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Lumos – Let There Be Enlightenment

Feature Articles - General Feature

Written by Alison Crompton

Saturday, 06 January 2007

In the flickering neon of a casino floor, a lone figure sits hunched over a slot machine, punching buttons and sipping on a luminous green cocktail. She mutters under her breath as the metallic beast swallows last of her hard-earned coins. It’s late and she has a busy day ahead of her tomorrow: she sweeps her robe around her and adjusts her pointy hat before…

Hang on… pointy hat? What the blazes is a witch doing in the middle of a casino? If you’d stumbled through the casino floor of the J.W. Marriott Resort in Summerlin, Las Vegas, during the last weekend of July 2006, you might well have asked the same question. The answer, dear reader, is Lumos, a symposium that swooped into town to bring discussion and investigation of the Harry Potter universe to the Muggle masses. Here, let me enlighten you some more.

1200 hardened Harry Potter fans from all corners of the globe have descended on this dusty Vegas resort at the height of summer to discuss author J.K. Rowling’s creation, his impact on popular culture and the parallel world that they, the fans, have created for him and his friends. They are university and college professors and doctors, clerics, graduate students, lawyers, bankers, librarians, teachers, parents… in short, they come from all walks of life but are bound by a fascination for one of the most significant literary phenomena in history. They have come for four days of immersion in their favorite subject, from lectures, discussions and panels to art, games and merchandise and for a good natter with other like-minded folk. And considering that many of them garbed to the max in heavy woollen black robes, school uniforms, Quidditch gear and elaborately feathered hats, thank God that the hotel has good air conditioning.

The luxurious J.W. Marriott - scene of Lumos

The Advance Guard

Among these 1200 Potterholics are a team of well over 100 volunteers, all of whom have paid to be here and many of whom have already been in town for several days preparing for the event. Some will just be working at the event itself, taking time out from lectures to spend a few hours on the registration or information desks or directing the flow of activities, but a hard core has been working behind the scenes for many months now to bring a new brand of magic to Vegas.

Lumos Minister of Magic, Debbie McLain

The driving force behind Lumos 2006 is one Debbie McLain, a stay-at-home mom from Raleigh, North Carolina. Debbie was introduced to the Harry Potter books about five years ago and has been a voracious consumer of Potter product ever since. She was one of the volunteers at the first Harry Potter symposium, Nimbus, which was held in Orlando, Florida, in July 2003, and found herself having such a good time that she didn’t want the magic to stop. With the help of two friends who she met at Nimbus, Bekki Oliveiri and Audrey O’Connor, now Lumos' Head of Programming and Treasurer respectively, she began to formulate plans for a future symposium, selecting Las Vegas as the destination “because I wanted to go there!” Debbie had no experience of organizing conventions but with the help of the HP Education Fanon, Inc. (HPEF), the non-profit education corporation behind Nimbus, and a dedicated team of volunteers, her dream began to turn into a reality. Tickets went on sale at the end of July 2005 and by February, thanks largely to word of mouth within the Harry Potter online fan community, the event was a complete sellout. “It's been amazing,” said Debbie. “We weren't expecting to sell out and we sold out six months early. We had to quickly rearrange some of the stuff that we had planned and change a lot of things but I think it worked out great.

The Chambers of Secrets

What was planned were two days of “formal” programming (the lectures, panels and round tables, etc.) surrounded by all manner of magical-themed entertainment, all parading under the banner of “Back To School”. The Marriott’s convention center was reorganized to resemble a smaller version of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, complete with a Great Hall for feasting, a Common Room for socializing and a Library for peace and quiet and maybe a little study. One room was dedicated to an art gallery, showcasing drawings and paintings of scenes from the life of Harry and friends. Another was turned into a magical mall where students could stock up on books, school uniforms and even wands. Budding mages who arrived early enough on the first afternoon could try their hand (or body) at Live Wizard Chess, featuring human players. That evening, an enormous Welcoming Feast was held for all attendees, spanning two banqueting halls (the Great Hall wasn’t quite big enough alone!) and featuring a hearty British stew, followed by “Aunt Petunia’s Violet Pudding”, from recipes sent in by attendees. And after dinner, the happy guests rocked the night away to the sounds of top wizard band Harry and the Potters, supported by Draco and the Malfoys.

Harry and the Potters - Wizard Rock!

