Happy Birth-Tay Taylor!

By Sydney Pruner

Tulsa is reputable for its eccentric nightlife. From Club Majestic, Dust Bowl Lanes & Lounge, to the rest of “THE 10 BEST Tulsa Clubs & Bars (according to Tripadvisor). There's never a boring evening in the 918, that is if you’re over the age of 21.

If you are anything like me, a seventeen year old with an introverted group of friends, you’re getting tired of strolling the aisles of Target with an $8 latte any given weekend. Sometimes you can switch it up by going to the Philbrook once or twice a year. But other than that, what can a kid do that isn't too costly or too unsafe? To the teenagers who host bonfire parties in the middle of the woods, I’m looking at you. But hey, at least that's free, until you’re posting your bail that is.

So when an ad popped up for a Taylor Swift dance party I was…ready for it. I grabbed my Lover and we got in the Getaway Car to head to Cain's Ballroom for their “Birth-Tay Ball.” A Swift themed dance party in tribute to our favorite blondes birthday on December 13th.

Now Cain's Ballroom has a reputation of hosting selling out bands including The Smashing Pumpkins, Fleet Foxes, Sex Pistols, and even Hank Williams, in which a good majority of these standing room events host all ages. So after holding concerts and parties in their 1,800 capacity venue, they found a way to invite the Swifties to their soirees. Taylor Swift has spent the past year doing her Era’s Tour. And night after night she has sold out entire stadiums. So how does a small club in Tulsa get their slice of revenue from Swift’s tour?

First, their venue is safe and well known. And since its opening in 1924 it has endured little to no accidents. Especially when hosting an all ages event, security is of utmost importance. Secondly, their ticket fare was very manageable. At $30 a ticket, it covers club entry, a DJ (who did in fact play Taylor’s Version), and an excuse to scream Out of the Woods at the top of your lungs.

Personally, I saw it on an Instagram ad that came across my stories and I assumed it was too good to be true. After many instances where I had been let down I was elated to scan my ticket and start dancing with my hands tied. As my girlfriend and I were dancing swiftly through the evening I had thought back to the many occasions where being 17 had ruined my pm plans.

Over the summer my friends and I couldn’t find anything to do. We tried to watch live music around Utica or Riverwalk but there was never any opportunity to sing and dance. There was even a point over the summer where we got desperate enough to try our luck at a local brews bingo night. They had no problem letting us in… and they had no problem handing my mom that five by five array of random numbers and that silly little ink dotter. But along with my restriction to rent a car or vote, I couldn’t play bingo because I was a minor. Now as riveting as that night was, watching my mom black out her bingo card, I wished to myself, gosh if only there was nightlife for people my age.

This of course set my expectations high for homecoming, a safe environment to dance with people who were also just there to dance…too bad that was cut short. That to say it was quite the knee jerking reaction when they stopped the music and turned off the rented strobe lights and disco ball. Having missed an opportunity to slow dance with my partner I was so happy when Invisible String started playing at Cain’s.

While we were circling the venue trying to look for parking we weren’t sure we were in the right place, that was until we saw a mother wearing a sequin dress and her daughter wearing the iconic “not a lot going on at the moment” t-shirt with the red hat. We suddenly felt at home in our Taylor Swift get ups. As I got out of the car in my black slacks and newspaper print button down I was no longer worried about us being the only ones who dressed all out, my partner by my side representing the album Lover and I representing Reputation.

When we got checked in and got inside we were baffled by the sheer amount of children there. Obviously this event was all ages but not a single parent seemed to have called the sitters. But I would say that they only consisted of half the crowd there, the other half being teenage girls dressed to the nines with lips painted red and every hair curled, and their boyfriends who were just there to sway and occasionally hold back singing along in their basic denim and flannel. Then for the girls who weren’t there with a partner they had their fathers. A group of people who had matching dad tees captioned “it's me, hi. I’m the father, it's me.”

As the clock was striking midnight, all of the kids left so they could make their bedtime. And the adults who weren’t drinking called it a night, knowing that they had Thursday morning meetings and heaps of paperwork to do considering it was their choice to party on a weeknight. For the ones who didn’t mind having a hangover the next morning, they made the dance floor very entertaining with a play by play rendition of Vigilante S*it and Look What You Made Me Do.

But then the night took a sad girl autumn turn, the DJ played My Tears Ricochet and Epiphany back to back and we knew it was time to leave. By that time, most of the dance floor was cleared and it had reached a place where the remainder of the dance floor were drunk crying at the edge of the stage. I guess it’s what they needed but taking it was a school night I’m glad we left when we did.

My overall experience was solid. I am excited to see what else Cain’s thinks up as their next event, I will definitely keep my eyes open for the next time I can complain about my feet hurting because of how hard I danced. Despite the kids making their core memories or the adults swiping their cards on a drink they’re just gonna spill on my girlfriend (it only happened once but hey what’s a girl gonna do, a diamonds gonna shine), this was definitely a good way to spend my Wednesday evening. A positive event that’ll make me go back to December all the time.

If an ad like this one comes across your feed, don’t pass it up. We made new friends, passed around friendship bracelets, and honestly, got to heal our past heartaches by screaming Champagne Problems with a hundred other voices.