With the 5th Harry Potter movie due out on July 11, 2007 and the last book in the Harry Potter series being released at midnight July 21, 2007, Potter-mania is heating up all over the country. This is especially true in Akron, OH.

The First Book-Greater Akron Advisory Board has teamed up with a local book store, The Learned Owl, in Hudson, Ohio, to be a part of Harry Potter - The Last Extravaganza!

On Friday evening, July 20th, 60 businesses in downtown Hudson will decorate and transform into locations from the Harry Potter books such as Hagrid’s Hut and The Leaky Cauldron. They are expecting 10,000-15,000 attendees at this year’s party in the Hudson town square in front of the store which will include magic shows, owl & raptor shows, and a land-based version of Quidditch.

“I got a publicist and an event coordinator this time,” says Liz Murphy, owner of The Learned Owl, noting that attendees are planning to travel to Hudson from all over Ohio for the festivities. A few revelers are even flying from Paris to attend. “People are planning their summer around this party!”

Because Harry Potter books have encouraged kids all over the world to develop a love of reading, The Learned Owl Book Store will be donating 10% of all pre-sales of the new book to First Book-Greater Akron. So far they have pre-sold even more books than last time. They are also raffling off airline tickets to “Harry Potter Land” with a portion of proceeds to benefit the Advisory Board as well.

So if you are going to be anywhere remotely near Hudson, Ohio on July 20th, I suggest you drop in for this amazing night of Harry Potter festivities!