It's been a long time coming... the end of an era
A farewell to Taylor Swift's "Eras Tour."
After 149 shows, 54 stops across 5 continents, over 60 different outfit variations, and 21 straight months of touring: The Eras Tour has finally come to a close. On December 8th 2024 in Vancouver Canada, Taylor Swift played her final performance of the Eras Tour. Not only has this been Taylor’s most successful tour out of the six headlining tours she’s done throughout her career, the Eras Tour has become the most successful and highest-grossing concert tour of all time.
After the pandemic, the future of large scale concerts were uncertain. Taylor was originally set to go on tour in 2020 with Lover Fest after the release of her 2019 record, Lover. However, when lockdown happened, she postponed the dates before eventually cancelling the tour altogether. Over the next few years, she released multiple new albums. In 2020, she released the sister albums, folklore and evermore. In 2021, she began her re-recording project with Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version). In 2022, she released her 10th studio album, Midnights. By the time she was able to tour again, Taylor now had four brand new albums she was yet to tour, which left fans wondering what her next show would even look like.
On November 1st 2022, our question was answered:
Opening Night
The very first night of the US leg of the Eras Tour took place on the 17th of March 2023 in Glendale, Arizona. The 70,000 people in the audience waited in anticipation as Applause by Lady Gaga was followed with a 2 minute timer while You Don’t Own Me by Lesley Gore played. The opening of the Eras Tour is one of Taylor’s most creative. Dancers came out with giant pink fans as snippets of Taylor’s different eras over the years played in the background. The dancers put the fans on the stage and when they pulled them away, Taylor Swift had magically appeared in a shimmering pink and blue bodysuit. She put the microphone up to her mouth and sang: “it’s been a long time coming, but… it’s you and me, that’s my whole world.”
I still vividly remember opening night. I remember being shocked, like everyone, that of all the songs to choose from, Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince was the opening song. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. The very first lyric of the tour being, “it’s been a long time coming,” simply made sense because the tour had been a long time coming. When opening night happened, I was home sick with tonsillitis. To most, the idea of laying in bed for 3 hours straight watching a concert unfold from a grainy TikTok livestream probably sounds awful, but I was having the time of my life. Seeing all the outfits for the first time, discovering the order of the eras, finding out what songs had made the cut one by one — it was a day in fangirl history.
So Make the Friendship Bracelets, Take the Moment and Taste it
I don’t know where on when it started, but somewhere along the lines, friendship bracelets became a symbol of the Eras Tour. It was inspired by a specific lyric from the song You’re On Your Own, Kid: “Everything you lose is a step you take, so make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it. You’ve got no reason to be afraid.” Fans thought up the idea of making Taylor Swift themed friendship bracelets and trading them at the show. What started out as a fan project became an integral part of the Eras Tour experience. At every show, without fail, friendship bracelets would be traded. Taylor herself even quickly became aware of the trend.
Other than the friendship bracelets, there have been many other fan traditions throughout this tour. Yelling “1, 2, 3, let’s go bitch!” after the Delicate intro did originate on the Reputation tour, but I’m glad it carried over onto the Eras Tour. There were many popular “chants” during the show, but I’d say the other two main ones were, “you forgive, you forget, but you never let it go,” during Bad Blood, and “facts!” during Karma. It also became a tradition for everyone in the crowd to turn on their phone’s flashlight during marjorie, and to give a standing ovation after champagne problems, the longest of which was 8 minutes long.
The Sydney crowds had a mission to recreate the Sydney Blank Space chant from the 1989 tour film, and they most definitely delivered. And of course, there’s the traditions that have been around at Taylor concerts since the dawn of time, such as painting a ‘13’ on your hand and doing a hand heart with Taylor after the Fearless bridge.
The phrase ‘Errors Tour’ was coined amongst fans to describe moments in the show that weren’t exactly planned, like Taylor swallowing a bug mid-speech, her heel breaking off during the Lover set and her continuing like nothing happened, Taylor having to sprint backstage after the Reputation set when the stage lift wouldn’t work, many moments of forgetting or jumbling up lyrics, and of course, the many inevitable technical difficulties and wardrobe malfunctions. As funny as the errors tour compilation videos are, you have to give Taylor her props for always handling off-script moments with so much grace and professionalism. But perhaps the most iconic errors tour moment came during night 2 in Philadelphia, when Taylor told off a security guard for being rough with fans mid-lyrics during Bad Blood.
