Taylor Swift sang, among other things, that “I just think you should, think you should know that nothing safe is worth the drive.” But for all the Swifties looking for a fun fall festival, the drive to Gambrills, Maryland, may be worth it.
In front of a “stupid old pickup truck” (well it’s not that stupid, but there’s a theme here) in Gambrills is a new Swiftie-themed corn maze that opens up this weekend.
The Maryland Corn Maze, which sits at the corner of Gambrills Road and Maryland Route 175, runs its fall festival with a different theme every year. This year’s version is, well, not Taylor’s Version officially, but it’s definitely something all the Swifties you know will love “All Too Well.”
Nearly the whole festival is “everything Taylor,” corn maze owner Carol Paul said.
Planning for this year’s maze, which opens on Saturday, started before the spring.
“I started thinking, ‘My daughter-in-law would probably leave my son for Taylor Swift.’ I mean, she loves Taylor Swift,” Paul joked. “And then I thought, ‘That’s who picks where to go on the weekends — the moms.’ The girls pick where date night is. And I was like, ‘Huh, that’s not a bad idea! Maybe we should do Taylor Swift.’ So we kind of went with it.”
Trampled and carved into the corn stalks are things like a 300-foot guitar, the numbers 1989, and even the hands folded into the heart sign. The number 13 is also in it, as are musical notes. Her face, however, is not part of the maze, and you won’t see her face in the neighbor’s lawn.
“We just plant a rectangle of corn and then when it gets to be about two inches high, which is about sometimes just a week or two after we plant if the rain works out, we go in there and we use GPS coordinates and we use some spray paint, and we … weed kill the paths so that it comes out in the shape we want,” said Paul.
“We weed kill the paths continuously over and over again until the foot traffic comes — the guest — and they keep it down themselves,” she added.
You don’t have to be a Swiftie to get through the maze, so if you get lost, then “it’s you, hi, you’re the problem, it’s you.” But don’t fret, they have two GPS games for the maze you can pull up on your phone because, after all, “nothing seems to work the first few times, am I right?”
“One is a jigsaw puzzle, and one is a fog overlay,” said Paul. “And you can pick to just do one or do both. And it helps you go through the maze.”
“They’re pretty cool games, and it helps you reveal the shape of the maze, so that’s the fun of that. And you’ll find some Taylor stuff in there,” she added. “But you don’t have to know Taylor in order to get through the maze.”
Once you walk out, though, it’ll be “the light of freedom on your face.”
The design of the maze is trickier to see at ground level, but above the trees, you can see it for what it is. And outside of the maze, beyond the petting zoos, zip lines, paintball guns and all your other typical fall festival fare, is a whole bunch of Taylor-inspired gear, from hats to bracelets and so much more. So you can “capture it, remember it.”
The Maryland Corn Maze is open on weekends from Sept. 14 through Nov. 3 along with some select weekdays, and a Swift tribute concert is planned for Oct. 2.
Guests are encouraged to buy tickets online ahead of time to ensure entry. Children 2 and under are free, so no reason to have them “sneak in through the garden gate.”
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