With 152 shows, 51 countries, five continents and over a year of performing, Taylor Swift’s sixth concert tour, “The Eras Tour,” has taken the world by storm. Creating a significant cultural and economic impact globally as the highest-grossing tour of all time, the concert consisted of over 40 songs from albums such as “Fearless” to “Midnights,” as well as her newest album “The Tortured Poets Department.” The tour concluded in Vancouver, Canada on Dec. 8.
“I have been listening to Taylor Swift since I was about three or four years old,” junior Ava Hulbert said. “I have so many memories listening to her music with my friends and family that it made it extra special to hear the same songs in person.”
Swift released various works throughout the tour, including her re-recorded albums “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” and “1989 (Taylor’s Version).” In addition to personalized versions of her previous albums, she released brand new music with “The Tortured Poets Department” in April, becoming the fastest album ever to hit 1 billion streams.
“I love her passion for music,” junior Evangeline Trazzera said. “I feel like all of her songs tell a story and I just like listening to them because, with the number of albums, she has a song for anything you can be going through.”
Swift also released her tour movie, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.” Released on Oct. 13, the film documented Swift’s Los Angeles shows and became the highest-grossing concert film of all time, earning $267.1 million during its theatrical release. She also released the 256-page book version of her tour, “The Official Taylor Swift The Eras Tour Book,” which contains over 500 images, notes from Swift and exclusive content of components of her tour like instruments, costumes, sets and design sketches.
“When I saw the movie, I almost cried in the movie theater because I was like ‘this is so cool that so many people are united and love Taylor Swift,’” Trazzerra said. “I just love seeing a bunch of happy people, so I think I missed out on the collective experience of [attending the concert in person and] being able to have the time of [my] life.”
In Nov. of 2022, many fans anticipated being able to purchase tickets to see Swift in concert with 3.5 million people registering for the Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan presale program in the U.S. However, Ticketmaster crashed after one hour of being on sale, leaving many fans without tickets. Live Nation, Ticketmaster’s parent company, had planned on selling other tickets in a general sale, but due to the demand of millions, they canceled it altogether. Many resellers purchased tickets in bulk and put them on ticket resale websites, such as SeatGeek and StubHub, for extremely high prices of $1,000 or more.
“I hate the concept of resales,” freshman Ava Bergman said. “[People] shouldn’t be able to resell more than a couple hundred [dollars]. I understand upping the price a little bit but selling them for thousands of dollars is insane.”
Despite many fans being unable to attend the tour, it was common for those who attended to do live streams on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. In addition, the “Swift Alert” app emerged through which fans could guess Swift’s surprise songs and outfits for each night of the tour, as a way to remain engaged despite being unable to attend in person. Alongside this, many trends formed alongside the tour: friendship bracelets, the phrase, “in my __ era” entering day-to-day conversations and gathering outside of stadiums with other fans who could not purchase tickets to enjoy the concert without being there.
“If I knew she was performing, I would go on TikTok and watch all of her live streams and see what the surprise songs were, which was so interesting,” Trazzera said. “I also have [the SwiftAlert app] and I do all the trivia stuff on there and I think that’s so much fun.”
On Nov. 17, 2023, a fan was killed by heat exposure after attending one of Swift’s Rio de Janeiro shows. At the time of her passing, Rio was experiencing a record-breaking heat wave with a daily heat index of 125 degrees Fahrenheit. Security had refused to allow water to be brought into the stadium despite the short supply inside the venue. In addition, multiple fans faced health issues from the heat. Swift canceled her show for the next day, prioritizing the safety of her fans.
In the summer of 2024, Swift had to cancel all three of her Vienna concerts due to the CIA discovering evidence of a planned attack on fans in attendance at her shows.
“No musician, band or backup dancers should have to deal with those feelings and fear when they’re trying to bring something that’s really just so positive and happy and bringing people together,” Chemistry Honors and orchestra teacher Melanie Richardson said. “However, I was really sad and disappointed for those fans.”
Richardson attended the first leg of the tour in Tampa on April 14, 2023. Additionally, Richardson traveled abroad to Edinburgh, Scotland to see the tour on June 9, 2024.
“What hit me was just how passionate people were about it and how nice the people were,” Richardson said. “Everyone was trading bracelets and singing, and just how it brought people together really inspired me.”
