Block Party Planned for Harry Potter 7 Release at Scholastic Headquarters in NYC

There are only a few weeks left and fans across the globe are counting down and searching for the best parties around to join together and celebrate. Do you know where you will be when the seventh and final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is released at 12:01 AM on July 21, 2007? Well if you live in the New York City Metro area, you will want to come to Soho that night, because U.S. publisher of the Potter books, Scholastic, will be taking the countdown and celebration to the streets!

Well, one street specifically. Scholastic's "Harry Potter Place" will be located in the fashionable neighborhood of Soho, right outside their headquarters, on Mercer Street between Prince and Spring Street. At 8:00 am, a press conference will herald the arrival of the first, author-signed U.S. edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It will not be open to the public, but starting at 9:00am, the Scholastic Store will be open and taking pre-purchases of the book, for fans to claim their copy at the celebration after the countdown at midnight. While they are there, they can wander over to Scholastic's Knight Bus, a replica of the "violently purple" triple-decker bus from the books which has been touring America for the last seven weeks. The bus will arrive for the press conference and stay parked in front of Scholastic at 557 Broadway until 6:00 pm that evening. Starting at 10:00 am, the bus will be open to fans, who will be able to create a 20-second video divulging their best theories and ideas about the books. They will then receive a password to view their own videos on Scholastic's Harry Potter website.

The street celebration officially opens to the public at 5:00 pm and boasts all kinds of magical activities and entertainment. According to a news release posted last week on Scholastic's website, a twenty-foot tall moving Whomping Willow tree will be on the scene, as will stilt-walkers, jugglers, fire-eaters, magicians and face-painters. Fans will have the opportunity to express themselves when they make their own wands, post personal messages on a special giant Muggle Board and have commemorative pictures taken with the cover-art in the Deathly Hallows Gallery. All the while, a giant Countdown Clock will be ticking away the minutes until they can finally get out hands on their copies of the highly anticipated book.

There is nothing like a big block party full of ravenous fellow Potter fans to build excitement and celebrate this kind of landmark in literature! This is the event many fans have been anticipating for years and being amongst this kind of energy alone, should make the "Harry Potter Place" one of the hottest places to be for this release. Of course, nothing will be able to top the excitement of the train, bus or car rides home. This July 21st is bound to be an international all-nighter, as most Harry Potter fans will head home to settle in for the marathon of reading that will keep them up, turning the pages until the very end.