For the next two days, it was down to business, or education. Up to six different speakers or panels were on offer at any one time, covering a wide range of topics such as morality in the Harry Potter series, the roles of race and gender, religious comparisons and parallels, how to brush up your fan fiction, why we are all so bonkers about Harry and even speculation about characters’ sexuality. In Room number 2, admins from some of the fandom’s pre-eminent websites tackled the subject of legal issues online while over in Room 5, you could debate who should be Hogwarts’ Teacher of the Year. You want to compare the tyranny of Voldemort to the Jewish persecution? Head over to Room 1. An in-depth study of the Malfoy family? Check out Room 8 first thing after lunch. And later, you can come up with your own predictions for the last book in the series. If you were lucky, you had already scored tickets for the long-sold-out keynote luncheons, so you could listen to informed debate by special guest panelists about the character of Severus Snape or the Education of Harry Potter over a British-themed lunch.

With so many people trying to cram into so many rooms, the Lumos Auror Squad (security team) was on high alert, managing lines and imposing room limits. Especially popular, and challenging, were the presentations by special guest speakers. Lumos had lined up a stellar cast of Harry Potter authorities, including David Baggett, George Beahm, Francis Bridger, Emily Drake, John Granger, Edmund Kern, Tom Morris and Steve Vander Ark, and not surprisingly, there was a crush to listen to them, with several disappointed witches and wizards having to be turned away at the door.

Mayhem at the Marriott!

But all work and no play makes Harry a dull wizard so there was plenty of merriment to be made when school got out. In fact the fun started early on the Friday morning as the Marriott pool rang out to the yells and squeals of Water Quidditch spectators cheering on their favorite teams. Yes, Harry’s favorite broom-based sport was adapted for the blazing Vegas sunshine into a sort of watery murderball with the winners of the knockout contest meeting a team from Mugglenet for winner-takes-all-the-glory.

Water Quidditch

And if sports weren’t your bag, you could try some Magical Night Classes later that evening, with students revolving through a selection of Hogwarts’ favorite lessons such as Potions, Herbology and Divination, all adapted for Muggles. Over in the Great Hall, the Harry Potter movies screened back to back. Then on Saturday night, it was a tough call – head out for a “Hogsmeade” visit or hit the special LeakyMug podcast event happening in the main hall? Some students headed out for the buses to spend the evening gambling their Galleons away on the Las Vegas Strip. The rest turned and headed back into the lecture halls where HP fan supersites The Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet were hosting an episode of their regular gabfest.

Staff from The Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet co-host their LeakyMug podcast

The hotel plunged into the spirit of the event, offering Potter-themed menus and cocktails (again from fan-submitted recipes). After a hard day’s lectures, you could fall into the bar and order yourself anything from a frothy Butterbeer to an Avada Colada, so called because the last thing you’ll remember after drinking one is that rush of green light that hits you right between the eyes!

Muggles and Murmurs

Tiffany and Vanesa

Four days of simulated Hogwarts – does it get any better than this for a Harry Potter fan? As the symposium wound down, the attendees scarfed down the last crumbs of the Leaving Feast, placed their bids in the closing auction and pondered their return to a less-than-magical reality. Local Vegas resident Vanesa Bui, who had come with her sister Tiffany, was buzzing about her first Harry Potter convention. “I think that all the presentations were wonderfully put together and it's great to know that there are other people out there who have the same mindset as myself, that I'm not alone,” she said. “I had a blast and I think everything was very well put together.” She admitted to being a little surprised about the amount of academic theory out there about Harry Potter and the whole phenomenon. “I always read into the books but didn't realize how much I had missed. I learned a lot from this convention because you hear these scholars, these doctors and professors and the things that they put together and bring up is amazing. They do way more research than I do.”

Brenda and signed GOF script

Brenda Smith Johnson of California was another first-timer at the convention and she was buzzing for an entirely different reason – she had just placed the winning bid in the closing auction for a script of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, signed not only by several stars from the cast but also by J.K. Rowling. When asked how she could even consider blowing several hundred dollars on the bid, she admitted, “I am a shameless Harry Potter fanatic. I can't believe this, it's just now hitting me, the impact of this signed script. Oh my god, I hit the jackpot and I'm here in Las Vegas! I'm going to have to put this under my mattress or something, I don't know. I'm blown away!” This had been a month of HP events for Brenda, as she had just returned from an HP Fan Trips tour of England and Scotland. It was a spur of the moment decision to come to Lumos. “I saw it advertised on the web and I said ‘wow, that sounds like fun!’ and I signed up. The speakers were fantastic, I bought about six books while I was here. Just walking around seeing everyone in their costumes and having a great time is magnificent. This is a great event!”

