The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter

I was not feeling at all sentimental on my first visit to the Wizarding World Of Harry Potter theme park in Orlando, Florida. I say first visit, because I had purchased four day pass to the park and ended up visiting several times during and after Leaky Con. On the day in question it was 7 am, I was still tired from dancing at a wizard rock concert until very late the previous night, and I was on a mission. I was attempting to beat the crowds to the 'Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey' ride, buy some merchandise and still make it back to conference for an event that started at 9 am.

All my well thought out plans of hot-footing it straight to the ride went to hell as soon as I rounded a corner, found myself standing in the main street of Hogsmeade and saw Hogwarts castle looming in the distance. By the time I heard the theme music from the Harry Potter movies playing I was a blubbering mess. I had expected to like the theme park a lot. I had not expected it to be such an immersive experience that it moved me to tears...but it did.

What really amazed me about the Wizarding World Of Harry Potter was not that they had managed to build the complete village of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts castle, but rather that they had managed to make you completely forget that you were in a theme park. The excellent architectural design of the buildings in the village meant that you couldn't see any of the other roller coasters from the Universal Islands of Adventure theme park that you knew were only a few hundred metres away. The quality of the design was astounding and I realised why Jo Rowling had only given permission for the park to go ahead if Stuart Craig (the production designer for the Harry Potter movies) was directly involved.

All of the details, from the steam billowing from the Hogwarts Express to the moving illustrations on the covers of the books in the window of Flourish and Blotts, were perfect. A trip to the ladies toilets included listening to the laments of Moaning Myrtle and the Hogsmeade Post Office was located right next door to a large owlery - to ensure that there were always enough owls to handle the large volume of mail that was sent from this part of Florida. In Ollivanders you could see that the wand did indeed choose the wizard and everything from Pigmy Puffs to Fanged Frisbees could be purchased from Zonko's. In Honeydukes the wooden shelves groaned under the weight of Ton Tongue Toffees, Every Flavour Beans, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands and Lemon Sherbets. The enormous Chocolate Frogs came in ornamental boxes complete with wizard trading cards.

The three rides in the park cater to thrill seekers, children as well as hard core fans of the books. The Dragon Challenge ride, based on the Triwizard Tournament, was the one for the thrill seekers as it involved two "dragon" roller coasters twisting, looping and climbing around each other at alarming speeds. I usually avoid roller coasters like the plague (due to a debilitating medical condition I suffer from called "scardycatitis"). However there was no way I was going to miss out on any experience at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter - so it was with some trepidation that I joined the queue and boarded the Chinese Fireball roller coaster.

I noticed in the queue that many people were holding onto their thongs to avoid having them fly off during the ride. I decided that I could just grip my thongs hard with my toes and, as it turned out, I had no problem holding onto my thongs. As we flew down the first heart-stopping drop everyone was screaming. But no one was screaming louder than me as my glasses flew right off my face!! I got a hand to them just before I completely lost them and spent the next two minutes fighting off both intense nausea as well as centrifugal forces as I struggled to keep one hand clamped to my face as we repeatedly hurtled upside down.

Luckily my glasses and I made it through the ordeal and I decided that the much tamer Flight of the Hippogriffride might be more my speed. Set around Hagrid's Hut and the Forbidden Forest, the child friendly ride gave me time to settle my stomach as I took in lovely views of Hogwarts Castle.

The real marquee attraction of the theme park is the 'Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey' ride as it caters to both thrill seekers and hard core book fans. For book fans the queue for this ride is just as much of a drawcard as the ride itself. The ride is part virtual reality/part live action and is set in and around Hogwarts castle. While queuing for the ride, fans get to take in the many rooms of Hogwarts castle, including a portrait gallery where the moving portraits of the four founders of Hogwarts engage in a heated debate about which house has the best quidditch team. Highlights of the queue for me included:

*Wandering through the herbology greenhouses.

*Walking past knights as well as a statue commemorating the architect of Hogwarts in the stone corridors of the castle.

