Students attend Taylor Swift’s coveted Eras Tour

By Quinn Delamater Collegian Freelancer

Taylor Swift is in her era.

On Nov. 1, 2022 the world famous singer-songwriter sensation announced her international Eras Tour would kick off in March 2023, her first tour since the Reputations Stadium Tour that closed in 2018. The announcement sent Swift lovers into a tizzy following the let down of the cancellation of her “Lover” tour in 2020 due to COVID-19. The Eras Tour is a historical event for Swift, set to showcase selections from all 10 of her previous albums. Performing 44 songs on every leg of the tour, each concert is set to last three hours.

On Nov. 18, the popular concert ticket purchasing website Ticketmaster was forced to cancel the Eras Tour presale due to high ticket demands.

Following this, Swift added additional stops on her tour to appease demand, hoping to accommodate the 3.5 million people who registered for the Eras Ticketmaster presale– the largest number in the platform’s history. According to StubHub, some fans paid as much as $22,000 for a night with the queen of pop.

Opening on March 17 in Glendale, Arizona, at State Farm Stadium, Swift sold out the arena of more than 70,000 people for two consecutive nights. The show is set to close on Wednesday, Aug. 8 at the Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles, California.

What has millions enchanted with the opportunity to snag a seat at the Eras Tour?

On opening night in Glendale, Swift performed fan favorites such as “Cruel Summer,” “Enchanted,” “All Too Well (10 Minute Version),” “Shake It Off,” and “Tim McGraw,” giving attendees of future concert dates much to look forward to.

That same night, Swift wore a long red dress for the performance of “Mirrorball” and her long time fans would recognize, as they were very similar to the outfits of her previous tours,” Fleming said. Swift also went above and beyond for set production. more concrete sets such as the songs performed from “Folklore” and “Evermore,” in which Swift crawled across a long, wooden table during the song “Marjorie,” and a stood in a treehouse to sing almost all of the selection from “Folklore,” an homage to her 2021 performance at the Grammys.

“Tim McGraw,” the “surprise” songs she decided to include on her acoustic set list that night, while wearing the same dress in green for her mystery acoustic set on night two.

Junior Audrey Guess attended the opening night show on March 17.

“As someone who has been listening to Taylor Swift since I was a kid, I feel like I’ve been through all of her different eras with her. It was really fun to get to see her perform and reminisce on her past releases with us as her audience,” Guess said.

Junior Abby Fleming, who attended night four of the tour, also in Glendale, said Swift’s outfits made significant contributions to her performance.

“Her outfits on this tour were like an Easter egg to her past tour outfits, little hidden gems of the past that only

On the stage, lighting or a screen was shown to cast images such as snake for “Reputation” songs and arrow images during the song “Arrow” from “Lover.” A graphic of a car was projected during “Getaway Car,” that Swift smashed with a gulf club. Other songs utilized

A tour practically fifteen years in the making, Swift brought back fan favorites such as the iconic ballad “Enchanted,” which she wore a ballgown dress similar to one she performed in for the Speak Now tour over a decade ago.

“She brought back outfits she wore on past tours which were amazing and reminded me of past shows I saw of hers, like the Red tour. Her theatrical performance, including the way she used the stage space and her dance moves were incredible too! It was 100% worth the vicious battle with Ticketmaster,” Guess said.

Freshman Penelope Campbell is excited to see Eras live during the last week of the tour in her home state of California.

“I grew up listening to Taylor Swift, but when she went on tours before, I was too young to go on my own,” Campbell said. “I think it will be so fun to see all of her different outfit changes during the show and am very much excited to see her perform ‘Cruel Summer’ and some of the more low key songs from ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’ too. I’m going to go crazy when I hear the opening chords of ‘Cardigan.’”