Arts & Entertainment

Harry Potter Party-Hopping

By Ms. Day 

All right, all you non-Harry Potter fans: Stop reading this Night & Day item right now. There’s no sense in you continuing on and then cursing Ms. Day for writing about her love for the HP, and how she knows that Dumbledore isn’t dead, and how she’s going to stay up all night tonight to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows so no one can ruin anything for her, and how she can’t stop visiting www.hp-lexicon.org for all of her technical Harry queries, and did Day mention that she loves Harry Potter? Ahem. Now that we’ve covered all that, it’s time to plan out tonight’s itinerary. The fans out there already know there are nearly too many celebrations to count this evening, but Ms. Day will try to give you an outline. For more information on any of these events, visit the appropriate Web site.

Let’s start with the Left Bank Books Street Festival, happening from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. along North Euclid Avenue from McPherson Avenue to Maryland Avenue (314-367-6731 or www.left-bank.com). Here, there’s a raffle (you can win a sorting hat!), real butterbeer, a potions class, a costume contest for all ages and more!

The Book House (9719 Manchester Road, Rock Hill; 314-968-4491 or www.bookhousestl.com) also gets in on the action with an all-ages celebration beginning at 8 p.m. At this haunted book shop, you can see some magic, have a caricature drawn of yourself (maybe playing Quidditch?), win raffle prizes, help out Second Chapter (a local children’s charity -- this party has heart!) and then some.

But, of course, Ms. Day can’t forget about the libraries. Though the ten participating branches of the St. Louis County Library (314-994-3300 or www.slcl.org) aren’t selling any books, kids ages eight to sixteen can party down in costume, make crafts and enjoy treats from 7 to 10 p.m.; pre-registration for attendance is required.

And wizards who are Potter-partying out at the St. Peters Borders (1320 Mid Rivers Mall Drive; 636-278-5000 or www.borders.com) better bring a wand to the Grand Hallows Ball happening there at 7 p.m. -- some dementors are scheduled to show up. But Fawkes will be there, too (so this is where he got away to!), and a king and queen will be crowned. The queen will probably be Ms. Day, so you shouldn’t even try for it, and when she wins, she’ll lead the crowd in chanting, “Long love Harry Potter!” (Seriously, he better be alive at the end of this book.)
Fri., July 20