Campus’s new special interest club, the Swifties of CNU, made their debut at Christopher Newport University in alignment with the release of Taylor Swift’s 10th studio album, Midnights. The founders, freshmen Opal Roberts and Emma Garletts, created the club to get involved with the CNU Community. The release party boasted a turnout of 21 students.

Garletts and Roberts had the idea for the Swifties of CNU when they were looking at various clubs and organizations: “Opal and I were looking at all the clubs, and we were like, ‘This isn’t for us.’ We both like Taylor Swift and we jokingly said that we should start a Taylor Swift club, and then we were like, ‘That’s a good idea.’ And we started it,” Garletts said. 

Swifites and other attendees had various activities to do while they waited for the clock to strike midnight. Activities included a Midnights themed photobooth, a sheet to rank their favorite songs before and after the album release, Midnights themed coloring pages, and Midnights bingo. “[The] coloring sheets were a hit,” Roberts said.

As far as the album goes, Freshman Trinity Tate, a member of the club from the beginning, shared her expectations and reactions to Midnights. Despite expecting ‘Anti-Hero’ to be her favorite track, Tate wound up preferring ‘Lavender Haze.’ “I really liked [‘Lavender Haze’] because of the overall vibe of the song,” Tate said.

Overall, the founders felt that the release party was a success: “I’m so pleased with the way the release party turned out. It was such a [relaxed] event and that’s exactly what Emma and I want from this club,” Roberts said. 

The Swifties of CNU jumped into planning events for the rest of the semester, Garletts explained, “We have a karaoke night that we have planned, a friendship bracelet making night. And there’s a trivia night next week.”

More information for anyone interested in Taylor Swift and the Swifties of CNU can be found on their Instagram: @swiftiesofcnu.