*Getting to hear from Dumbledore and see the interior of his office. In various rooms, characters from the movies appeared and spoke to you. The technology involved is so good that, although you know that the designers have used some kind of projection, you would swear that the characters were right in front of you. Similarly the moving portraits did not look like screens, but rather real moving oil paintings.

*Getting to hear from the Fat Lady as I entered Gryffindor common room.

*Getting advice from the sorting hat.

*Visiting the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom and then getting invited to a quidditch match by Ron, Hermoine and Harry.

The premise of the ride itself is that Hermoine has enchanted a cupboard we are in to fly and we are following Harry and Ron (who are on broomsticks) in and around Hogwarts castle to the quidditch pitch. On the way we encounter giant spiders and get chased by a dragon as we hurtle up and around the towers of Hogwarts. The technology in the ride is gob-smakingly amazing, and it is such an immersive experience, that you really do feel like you are flying around Hogwarts at break neck speeds. I came dangerously close to throwing up several times on the ride, but it was worth walking back to the hotel covered in vomit (thankfully it didn't come to that) to get to experience Hogwarts in that way.

One of the ways that the creators of the park have succeeded in getting you to completely forget you are in a theme park is the catering on offer. You cannot purchase any food or drink in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter that is not either mentioned in the books, or traditional English fare. That means that there is no Coke or Pepsi on offer and patrons must instead purchase Butterbeer, Pumpkin juice, water or cider to quench their thirsts.

I was particularly keen to try the butterbeer and I now understand why the Weasley twins repeatedly stole bottles of it from the kitchens of Hogwarts. It is full of butterscotchy goodness and is topped by deliciously creamy froth that is enchanted (or chemically enhanced) not to go flat. The only concession to the Florida heat they have made is to also offer frozen butterbeer. This is like a butterscotchy slushy and also comes with the trademark froth. The pumpkin juice has a similar taste and consistency to mulled wine and whilst delicious, was not all that refreshing in the Florida heat.

My last visit to the theme park occurred on the day after Leaky Con had ended. After buying still more merchandise, I headed to The Three Broomsticks pub for lunch. Who knew that cornish pasties would taste even better when accompanied by frozen butterbeer? I sat in the Three Broomsticks for a couple of hours, drinking butterbeer and reading John Granger's thoeries on the links between the Potter saga and 17th century Florentine history. It was, quite simply, a perfect day.

Leaky Con 2011

I have to start this post with a spoiler alert. If you have yet to read all seven of the Harry Potter novels (and no, watching all the movies does not count) please do not read beyond this paragraph. In this post I will be mentioning key plot points from the series and I would hate to ruin the wonderful "what happens next" feeling for anyone who has yet to read the Harry Potter saga for the first time.

The opening festivities of Leaky Con 2001 saw all 3000 conference attendees gathering for a multi media presentation on the Main Stage. We were welcomed by Melissa Anelli and before the presentation even started she announced that one lucky fan had been randomly selected to come up on stage to be part of the show. As the lucky winner bounded excitedly to the stage, her boyfriend stepped out from backstage and proceeded to propose to her.

Needless to say the overly excited, 85% female, crowd went crazy when she accepted the proposal and the room seemed to swell with joy as the official presentation began. A film documenting highlights from the last 15 years of the Harry Potter fandom was punctuated with live performances from the first ever wizard rock band, Harry and the Potters, Vlogbrother Hank Green and YouTube sensations the Potter Puppet Pals and Team Starkid. The live performances were so good that I started getting giddy when I thought about how awesome the next few days were going to be.

The only downside of Leaky Con was that, unless you were fortunate enough to posses your own time turner, you could only access a quarter of the total programming on offer. This was because everyday from 9 am until 6 pm there were at least 3 different lectures, discussions or activities programmed for each hour. As if this wasn't enough, there was also always some performance/event going on at the main stage for every hour of the day. Add to this the lure of the vendor room (which was filled with excellent fan created Harry Potter merchandise for sale) and you can begin to understand why Sarah and I didn't have time to eat during the first day!