Heidi and Tasha

Heidi Jenkins of Utah, who was one of the many volunteers on site, and Tasha Hunsaker of Ohio are “veterans” of the Potter convention circuit, having attended the Witching Hour symposium in Salem, MA, the year before. “This was lots better,” said Heidi of Lumos. But is Vegas an appropriate place to have a Harry Potter convention? “Yeah, I think so! Since it was in Vegas, that was way close to where I live so that helped but I think we would have come anyway.”

Amber

Amber Diffin of Virginia, another volunteer, was on her fourth Potter convention. “This is the biggest one I've ever been to. The amount of people was pretty much overwhelming but with this one you don't really have to know anyone when you come here because there's so many people here, you're going to meet someone. That's what was nice about this, I think I've met the most new people here than at any other one.” Amber has stayed in touch with several of the people that she met at earlier conventions and they make their travel and accommodation plans together to make their convention experiences easier and cheaper. But for Amber, there is one constant about the conventions. “For me, the high point of every convention is Steve Vander Ark and seeing him speak - just the incredible person he is and how much energy he has about the fandom. It's kind of bad to say this but on the programming I looked to see when he was speaking and circled him, and then looked to see what I was missing. I pretty much love him - it's just his personality. He makes the presentations worthwhile - you know it's not going to be a disappointment when you go to one of his presentations.”

(Scroll down to the Videos section for more fan interviews.)

Tim Kirk and George Beahm draw sketches and sign books at the Vendor Fair

Guest speakers George Beahm, author of “Fact, Fiction and Folklore in Harry Potter’s World: An Unofficial Guide”, and Tim Kirk, the book’s illustrator, can understand what it’s like to want to be part of the phenomenon. “Probably the greatest compliment that you can pay an author is to say that the work is so real and so entertaining to me that I want to go into your world and be a part of it,” says Beahm. Kirk agrees. “It’s so powerful for [the fans] and so meaningful that they have to participate, whether it be by costuming or art shows or writing fan material.” Beahm and Kirk both have ample experience of fandom culture. Besides the Harry Potter series, they have written a companion guide to C.S. Lewis’ “Chronicles of Narnia” and have produced separate works about J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Beahm offers his theory about what distinguishes the Potter fandom from these other two. “The fact that J.K. Rowling is still writing the series is so interesting because she’s reacting to things fans are saying, posting stuff on her website, correcting things, so Harry Potter fans have a sense of participation that Tolkien and Lewis fans don’t,” he says. “We’re on the ground floor at the time when the author is still writing, which makes it terribly interesting for me as a writer to write about her, because the picture changes but everyone’s participating at a point of literary history and that’s one reason why everyone is so excited.”

Unfogging The Future

With the announcement of the title of the seventh and final book in the Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the end of the canon is in sight but the “fanon”, that part of the Potter universe created from fans’ imagination, knows no bounds. 2007 will see at least four more Potter symposia worldwide (Prophecy, the next offering from HPEF, in Toronto, Canada; Phoenix Rising in New Orleans, USA; Sectus in London, England; and Enlightening, the first convention aimed at the whole family, in Philadelphia, USA). HPEF has also recently announced events for the next two years (Portus in Dallas, USA, in 2008 and Level Two in San Jose, USA, in 2009). Narrate Conferences, the organizers of Phoenix Rising, will host Terminus in Chicago, USA, in 2008. As the book series winds down and the loose ends are tied up, there is still much to talk about in Potterspace.

Meanwhile, in the back rooms at the Marriott, the volunteers have begun to break down Lumos and pack all the pieces away for next year’s convention, Prophecy, in Toronto. Debbie McLain is delighted with the way things have gone. “I think everybody had a great time. I think it went very smoothly. The hotel was not only beautiful but the people who worked here were amazing. They had fun with us and to have support in such a way like that made the event even better than what it could be through us. It was just unbelievable.” Would she ever do it again though? Debbie laughs. “I don't know, I still need to unpack, I just moved into a new house, I've got boxes everywhere!”

Wizarding Homework

For more information about Lumos and the other symposia, please visit the following links:

Lumos: www.lumos2006.org
Prophecy: www.hp2007.org
Phoenix Rising: www.thephoenixrises.org
Sectus: www.sectus.org
Enlightening: www.enlightening2007.org

HP Education Fanon, Inc.: www.hpeducationfanon.org
Narrate Conferences: www.narrateconferences.org

Photo Gallery

Colorful costumes, exquisite artwork... see some of the magic of Lumos right here. Click on a thumbnail to enlarge the picture.

Photos by Kevin Kobori and Alison Crompton

Videos

Interviews with more fans and special guests of Lumos.

Four Days in Las Vegas - scenes from Lumos

Videos by Kevin Kobori

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