Picture this: you are a highschooler and your favorite singer is coming to your school for a private concert. Sounds like a dream, right? Well, for students at Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria this was a reality.
Taylor Swift was promoting her second studio album “Fearless” by playing arenas across the country, on a tour that started April 23, 2009. Five days later, she performed at Ireton’s Garwood Whaley Auditorium.
Fast forward to the year 2023 and Swift is one of the highest-selling music artists of the time and has released 10 studio albums. Swift, a 12-time Grammy winner, is currently on her most ambitious tour yet, “The Eras Tour.” Tickets for the tour were in such high demand last November that the Ticketmaster website crashed. A recently released film of the tour became the highest-grossing domestic concert movie, according to CNBC.com, and reportedly helped catapult Swift to billionaire status.
Back in 2009, students at Ireton won a Verizon Wireless contest and the prize was a concert by Swift. The TXT2Win contest consisted of sending the most text messages. Out of a thousand schools across the country, Ireton won by sending in thousands of texts.
“They (Verizon) called the principal’s secretary at the time and she thought it was a scam so she said ‘Sure, sure, we’ll get back to you.’ When she didn’t, they called again and said, “Hey, you guys won this contest because your kids texted the most,” said Laura Fannon, former vice principal of students services.
Fannon says Verizon showed them a report with the texting trends and most were sent during school hours at which time students were supposed to have their phones in their lockers and not use them during the day.
“There was a pattern where tons of texts were going out between the four minutes students had in between classes and then it would die down a little bit and then it would pick up again when they had another four minutes,” said Fannon.
Fannon didn’t know much about Swift back then so she had to do some research once it was announced they had won. She had to make sure Swift’s songs and outfit for the performance were appropriate for a Catholic school. Nowadays, Fannon says she is a Swiftie and so are her kids.
“She, at the time, couldn’t have been better. She was clean and wholesome and just wonderful with everybody,” said Fannon.
Swift got to meet around 30 Ireton students and received some Ireton swag. She also met Fannon and former Principal Tim Hamer, who got Swift to sign his guitar.
“Taylor Swift has a song called ‘The Best Day’ and this was very much the best day for us,” Hamer said in a Catholic Herald interview in 2009. “It’s very much a David and Goliath story,” with a small Catholic high school winning a national contest.
Students couldn’t believe their luck. The top country singer in the world was coming to their school to perform for them. Chris Ring, a junior at the time, remembers Swift performed all of her popular hits at the time including “Love Story” and “You Belong with Me.”
“It was probably the most fun anyone has ever had in their four years there,” Ring said. “For all four classes that is by far their favorite day at school and nothing comes close. I’ve been a big fan ever since because of what she was able to give to our high school.”
Verizon Wireless gave students posters of Swift with the date and the name of the school, and some alumni, like Ring, still have that poster. Ring says his poster still hangs on the wall in his old bedroom at his parents’ house.
“I was in the fifth row, right in the center of the auditorium,” said Ring. “Even our principal was dancing. It was so much fun.”
Fourteen years later, Ireton alumni and staff still relish the memories Swift gave them that day. For them this was and still is “The Best Day.”
They remember it “All Too Well.”
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