Some Leaky Con discussions/events that I missed out on but would have attended if I owned a functioning time turner included:

*What imprinting, attachment, learning and magic teach us about survival in Harry Potter

*Jeopardy: Harry Potter and the Law

*Family Dynamics in the Harry Potter novels

*The books vs the movies: What was left out and why its important

*A writer's guide to Harry Potter

*Growing up Potter and the effects on the English classroom

*Casting your Patronus: The representation of mental processes in Harry Potter novels

*Twelve fail-safe ways to charm witches: Lessons from Ron's success with Hermoine

*Dance Against the Dark Arts: Exploring Harry Potter's world through dance

*Racism and Slavery in the Wizarding World

*Rowling's not so flawed plan: The elder wand as a symbol of masculine power and the importance of love between its masters

*That's how we do it in Gryffindor, bitches: Sorting in the Harry Potter fandom

*International Quidditch Association Demo Match. Universities in the USA have quidditch teams that regularly play against each other. In the muggle version there is no flying involved but it is very physical (one player lost a tooth in the demo match). The snitch is an actual person who gets a minute head start to run off and hide before the seekers can start looking for him/her.

There was so much going on that by day 3 of the conference attendees stopped asking each other "What has been your favourite part of Leaky Con so far?" and started getting more specific "What was your favourite part of Friday morning?".

Some of my favourite Leaky Con 2011 experiences were...

*Attending the "Why Fred?" discussion where I was able to talk to other fans about the great juxtaposition of comedy and tragedy that was created by the death of Fred Weasley in book 7.

*Being part of a 3000 person singalong of songs from "A Very Potter Musical" at the Team Starkid event.

*Hearing Evanna Lynch, a huge Harry Potter fan and the actress who plays Luna Lovegood in the movies, talk about the transition of book to film.

*Being there for live recordings of Leaky Mug and Pottercast.

*Getting to meet and talk to the hosts of Pottercast, the Harry Potter podcast I have been listening to for the last 3 years, and thanking them for the hundreds of hours of entertainment they have provided me with on my daily commutes to work.

*Hearing more about the fabulous work of the Harry Potter Alliance. HPA uses the Harry Potter saga to raise awareness of human rights issues amongst young people and through its fundraising efforts empowers young people to see how their efforts can result in real change in the world. HPA currently has over 100,000 members around the world and in 2010 raised $123,000 to send five plane loads of supplies for Partners in Health to Haiti.

*Seeing Deathly Hallows (Part 2) with a cinema full of serious Potter fans.

*Spending the next 3 days tearing apart the movie with serious Potter fans.

*Seeing the wonderful fan created "Final Battle" musical (which was rehearsed solely over skype!).

*Being part of a huge Nerdfighter gathering and getting to be in the opening of one of Hank Green's Vlogbrother videos.

*Hearing two amazing lectures from John Granger: "Writing In Circles - Harry Potter and the magic of ring composition" & "Harry Potter and the Metaphysical Center - A 'Theory of Everything' to Tie Together the Artistry and Meaning Driving Potter-Mania".

I think it is fair to say that, even amongst hard core Harry Potter fans, John Granger is considered to be a serious book nerd. His detailed analysis and expertise in unravelling the genius of J.K Rowling's work never ceases to impress me. As well as having my mind blown by his new thesis (the importance of ring composition in the Potter saga) I also bought a couple of his books and got to chat to him while he signed them for me! This was one of many so-good-I-must-be-dreaming-but-if-I-am-please-don't-wake-me nerd moments that I experienced at Leaky Con.

*A highlight amongst a week of highlights was getting a sneaky early peek at Pottermore, J.K Rowling's new online reading experience. We found out how we will be sorted as well as some of the layout and features of the site. Jo (another great thing about Leaky Con was that when you said "Jo" no one asked "Jo who?") had long ago discussed creating an encyclopedia of all things Potter that would include copious backstories of characters and subplots that never made it into the actual published saga. I was initially disappointed when I heard about Pottermore, as I suspected that the new site would take the place of the promised encyclopedia. I still think it is highly unlikely that the encyclopedia will be published, but I no longer care as even the tiny glimpse we got into Pottermore showed that it will be far superior to any mere encyclopedia.

