Midnight magic sparks Pottermania
Long queues greet launch of new book
June 21 2003
Plans for parties gave way to old-fashioned queue management as customers waited in line to buy the first copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Many UK retailers reopening their door at midnight on June 21 were greeted with queues even longer than expected. Plans for in-store entertainment and fancy dress competitions had to be scaled back in some cases in order to redeploy staff to besieged checkouts.
While many younger customers were clearly enchanted by the prospect of staying up until midnight, and had dressed accordingly, there were almost as many adults whose main aim was to get hold of their copy of the fifth book in JK Rowling’s series about the boy wizard, get home and start reading.
Despite one of the biggest print runs in publishing history, as more cases of copies were summoned from stockrooms to met the immediate demand, store managers could be seen wondering how long their initial stocks would last.
The scenes were repeated around the world as stores opened at midnight local time, in cities including Sydney, Johannesburg and New York.
The author herself was at an Edinburgh bookstore for the midnight launch. She told news agency Reuters she was pleased that no plot details had been leaked. Rowling said: “I don’t think anything crucial has got out so I am happy. I think it is miraculous, given the number of books that have been produced and the number of people who have been involved, that everything hasn’t been revealed.”
