Lizzy Larson
Hundreds wait in line outside Lola's to hear Harry Styles on Feb. 19, 2026.
Around 6:30 p.m., there were nearly 100 people in line to hear Styles' new album.
The announcement last week that Madison and Los Angeles would be the only two U.S. cities hosting listening parties for British superstar Harry Styles’ new album Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally., dropping March 6, lacked some important details.
Styles’ team kept the location of the event secret until hours before it started. His record label did not respond to a request for comment. Only 100 people got invited to the event and we were not among the lucky ones. Desperate, we started messaging people on TikTok and Reddit to see what we could learn.
Just one contact worked out: Caroline Accetta, who grew up in Milwaukee, posted a TikTok on Monday announcing she had won tickets to the listening party. She agreed to a phone interview, describing herself as “Harry’s biggest fan.” Accetta says she has been to 14 of Styles’ concerts and “thought she was being pranked” when she received the email invitation.
“He has been with me through so many parts of life,” says Accetta. “I’m so grateful that we can keep doing this together.”
Less than 24 hours before the party, Accetta still hadn’t been notified of the location.
“There has got to be enough room to dance because Disco, Occasionally is in the name of the album,” she says. “Maybe the Majestic?”
Styles first broke into the international scene as part of boy band One Direction. When the band went on indefinite hiatus in 2016, he released his self-titled first solo album in 2017 and followed up with subsequent releases in 2019 and 2022. Beyond his music, a mix of warm pop and soaring ballads, Styles’ international superstar status has also been bolstered by his flamboyant, gender-ambiguous fashion sense.
Accetta tentatively agreed to share the location when she received it, but text messages to her in the few hours prior to the event went unanswered. With no other options, we started visiting all the Madison venues we considered likely spots.
Nothing was happening at the Sylvee, High Noon Saloon, Majestic or Strictly Discs music store on Monroe Street. But at the last moment, we received an anonymous tip: Lola’s Hi/Lo Lounge on North Sherman Avenue posted on Instagram Wednesday afternoon that it would host a “private event” and be closed to the general public in the evening. We scrambled to get there, making it by 6:10 p.m., still 20 minutes before the event's 6:30 p.m. check-in time.
The view through the windows was completely obscured by black curtains, though the phrase “We Belong Together,” part of the album’s marketing, was pasted on the glass. Two young men, both wearing shirts displaying those words, were operating video cameras by the door.
An older employee, ostensibly event staff, eyed us suspiciously as we walked up. We identified ourselves as reporters and asked if this was the Harry Styles event.
“Yeah,” he said, somewhat uncomfortably.
He said he would go inside and “find someone” for us to chat with. After about two minutes, he came back and said that “it’s a private event and there’s a list.”
Implication: Go away.
We decided to wait it out at the nearby Drackenberg’s Cigar Bar, where the bartender gave us a warm welcome. Around 10 minutes later, we noticed through the windows two women walking by in flashy dresses — a little too dolled-up for Wednesday evening at the strip mall.
We dashed out the door and were met with a line of nearly 100 people.
Translation: Harry (‘s album) is here.
Those in line were ecstatic to have made the cut for the listening party. Longtime friends Maria Sadowske — the woman wearing the sequin dress — and Lauren Murray have each other saved as “Harry Styles” in their phones (sometimes they pretend that, when they’re texting each other, they’re actually texting the star). Both Milwaukee residents, they say they’ve been listening to Styles since One Direction’s “X Factor” days in 2010.
“We were literally driving to the [Milwaukee County] zoo to meet at the zoo with our kids. We got out of the car and just had, like, a two-minute dance party because we were freaking out,” says Sadowske.
Sisters Patricia Rivera Torres, 25, and Amanda Rivera Torres, 23, say they were bewildered to receive tickets, and to see that Madison, where they’ve grown up, was one of two cities in the nation selected for a listening party. They’ve both been listening to Styles since around 2012, when they first saw him at Miller Park as part of One Direction.
“Never in a million years would I even think he would have come to Madison,” says Patricia. “It's just really cool to be able to experience this in our own hometown.”
Lizzy Larson
Sisters Patricia Rivera-Torres, right, and Amanda Rivera-Torres grew up in Madison. Says Patricia: 'It's just really cool to be able to experience this in our own hometown.'
Noah Showalter, one of the few men in line, was still waiting at 6:40 for a friend to arrive. He’d been spending the day wondering where he’d end up that night.
“There was lots of theorizing between my friends and I about where it was going to be,” says Showalter, who was wearing a jazzy black and white button-up shirt. “We thought, Majestic? No, too basic. A random warehouse in the middle of the cornfields? We really didn’t know.”
Showalter was looking forward to meeting fellow fans: “Harry Styles creates a community where we can all converse and grow relationships with people who you don’t know. We all have mutual respect for each other because we all love the same music.”