I don't think the bloke from Pottermore quite knew what he was in for when he showed up to present to a room packed with 3000 serious Potter fans. At one point, to demonstrate what the layout would look like, he flashed a page with the backstory of Professor McGonagall onto the enormous screen. Three thousand people gasped, leant forward and began speed reading in unison. The presenter started to talk and 3000 people did not take their eyes off the screen as they rose in a single voice to "shush" him. This happened twice more before he had to turn off the screen to get our attention back to him.

*Dancing the night away at the Esther Earl Rocking Charity Ball - and the hilarity of having to go back to my room to get my passport so that I could purchase alcohol because the bartenders didn't believe me when I insisted I was over 21 (eleven years over 21!).

*The Wizard Rock concerts were the times I felt most connected to the extraordinary community that is the Harry Potter fandom. It was only at Leaky Con that a few thousand people could be singing along with Harry and the Potters as we swore to "Save Ginny Weasley from the basilisk" and not worry that we were weird for rocking out to a song about a book.

The leaving feast on the final morning of Leaky Con 2011 was a lovely way to end a hectic few days. It was announced at the leaving feast that, in addition to being loads of fun, Leaky Con 2011 had managed to raise over $120,000 for charity. I was completely exhausted but still shared the sentiment of all present: I really didn't want the conference to end. The ballroom was filled with large round tables and constant chatter as we all filled up on the breakfast buffet. In true Leaky Con style, I managed to make new friends in the last few hours of the conference. It didn't seem fair that we were still in the middle of excellent conversations as we were being ushered out of the building.

Still, when I think of Leaky Con the lasting memory is not the sadness of saying goodbye to Sarah.

For me, the lasting memory Leaky Con 2011 was how I felt singing along with Hank Green, and a few thousand of my new friends, to "Accio Deathly Hallows" at one of the Wizard Rock concerts. Madly jumping up and down, I saw wands raised in the air above the mosh pit and realised that what I was experiencing was not just happiness...but rather pure, unbridled joy.

P.S. For those of you waiting for information on the 'Wizarding World Of Harry Potter' theme park, fear not. The theme park will get its own post, and that is coming up next :-)

Nerd Nirvana

I've copped a fair bit of stick over the years for my love of all things related to Harry Potter. But this was nothing compared with the outright sniggers that met my declaration that during my year off work I would travel to Orlando Florida to spend 5 days at a Harry Potter fan conference.

"Do you have to dress up?"

"Aren't you a bit old to like Harry Potter?"

"Won't it just be a big gathering of nerds?"

My answers to these questions from my friends were:

"Not unless you want to"

"Absolutely not" and

"Of course! But what's wrong with that?"

The subtext of the third question is something that has interested me for quite a while. The idea that any "normal" person would not want to associate themselves with an activity that is considered to be "nerdy" is a popular one in our culture. To those who like to think of themselves as too cool to be called a nerd, I'd like to share author (and Vlogbrother) John Green's ideas on the matter. He said that, essentially, to be a nerd is just to be really, really openly enthusiastic about something.

When you think of "nerd" as a synonym for "enthusiast" it seems like most people are a nerd of some variety or another. And thank goodness they are, because what a mind numbingly boring existence it would be if there was no enthusiasm in the world. I know people who are music nerds, theatre nerds, computer nerds (geeks), Australian poetry nerds, vintage car nerds, craft nerds, rock climbing nerds, film nerds, scrapbooking nerds, political nerds, surfing nerds, gardening nerds, rugby league nerds, photography nerds and (of course!) book nerds.

So what was this crazy Harry Potter conference called Leaky Con anyway?

When I said I was going to attend a Harry Potter conference, many people wondered why it wasn't in the UK. The simple fact is that no other country in the world can match the USA for boundless enthusiasm. Before Leaky Con 2011, there had already been 10 Harry Potter conferences in the USA dating back to Nimbus in 2003.

