Harry Potter conference to bewitch fans in 2005
November 26, 2003 at 10:57 AM ET
Cheeser
HPANA (via HP Education Fanon)
The operators of Nimbus - 2003, the first Harry Potter fan convention, have announced plans for a 2005 conference to be held in Massachusetts next October:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 25, 2003
The Witching Hour to take place in Salem, Massachusetts
SALEM, MA - The Witching Hour
, the follow-up to the successful HP Education Fanon, Inc. (HPEF)-sponsored Nimbus - 2003: A Harry Potter Symposium, will commence on October 6, 2005 in Salem, Massachusetts.
"We chose a place where our attendees could reflect on the recurring themes of ambiguity, choice, darkness, and tolerance as expressed in the Harry Potter books," says Amy Tenbrink, one of the three lead event planners for The Witching Hour team. "Salem is a progressive town that has embraced a controversial past, and has drawn strength from it."
Indeed, as J.K. Rowling has said, "I knew [the books] would get darker. The story is about a world that's getting darker."
Programming includes a full slate of academic presentations, panels and workshops, as well as Quidditch, music, and a fall festival event. Conference organizers, whose professional lives correspond with the roles they are undertaking for The Witching Hour, are projecting hundreds of attendees, as well as many additional visitors to the related installations and exhibitions around town.
Public Relations Chair Dionne Williford is optimistic about the event. "There was a tremendous amount of interest generated by Nimbus - 2003, and we're certain that once people see what an outstanding conference we have planned, they'll decide to come learn with us, play with us, and stay for a spell."
HPEF is a non-profit organization whose primary mission is to provide educational symposia on J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels for fans, as well as scholars of the novels. HPEF's first event, Nimbus - 2003, took place in Orlando, Florida July 17 - 20, 2003; six hundred attendees enjoyed presentations by over eighty speakers, including Judith Krug, director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association.
For further information, please visit The Witching Hour's Yahoo! Group or its soon-to-be-up website.
This symposium is an unofficial event, and is not endorsed by Warner Bros., the Harry Potter book publishers or J.K. Rowling and her representatives.