“Meet me at midnight,” Taylor Swift sings in her song “Lavender Haze,” from her 2022 album, Midnights .
Culture Clash Records, located at 912 Monroe St. in downtown Toledo, sang the same line at midnight on Friday, welcoming local fans to listen to Swift’s 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department .
The downtown Toledo record store had a listening party for the release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in October, said the shop’s manager, Torch Sanchez, adding that it was more popular than any other album release event they’ve had.
“With the new album coming out … Swifties want to come out, have fun, and do their thing at midnight,” she continued, noting about 35 people showed up. “We had some snacks, little drinks, and everyone was trading bracelets.”
As fans entered the record store this time around, wearing themed outfits and friendship bracelets, Sanchez said guests were eagerly awaiting the moment they’d hear the album’s first song, “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone.
Once midnight hit, the store was able to sell The Tortured Poets Department vinyls in different color variants alongside the standard white version, Sanchez said, mentioning records are still selling at high rates.
“I do anticipate it’s going to be our highest selling record of the weekend, even with Record Store Day,” the manager said. “Taylor Swift is definitely our best-selling artist.”
A safe space for fans is one of the record store’s top priorities, she said, with anyone from younger groups of kids with parents to older couples welcome in the same room for the same purpose — an event designed to hear Swift’s latest lyrics.
After the release party concluded and fans went home, Swifties were awoken by a surprise at 2 a.m. on Friday, when the artist shared The Tortured Poets Department is a double album, with TTPD: The Anthology including 15 additional songs, on top of the original 16.
“We like to cater to our customers,” Sanchez said. “So if we can have events like this in the future, that’s awesome.”
Much like Culture Clash, the Flying Joe coffee shop in both downtown Toledo and Perrysburg did something special for guests to celebrate Swift’s latest creation.
Kara Watson, the event and project coordinator at Flying Joe, said with the help of its Swiftie baristas, the coffee shop debuted a Taylor Swift-themed menu for the release of TTPD .
“As a team, we pulled together ideas and looked at some of our past menus [to see] what worked,” she added. “That’s how we got the glitter idea, and we use the same cold foam as we did for one of our Halloween drinks, which is an Ube cold foam.”
Handing out friendship bracelets seemed like a must, as a nod to Swift’s lyric, “Make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it,” from her song off Midnights , “You’re On Your Own Kid.”
During her Eras Tour concert, the artist’s sixth concert tour, fans took action to bring this lyric to life — making themed friendship bracelets inspired her the artist’s work to trade with fellow Swifties.
“The bracelets sold out in the first three hours [on Thursday],” Watson said, adding that they’ve brought in almost 70 more bags of bracelets, which are being sold for $5 each, hoping that will last until the menu concludes on Sunday.
The menu items have themed names that relate to her various songs, albums, and individual lyrics, she said.
“Our girls really helped us with this, like some of the wording for [the menu],” Watson continued. “Like the Bad Blood Orange Bourbon [cocktail], TTPD for the new album, [and] we wanted to put our own spin on [the bracelets], so we have some that say the Flying Joe.”
Some of the drinks on the menu include an Enchanted To Meet Brew cold brew coffee mixed with vanilla syrup, and ube cold foam along with a Nothing New Latte with espresso, milk, white chocolate, caramel drizzle, and an optional dollop of whipped cream.
One of Watson’s favorite drinks is the Lavender Haze-ade, which takes lemonade and combines it with coconut milk, house-made lavender and blueberry syrups, and glitter.
The turnout has been very busy, she said, with more than 300 shares alone on the menu posted on Instagram, adding that she’s received a “crash course” on how dedicated Swifties are because of this special.
The Flying Joe’s downtown location, 215 N. Summit St. Suite C, offered its menu on Thursday and Friday, and its Perrysburg location, 2110 Preston Pkwy., is set to feature the menu until Sunday.
Swift never fails to surprise fans with her encoded messages, Easter eggs, and way with words — and to no surprise — Toledo Swifties will go to extreme lengths to be involved in anything Taylor related.
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