This year’s Freshman Follies competition will take place via TikTok. Winning videos will premiere at the Town & Country Drive-In Theater.

ACU’s annual Freshman Follies is a freshman-only lip sync competition. This year, to comply with social distancing guidelines, freshmen will post videos on TikTok for judges to view, rather than lip-syncing on a stage.

“It’s not going to be like the freshman participating in current TikTok trends,” Allison Skelton, junior communication sciences and disorders major from Lufkin, said. “It’s going to be more of them creating videos of their choice but using TikTok as the platform because a lot of them are already on it and already know how to use it.”

Videos will be posted on TikTok using the hashtag #ACUFollies20. Nick Tatum, director of student productions, will download the eligible videos into Google Drive, where the judges will be able to view them and select winning videos to showcase during the Follies Viewing Party. After winners from every category are chosen, these videos will be compiled and prepared for the party.

There are two divisions of competition videos, TinyToks and TeamToks. TinyToks are videos featuring 1-4 people and TeamToks are videos featuring 5-15.

For both divisions, a prize will be awarded for Best Dance, Funnies and Most Original.

“I think it’s a good idea; almost every student has TikTok,” Lincoln Russell, freshman engineering major from Merkel, said.

In addition to competition videos, talent videos will also be premiered. The Follies Leadership Team will audition talent acts via video, and eight will be performing in the compiled video along with the winners of the competition.

“Follies is super important for the freshmen getting to know each other,” Skelton said, “This is the best way we can think of to get them involved and getting to know each other but still be safe.”

The Follies Viewing Party will be Oct. 2 with a free movie to follow.

All submitted TikToks, including more than one person, must follow CDC guidelines by demonstrating proper social distancing as well as wearing masks. Videos submitted that do not follow those rules will not be judged as potential category winners, as well as any video violating ACU’s Code of Conduct.

The deadline for talent submissions is Sept. 6. Auditions can be submitted at acustupro.com/follies20.

While there is no submission limit for Follies videos, the deadline is Sept. 20.