It was a “once-in-a-lifetime event for Muggles…” according to the Forecaster, posing as the Daily Prophet for the first ever Mugglefest.

Last Friday Portland celebrated the release of the final Harry Potter book with a 12 hour event filled with marketing opportunities for non-profit and for-profit Maine organizations.

I’m definitely a fan but had to sacrifice the two tickets I scraped together for the sake of my pre-teens (the event sold out of all 5000 tickets by Wednesday!)

To say it was an ambitious project would be an understatement, but without a doubt Youth and Family Outreach of Portland (the event organizers) hit the mark with a hugely popular theme. After listening to complaints of intense heat, long lines and heavy crowds, I was fascinated to hear all about of this clever event.

Food was provided by Bull Feeney’s which took on the form of the Leaky Cauldron, serving up private-labeled Margerine Mead. Books etc had the new book available after midnight for those who preordered.

I was particularly impressed with the four page Daily Prophet, which included advertising space presumably placed by event vendors. As I poked through it I realized that these were some funny ad’s!! You owe it to yourself to check out a copy if you can. Here are some of the advertisers:

o Florean Fortesque’s Ice Cream Parlor (Smiling Hill Farm)
o Honeydukes (Old Port Candy)
o Obscurus Books (Casablanca Comics)
o The Magical Menagerie (Treehouse Toys)
o (…and my husband’s favorite) Acme Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning: We Clean Muggle Carpets too!

There were plenty of opportunities for Maine organizations to increase awareness about their nonprofits too. Here's a partial list:

o Habitat for Humanity posed as the Diagon Alley Housing Authority
o Portland West turned out to take Quidditch pictures
o Childcare Connections made owl art
o The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital set up a hospital bed with Harry Potter guest appearances
o And the Portland Public Library had an on-site library, complete with beanbags for downtime.

If I were a wizard I’d post some living pictures from the event, but lucky for us Muggles, you can check out Maine Today’s Seen who captured some great moments.

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