CHICAGO — For Hayley Van Fulpen, the ritual of first-time listening to a Taylor Swift album usually consists of lying down in a quiet room, absorbing the music and processing the lyrics, alone.
But on Thursday, she could be found with friends at Woodie’s Flat in Old Town, waiting for the clock to hit 11 p.m. Central time for the official release of “Midnights,” Swift’s 10th album. She said she wanted to experience this album in public, surrounded by her friends.
Just before 11 p.m., Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down” played over the speakers in the room at Woodie’s, but listening party attendees were far from relaxed.
“I have been so stressed all night,” said Kiara Bowes, 22.
The crowd of about 30 people included Chicagoans who skipped work to prepare, or already had their alarms set for work Friday morning. Decked out in Swift memorabilia or lavender purple, the dedicated fans were ready to usher in the singer’s “new era.” Across the world, many fans tuned in right when the album was released, leading to reports of a temporary crash on the Spotify musical platform.
But at Woodie’s, the first track “Lavender Haze” played at 11:01 p.m., opening with a strong drum beat and from Swift, a lilting “meet me at midnight.”
In Chicago, events scheduled throughout the weekend will bring some of Swift’s most dedicated fans, known as “Swifties,” to dance parties at bars and a mimosa brunch to celebrate the singer’s new music.
The event at Woodie’s Flat was hosted with Le Petite Fete, an event organization TikTok-famous for its Taylor Swift nights. According to its website, one co-founder was partly inspired by a visit to Chicago in 2019, when Roscoe’s Tavern played Britney Spears all night.
These Taylor Swift theme parties appeal to fans because at the events “everyone knows her entire discography,” said Kera Conroy, 25, at Thursday’s event.
The events also often play songs other than the singer’s chart-topping hits, making them the closest thing Swifties have to experiencing a concert, said Jennifer Engel, 30. Swift’s last tour, “Reputation,” was in 2018.
“This is all we have,” Engel said.
Swift announced “Midnights” on Aug. 28. For more than a year prior, fans had constructed elaborate theories about her next move, hanging onto every detail hidden in her social media or fashion choices. For example, some fans predicted an album drop based entirely on adding up the digits of the total number of posts on her Instagram. If it adds up to 13, the singer’s favorite number, game on for the theories, which proliferated across social media.
According to Twitter, in the last 12 years, Swift has been mentioned in 329 million tweets. When Swift released the album “Red (Taylor’s Version)” in 2021, there were more tweets about the singer than those about football or basketball combined, the platform said its “Swift Report.”
The singer has owned up to being mysterious. Leading up to “Midnights” release, she announced the names of the 13 tracks in a series of social media videos called “Midnight Mayhem With Me.”
“I know that I have a habit of dropping cryptic clues and Easter eggs when giving you information about new music and I’m not here to deny that, but I am here to defy that,” Swift said in a video in September. Teasers earlier this week included an animated video and a teaser trailer.
To prepare for the 11 p.m. album drop, Bowes took off of work. As a nurse, she normally works overnight but switched shifts to make sure she didn’t miss the midnight drop: “I said, ‘I have a very important commitment.’”
Bowes attended Thursday’s event with her friend, Hope Orsi, 23. Before walking into Woodie’s, Bowes said they had a simple question: “Alright, we’re in this car right now, what are the women going to look like that get back in this car?”
“They’re going to be different,” she said.
After the first listen, Orsi said her initial impression is “Midnights” is like “if ‘1989′ and ‘Reputation’ had a baby,” referring to two of Swift’s past records.
Conroy said she was already preparing for the next event on the manifest.
Swift also had promised a “special very chaotic surprise” at 3 a.m. ET Friday, which turned out to be seven additional tracks, an expanded edition of the album called “Midnights (3am Edition).” And Friday morning, she premiered the first music video from the album for the song “Anti-Hero.”
At the listening party, Conroy said she planned to set alarms for 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. as to not miss both surprises, as her friends looked at her in shock.
“Why not?” Conroy said. “What’s one more night?”
AJ Miranda, the general manager of Scarlet Bar in Northalsted, said the 3 a.m. surprise was “iconic.”
Scarlet has hosted album release parties in Chicago since “Reputation” dropped in 2017, as well as monthly Taylor Swift takeovers, Miranda said. Scarlet will host its “no skips” release party Friday, playing the album all the way through at 8:30 p.m. and again at midnight.
Miranda is expecting a large turnout. When it celebrated the release of “Red (Taylor’s Version)” the line extended two blocks down Halsted Street.
“We’ve kind of become known for Taylor,” he said.
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