It’s September 1st, and I don’t know about you, but my social media feeds were pretty well saturated with posts about missing the train to Hogwarts for the Nth year in a row, or some who claimed that they had boarded the Hogwarts Express (“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”), or how they were sorted into [insert house here], or a vast array of Hogwarts Castle pictures. Such are my friends. I am not ashamed.

I did not do the same today. 1) Because I was busy preparing my classroom for my IRL muggle students (not the witches and wizards that I wish I could teach at Hogwarts). 2) Because I felt that one more post or castle picture would only add to the saturation of my friend’s feeds. However, here’s one post that I want to share over and over:

LEAKYCON 2016 WILL BE IN LOS ANGELES FROM OCTOBER 19TH TO THE 23RD

This announcement came to fans via owl post (email), as well as LeakyCon’s official Tumblr and their official website. Tumblr actually presents more information about the “new LeakyCon” than the official website does:

LeakyCon will be an immersive Harry Potter fan event unlike anything you have experienced before.

The Harry Potter stories live at the heart of everything we do at Mischief Management. LeakyCon 2016 is a return to our roots and will give fans a magical experience they will never forget.

Harry Potter’s story inspired a generation of fans to become lifelong readers, writers, artists, activists, musicians, and teachers. It inspired lasting friendships and has left an indelible legacy on our culture that has only grown over time.

LeakyCon seeks to pay tribute to the Harry Potter phenomenon by giving fans an exciting new way to experience the fandom, surrounded by rich details, immersive storytelling, friends, and fellow fans.

LeakyCon 2016 will be a Harry Potter fan event unlike anything we have created before. It will incorporate the tentpole features of a fan convention (keynote presentations, in-depth panels, interactive workshops, a bustling vendor hall, amazing live entertainment, and unique special guest experiences) into a fully-immersive storytelling event where fans are surrounded by the people, places, and adventures from the magical world that means so much to all of us.

LeakyCon will be our most intimate event, the smallest we have hosted since our first event in Boston. Our aim is to provide guests with a highly personalized and uniquely magical experience unlike anything they have seen before. Demand for tickets is extremely high — our previous events have sold out in just minutes — so we encourage you to act quickly to secure your place.

More information, including event dates, location, as well as the on-sale date and ticket prices will be unveiled as soon as possible.

As some readers may know already, I actually work for one of Mischief Management’s other conventions—GeekyCon—as the main stage volunteer coordinator. It’s definitely my favorite week of the summer. The key word here, though, is “summer”. As a teacher, I get three months off, but zero vacation time during the school year. Especially here in Minnesota, in a farming community, it’s fairly typical to start after Labor Day (even this year, with Labor Day so late, I’m not starting with students until Tuesday, September 8th) and finish before Memorial Day, with virtually no breaks during the school year. There’s a day here and there, sure, plus Winter break starting before Christmas and lasting until after New Year’s, but that’s it. All of this is just to explain that I am not able to attend LeakyCon next October, nor am I able to attend BroadwayCon in January.

And. I. Am. Super. Bummed.

I didn’t go to LeakyCon 2009 in Boston (again for the same reason—it was in May, during my first year of teaching), so I didn’t get to experience the feeling of this “intimate Harry Potter con”. I suppose I experienced it in 2011 in Orlando (my first con ever), then again in 2012 in Chicago (my first year working for Leaky), but each convention was bigger (i.e. less intimate) than the last (especially when compared with Boston 2009 [I assume—I wasn’t there]). By the time we reached Portland in 2013, we were no longer a HotelCon, but a proper ConventionCenterCon, which had already started to grow into a multi-fandom conference (see also my Forest of Fandoms review), which we know as GeekyCon today.

I would love to return with LeakyCon to its roots, but alas, it’s not in the stars for me to do so. At least I’ll always have the Harry Potter representation at GeekyCon (keep cosplaying and submitting programming, ye witches and wizards)!

Are you queueing for LeakyCon tickets on October 3rd? Share your excitement in the comments!