Clay Hale
Spotlights project against smoke to create a familiar lavender haze, life-size cardboard cutouts of one of today’s biggest music sensations stare out into the crowd with a permanent smile and a sea of raging Taylor Swift fans chant the lyrics to the singer’s biggest hits and underrated classics.
On Friday, Jan. 27 The Lyric kicked off the first weekend of the semester with a live DJ streaming “All Too Well: A Taylor Swift Dance Party.”
This event, which boasted a high turnout, is part of the artist-themed dance party trend rising not only at The Lyric in Oxford, but also at venues around the United States.
Although there is a national chain of Taylor Swift dance parties sweeping the nation, Lindsay Dillon-Maginnis, general manager at The Lyric, revealed that this particular dance party was The Lyric’s own take on the idea.
Dillon Maginnis said that the local version benefits the local community financially and culturally.
“We could get a DJ from New York to come for the show, but why do that when there are plenty of local DJs who can play Taylor Swift music and draw a crowd,” Dillon-Maginnis said.
Outside of The Lyric entrance, partygoers gleamed with anticipation as they scanned their ticket barcodes. Among the excited bunch was University of Mississippi freshman Mallory Williams, who was using the dance party as an opportunity to pregame for a certain musician’s tour in April.
“I’m really excited to be here. I’ve never been to one before, but I am going to see Taylor Swift in April,” Williams said. “I’ll be in Houston for less than 24 hours, but it’ll be worth it.”
Inside the teeming showroom, attendees shared a consistent good time with each other, with the good time graduating to a great one when the bass of Swift’s hit “… Ready For It?” boomed across the theater. From that point onward, fans rarely stopped dancing for anything other than a bathroom break or a photo with one of the cardboard cutouts.
Throwback hits like “Our Song” and “Better Than Revenge” made appearances almost as frequently as newbies like “I Think He Knows.” The ocean of Swift followers had no problem dancing to tracks of any speed, era or length — even when the songs ran a whopping 10 minutes.
When fans finally did start trickling out of the building, the popular opinion was that the night was a success.
Florida native Lexi Baxter found the event to be a great way to start her second round of classes at Ole Miss. Baxter ecstatically shared that she had a particularly fun time dancing to the 10- minute version of “All Too Well.”
“I will remember this show all too well for my whole entire life,” Baxter said.
