Sold-out Yule Ball will draw hundreds of costumed Harry Potter fans to Turner Hall

Teresa Hammer can't wait for Saturday night's sold-out Yule Ball at the Turner Hall Ballroom.

She and a friend spent hours baking Harry Potter-themed cookies for the party that's based on a key scene in the "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" book and movie.

And the 27-year-old critical care nurse spent hours crafting her elaborate costume that includes a wildly colored "galaxy skirt."

"I'm wearing a few battery packs" to power LED lights, she said. "I'm really looking forward to it."

The event is organized by Lynn Richter, owner of the 42 Lounge, 326 E. Mason St., ("Milwaukee's Gaming Nightclub"). Some 750 tickets have been sold.

The 42 Lounge, Richter said, is a home to "geeks" who enjoy video and tabletop games — and people who love "cos-play" events for which they create elaborate costumes that pay homage to their favorite characters or themes, such as those in the Harry Potter series.

In the "Goblet of Fire," the Yule Ball takes place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on Christmas Day of 1994.

For her rendition Saturday night, Richter is expecting a lot of colorful characters to appear. Sure there will be Harry Potters, but she's really excited about the party-goers who will appear as "fringe" characters such as Mad Eye Moody or Dumbledore.

"Some of them will work very hard to get all of the details of their costumes down right" so they replicate characters in the Potter movie, she said.

"They pay very close attention to that — and some will spend all night acting like them."

The Yule Ball has been sold out for some time and Richter said there will not be any tickets available at the door.

The Facebook page for the event says 429 are going and 3,900 are "interested." The page has numerous posts from people looking for tickets.

Richter and her cohorts are working hard to make the event special, including stamping "letters from the Hogwarts headmaster." The cookies made by Hammer will be sold to raise money for Childs Play, a nonprofit that supplies games to children in hospitals.

The organizers are also working to painstakingly re-create the movie's Yule Ball, complete with dance instructors showing the steps for the opening "Champions Waltz," which will be performed by a string quartet at 8 p.m.

After that, things are expected to get a lot livelier.

In the movie, the string quartet gives way to a rocking band, The Weird Sisters, that plays songs such as the rocker "Do the Hippogriff" and the slow dance end-of-the-evening number "This is the Night."

"It's going to be magical," Richter said. "There's a fine line when you've had one or two drinks and your reality starts to blur ... and suddenly you're a wizard."