Taylor Swift had initially planned to release Folklore in 2021.
The album arrived much earlier than that plan, appearing on July 24, 2020. Swift created it during the COVID-19 pandemic and described the project as developing faster than expected, so the original schedule changed.
That surprise release is one reason Folklore became such a notable turn in Swift’s career. Instead of a long promotional rollout, she announced the album shortly before release. “august” was part of the standard album, alongside “cardigan,” “betty,” and other songs built around fictional or imagined narratives.
Listeners sometimes associate “august” with the month because its annual streaming revival occurs during August. That seasonal pattern came after the song’s 2020 release; it was not the reason the album was originally planned for a later year.