Ah, The Eras Tour. The beautiful journey through each of global pop sensation Taylor Swift’s musical eras. This concert tour marks Taylor’s return to the stage after a five-year break, and what a return it has been, with ticket sales reaching 2.2 billion dollars in North America alone.
The first indication that The Eras Tour was going to be a big deal was the rapid rate at which the tickets sold out. Ticketmaster, the platform that sold the tickets, was so overwhelmed with buyers that the system shut down midway through the sales process, leaving thousands of fans without seats (sadly, including the authors of this article). Joe Berchtold, the president and CFO of Live Nation (Ticketmaster’s parent company), stated that Ticketmaster was, “hit with three times the amount of bot traffic than we had ever experienced.” As you can see, many fans were eagerly awaiting this concert since Swift hasn’t gone on tour since her Reputation Tour in 2018.
Swifties created many traditions and plans for the upcoming Eras Tour in anticipation of the start date. In Taylor’s most recent studio album, Midnights, the track “You’re On Your Own Kid” features the lyrics, “Make the friendship bracelets, take the moment, and taste it.” Fans decided to take this lyric literally, and the tradition of trading friendship bracelets at The Eras Tour was born. Swifties would spend time before their concert date making many beaded bracelets, with beads featuring song lyrics, album names, inside jokes, and acronyms (bonus points to you if you know what ATWTMVTVFTVSGAVRALPS means). When fans located others with colorful bracelets at the concert, they began trading and giving them out so that fans could leave with a completely different set of bracelets than they arrived with!
Hence its title, The Era’s Tour featured concert outfits from each of the different eras! Whether it was wearing a cowboy hat and jeans for Debut or sporting pastels and hearts for Lover, the crowd was decked out in beautiful outfits that added to the atmosphere of the concert. One thing most fans had in common in their outfits was Taylor’s iconic 13 on one of their hands, which represents Taylor’s lucky number. Some fans went with more specific outfits based off of Taylor’s lyrics, characters she has played, or even a music video she was in with T Pain (shout-out to T Swizzle). Below are some of our honorable mentions for outfits that stood out, connected to Taylor, and made us laugh!
Finally, after Swifties had their bracelets created and outfits planned, Taylor kicked off The Eras Tour in Glendale, Arizona, with openers “Paramore” and “Beabadoobee.” Her setlist is filled with songs from all of her different eras, beginning with “Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince’’ and ending with “Karma.” Other openers for her included “Gayle,” “Muna,” “Gracie Abrams,” “Phoebe Bridgers,” “Owenn,” “Girl in Red,” “Haim,” and “Sabrina Carpenter.” Fans have been blown away by her three-hour performance and breathtaking set. Taylor’s shows also feature two surprise songs a night. Certain fans were left in tears and shock after certain songs were played, as that meant they were not going to be heard again on the Eras Tour. Also, special guests made surprise appearances on different nights, such as Aaron Dessner, Marcus Mumpford, Jack Antanoff, Ice Spice, and Maren Morris.
As many Swifties know, a huge announcement was made on May 5th. During a show in Nashville, the screen behind Taylor flashed with the words “Speak Now, Taylor’s Version.” Fans were astounded and overjoyed with this news. The rerecording of the album, which originally came out in 2010, was set to premiere on July 7th, 2023. If you didn’t know already, Taylor is in the process of rerecording her first six albums. These albums were produced by Big Machine Records, and once Taylor left this label, the masters of her albums were sold to Scooter Braun, a producer and manager of many other artists. After a long battle, she was finally permitted to begin rerecording these albums so she could own them once again. The Eras Tour continued as we patiently awaited the new re-recorded album, along with the new vault tracks. A few months later, “Speak Now (TV)” was finally released and took Swiftie Nation by storm! The night of its release, Taylor brought her ex-boyfriend, Taylor Lautner, and actress Joey King to the stage at her show in Kansas City to premier the new music video for “I Can See You,” a vault track. The other six vault tracks, one featuring Fall Out Boy and another with Hayley Williams of Paramore, were very well received with fans as well. On July 17th, Taylor’s version of “Speak Now” became number one on the Billboard 200, and she officially became the woman with the most chart-topping albums in history!
On August 9th, another exciting announcement was the release date of “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” which premiered on October 27th! That night closed off the first leg of The Eras Tour, with the international leg next up. The Eras Tour dates are forever expanding, however, and the tour is planned to fully wrap up in November 2024.
Currently, fans have a new thing to obsess over: Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour film. This film premiered in theaters on October 13th, and, similarly to the Eras Tour, tickets sold out fast. The film earned $93 million in ticket sales in US and Canadian theaters in its first weekend and officially became the highest-grossing domestic concert film in the world. Taylor even made a surprise appearance at the premiere in Los Angeles! This film was an amazing experience for fans who may not have gotten tickets to the concert or for fans who went but want to experience it again. The movie was 2 hours and 48 minutes long, almost the length of the actual concert, and engulfs you into the atmosphere of The Era’s Tour, making the audience feel like they are really there.
The Eras Tour brought people together, no matter their age or gender. It was an experience that connected us through buying tickets, trading bracelets, and screaming every song surrounded by others doing the same. In the words of Taylor herself, “Hold on to spinning around; confetti falls to the ground; may these memories break our fall.”