In 2009 my favourite Harry Potter fan website, 'The Leaky Cauldron', decided to run its own conference in Boston. I have been listening to the weekly podcasts from the Leaky Cauldron, appropriately named Pottercast, since 2008. I desperately wanted to go - but no money and the fact that I'd just started a new job kept me from attending. After seeing videos online and listening to podcasts about the first Leaky Con, I was devastated. It sounded like an amazing celebration and I really felt I had missed the best Harry Potter conference that had ever been run. Then a miracle occurred....

The Leaky Cauldron announced that it would be running another fan conference in 2011. Leaky Con 2011 would be held right next door to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park in Orlando and it would be held on the weekend that the final film was coming out. It was like the stars had aligned. I didn't know where I would be traveling during the rest of 2011, but from 2009 I knew that I would spend the middle of July 2011 in Florida.

Since they announced Leaky Con 2011, the organisers had been slowly releasing more and more details about the conference. My excitement was growing exponentially with each new detail. Every great wizard rock band was going to be performing, the Potter Puppet Pals were going to be there, Team Starkid were going to be there, The vlogbrothers were going to be there, John Granger was going to be lecturing, there would be a special Pottermore presentation AND.... Just when it couldn't get any better for a book nerd..... The organisers announced that on the day before Leaky Con started they would be running a young adult fiction literary festival called Lit Day!!!!

As I hopped into a minibus that would take me from Orlando airport to the Royal Pacific Resort on Tuesday the 12th of July, I was quite nervous. In some ways two years of build up was too much. I decided that Leaky Con couldn't possible live up to my expectations and was just talking myself into trying to enjoy whatever the week held instore for me when I saw them. Two young women were boarding the minibus and they were wearing T-shirts that said 'Dumbledore's Army'.

"Um... Are you guys going to Leaky Con?" I asked

"YES! ARE YOU?"

Then others joined in our excited conversation and we soon realised that 10 of the 12 people on the bus were in Orlando just for Leaky Con. Within seconds we were all yabbering away about what we were most looking forward to, our favourite podcasts, our fears for how they would butcher the last movie and when we saw Hogwarts Castle in the distance... all hell broke loose. It was then that my worries melted away and I began to suspect that Leaky Con may just meet my expectations after all.

There were some ticketing issues at the start of Lit Day but the long queues gave me time to meet more Harry Potter fans, so I wasn't all that worried. I'd always rather suspected that it wasn't possible to be a serious fan of the Harry Potter books and not be a good person - and every single person I chatted to in those lines confirmed my theory. There were teenagers attending with parent chaperones, many college students, a lot of people in their twenties and some older fans such as myself. I know it sounds like a cliche but at Leaky Con age, looks, nationality - none of it mattered in the face of a shared devotion to all things Potter. Leaky Con was my Mecca.

I love a literature festival (surprise!) and Lit Day was exceptional. Wonderful, hilarious authors talking about characterisation, plotting as well as the ins and outs of the editing and publishing process. In one of the panel discussions the authors were discussing their favourite novels and as they mentioned titles such as The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye and Pride and Prejudice the thousand or so people in the audience cheered loudly for their own favourite title. It was a bit like Superbowl for book nerds.

Early on Lit Day I had the very good fortune of sitting down next to a lovely Potter fan from Scotland. Sarah and I had both travelled great distances on our own to attend and soon realised that we had much in common. The highlight of Lit Day for me, apart from meeting the wonderful Sarah, was attending a discussion called "I was a teenage author". In this panel authors such as John Green, Stephanie Perkins and David Levithan read out some of their own teenage writing....and it was more hilarious than any stand up comedy performance I have ever attended.

Lit Day ended with a keynote speech from Arthur Levine, the american publisher of the Harry Potter novels at Scholastic, and then a cocktail party where I got to discuss plotting and character development with David Levithan! I was in total nerd nirvana and Leaky Con had not even officially started yet.