Taylor Swift fans at listening party share personal stories of Swift 

New and die-hard Swifties got together at Fingerprints Music and experienced a homey vibe, while Taylor Swift’s new album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” played in the background, on Oct. 3.

One fan at the event, who has listened to Taylor Swift since her country debut album, shared some personal stories about Taylor Swift when she was just starting her career.  

“She came to my hometown in Alabama, I’m from Alabama. We have just like a festival type thing in the spring, and they called it Big Spring Jam, and people at my high school went to it, and she went to that when she was kind of like a no-name,” said Samantha Hurley. 

Hurley added, “I remember she ate at our local steakhouse, and it was in our newspaper. It was a big deal, I just can’t imagine that happening now, there’s no way.”

Another fan who had been listening to Swift for 17 years since her second studio album ‘Fearless’ shared what the artist meant for her. 

“It’s just crazy because it’s a person I don’t know, you know what I mean, although I feel like I know her, but I actually don’t. But I’ve just loved her music for so long, and it’s spoken so, like she’s talking to everyone, but it always feels like she’s talking directly to you. And she’s had songs for like almost every situation in my life from when I was 15 to 32, so that covers a lot of life, she’s like one of my longest relationships, it feels like. So yeah, I love her.” Sara Moussaoui said.

Moussaoui and her friends dressed up in sparkly, sequined outfits to celebrate Taylor’s new album. 

Moussaoui’s friend, who is also a super fan of Taylor, shared why she decided to dress up.

“I love how confident Taylor is and so whenever she releases a new album, I try to channel my inner Taylor and feel that confidence, and so with my girls here, we decided to dress up”, said Brittany Engler.  

Both Moussaoui and Engler converted their friend, who is their coworker, into a Taylor fan about two years ago. She spoke about why she gravitated towards Taylor. 

“I think like the way she gets a lot of hate and women do, she gets the hate about that she writes a lot of songs about her exes, but nobody talks about how she writes about the people she loves. I think that’s really important because, at least women should see that, then eventually men could start seeing it, because I expect women to be better,” said Nidhi Mendon. 

Throughout the event, fans took showgirl-inspired photos with feather fans at Fingerprints’ photobooth. 

Many fans took pictures with their dogs, or even used the opportunity to take solo shots of their dogs. 

^{Taylor Swift fan Samantha Hurley poses in a Taylor Swift themed photo area inside of Fingerprints on Oct. 3. (Liam Hollon)}

^{Ginger Spice, a dog who attended Taylor Swift’s listening party at Fingerprints with their owner, poses while having their picture taken at the photobooth on Oct. 3. (Paloma Maciel)}

The feather fans, which were the main accessory of the photobooth, were from a local burlesque dancer who is Foster’s friend. He said that she let him borrow them in exchange for Taylor’s new album. 

Fans still enjoyed the event, even though it wasn’t the original plan that the store’s owner Rand Foster had in mind for the listening party.

“We got no information about this record, they held everything back and wouldn’t tell us if we were going to get the record,” Foster said.

Foster said Swift’s team informed him less than two weeks before the record came out about his store receiving product, and Target was selling the album for over three weeks before his store was allowed to. 

Foster voiced that he believes Taylor’s team had a motive for delaying the product. 

“They used this record, I think, to kind of force people to go to Target, in the middle of a boycott, and so even though they didn’t really do anything for us with this record, we felt like having a party was important to give people an alternative to compromising their values and go to Target,” Foster said.

Taylor’s album was released at 9 p.m. in California on Oct. 2, and Foster had originally planned the listening party at midnight on Oct. 3, but because he recieved the album mid-day on Oct. 3, the event happened in the afternoon.

Even though the listening party wasn’t right after the release of the album like Foster envisioned, the event still brought the Long Beach Swiftie community together.

^{A young lemonade stand vendor, Valentino Canaveral, right, hands a customer the lemonade he’s just prepared at Fingerprint’s Taylor Swift block party on Oct. 3. Canaveral tailored his menu for the event by creating lemonades named after the songs on Taylor’s new album. (Paloma Maciel)}

^{Taylor Swift fans Mandy Horn, left, and Mari Horn, right, show tote bags they made in the store Rooted Long Beach for the Taylor Swift themed block party on Oct. 3. (Liam Hollon)}

^{A Taylor Swift themed flyer for the block party on Bixby & Atlantic inside of Rooted Long Beach. (Liam Hollon)}