Association and Associazione Italiana Quidditch.
So we have a growing sport. We also have theme parks. Universal Studio’s addition of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter has to be one of their greatest accomplishments ever with the Hogsmeade side in Island of Adventures and the recent opening of Diagon Alley in Universal Studios. Here you can purchase your own custom wand, walk through Hogwarts castle, enjoy a pint of Butterbeer and more. With the parks expansion now fans can ride the Hogwarts Express between parks and buy some jokes from the famous Weasley Wizard Wheezes. Work on the park at Universal Studios Hollywood is currently under way and Japan just opened their park a few weeks ago.
At any point during the year families can transport themselves to the Potter world and pretend for a few days that they all received their Hogwarts letter when they turned 11 making the magic last for a lifetime.
Now I also mentioned that I performed at a Potter conference. For any die-hard fan they know I am talking about LeakyCon, which is currently taking place from July 30-August 3rd in Orlando. The idea sparked in 2007 and in 2009 the first conference was held in Boston, making this the 6th year where hundreds of fans have packed themselves into conference rooms and invaded hotels all over the host city. I remember the looks on guests’ faces that were not staying at the hotel for the conference but for business or vacation. Those poor souls, I truly felt sorry for them.
LeakyCon has grown from just being Potter based though. For some people this is not a problem but in recent years the conference has divulged into a multi-fandom experience yet it remains a celebration for everyone who ever felt they were the only ones to like a certain thing. The schedules are jam-packed for this conference at a price to keep you busy for the entire conference whether it is meet and greets, panel discussions or special performances; it is all there. I am still in contact with a number of people I met when I traveled down to Chicago in 2012 and they are from Ireland!
Plus if you really need to reconnect with Potter, JK Rowling's Pottermore has been a blooming success where you are sorted into your own house, suited for an individual wand and can take Potions classes.
[ new page = The Forever Fandom ]
I could go on for hours (maybe days, months, years) about the incredibleness of this series. Remember there is still Harry Potter Fan Fiction where young writers can create the most incredible stories about their favorite characters and for those of us who remain depressed there are no more books, you can spend hours on these sites. Don’t forget about Wizard Rock! At the Yule Ball charity fundraiser my club hosts every year we love to blast the music inspired from the series by funky band names such as Harry and the Potters, Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls and the Ministry of Magic. Seriously, musicians have made a career out of writing songs about Potter! How cool is that?!
This fandom is surrounded by so many opportunities to continue its love and growth that we will never die, at least for a long time. Consider how long Star Trek has been around and to this day you still find fans displaying their love proudly – if they are still kicking, so can we! Same goes for Doctor Who because hey, that fandom is 50 years old!
In preparation of writing this piece, I asked friends on Facebook to tell my why they feel the fandom is not going anywhere and I was marveled by the responses. One girl, Nadia Mulvihill said, “The Harry Potter fandom is not going anywhere because it transcends age. It's family friendly and accessible for all reading levels, and the implied adult themes keep adults creating both humor and scholarly material. The members of the fandom are welcoming to newcomers, speak 60+ languages, and have an unwavering pride in the record-breaking, household name nature of all things Potter. The books' impact on literature is undeniable, and it will continue to be The Series that Lived.”
Another fan Odie Mabry wrote, “We might not have wands in our pockets but we believe there's a little magic in each of us. It gave me the confidence to be who I am and be proud of it, that's something I'll never forget.”
[ new page = Potter is good for you ]
Besides the fandom being chock full of wonderful opportunity for expression, the series is also good for you. A paper in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology says that people who read the Potter series are less prejudiced. In addition, those who side with Harry learned empathy from his story.
As if you need any more convincing, last week was MTV’s first ever Fandom Awards. After going up against Sherlock, Doctor Who, Lord of the Rings, Buffy and Batman, the series won the ‘Best Fandom Forever Award’.
There’s a statistic that every 30 seconds, someone in the world starts reading a Harry Potter book. I really hope it’s true because it is the story that keeps on giving and continues to stem inspiration. That is a truly wonderful thing and I look forward to reading the tale of the young boy who was hidden in the cupboard under the stairs, his adventures with his two best friends and how he took down the darkest wizard of all time.
Or as a close friend of mine, Shanta Best, told me, “’Cause ‘always’.”
P.S. Did I mention we are getting new Potter movies? See you in 2016!