There have also been some chaotic changes to the setlist along the way. On night 1 in Arlington Texas, a mere five shows into the tour, Taylor swapped out invisible string during the folklore set and replaced it with the 1, a move which completely baffled fans. This decision was seemingly later explained by the news of Taylor’s breakup from her long-term boyfriend, Joe Alwyn. After Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) was released, Taylor added Long Live to the setlist, before removing it again in 2024 (Long Live, you’re the loss of my life). And only a select few audiences got to see main stage performances of songs like Nothing New, No Body, No Crime, and Florida!!!.
In Argentina, Taylor decided to do a chaotic lyric change during the closing number, Karma. Instead of saying, “karma is the guy on the screen,” she said, “karma is the guy on the Cheifs,” a nod to her boyfriend who plays for the Kansas City Cheifs, Travis Kelce. From that moment on, Taylor would sing that lyric instead at every show in which Travis was in attendance. Another sweet moment of the show became the 22 hat; in which during the song 22, Taylor would take off her hat and give it to a kid in the audience.
Special Guests
Throughout the 149 shows, Taylor has had many special guests of the Eras Tour. In Las Vegas, she brought out Marcus Mumford to perform cowboy like me. In Chicago, she brought out Maren Morris to perform You All Over Me. She’s brought out Aaron Dessner, producer and member of The National, multiple times to perform songs they’ve made together, including The Great War, Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve, and right where you left me. She also brought her friend and collaborator Jack Antonoff out on multiple occasions to play songs like Death By a Thousand Cuts and Getaway Car. On the nights Phoebe Bridgers opened, Taylor would bring her out to perform their song together, Nothing New. Similarly, when Haim opened, they would perform No Body, No Crime together. In all Florida shows during the second US leg, she would bring Florence Welch of Florence & the Machine out to play Florida!!!.
When performing in East Rutherford New Jersey, Taylor premiered the Karma music video featuring Ice Spice during the show. When she performed Karma later that night, she brought Ice Spice out to sing her verse. Similarly, when she debuted the I Can See You music video in Kansas City, she brought Taylor Lautner, Joey King, and Presley Cash out on stage, all of whom make appearances in the video. It was here that Taylor Lautner saw the opportunity to do backflips on stage and took it. With her London shows came many surprise guests, including Gracie Abrams, Hayley Williams (for Castles Crumbling), and Ed Sheeran. Only six times has she performed a song that’s not hers during the surprise songs. She’s played Us. and I Miss You, I’m Sorry (both twice) with Gracie Abrams, Thinking Out Loud with Ed Sheeran, and the second time she brought Sabrina Carpenter out, they played snippets of both Espresso and Please Please Please.
But perhaps the most shocking surprise guest we got throughout the Eras Tour was Travis Kelce. On London night 3, in the interlude between The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived and I Can Do it With a Broken Heart, Travis took stage in costume and acted out the skit alongside Taylor and her dancers. For sure one of the most iconic and surprising moments of the tour for fans.
Speak Now & 1989 (Taylor’s Version)
If we thought Taylor would put her re-recording project on hold while on tour, we were very much mistaken. During the surprise song section of her first night in Nashville, Taylor addressed the audience, saying, “rather than me speaking about it, I thought I would just show you.” The screen then showed the album cover with a title announcing that Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) would be out July 7th. The crowd went absolutely nuts. She then jumped right into playing Sparks Fly. I still remember where I was when I found out. I had just knocked off work and was eating my lunch while scrolling through twitter when the album cover popped up on my feed.
With 1989 (Taylor’s Version) however, I was watching on a livestream when that transpired. There were rumours she was going to be announcing that night, as it was not only her final night in Los Angeles, but the final night of the US leg of the tour. I remember the chaos that happened with every new blue outfit she debuted. First, she wore a new blue dress for the Speak Now set. Then, she wore a new blue outfit for the folklore set. And finally, the crowd watched with bated breath as she popped up out of the stage wearing a new blue sparkly two-piece for the 1989 set. That’s when everyone kenw she was announcing 1989 (Taylor’s Version), which she did shortly after during the surprise songs set, before playing New Romantics.
These announcements will easily go down as two of the most memorable Eras Tour moments. I still love rewatching the announcement videos just to hear the crowds absolutely losing their minds.
The Eras Tour (Movie Version)
On October 13th 2023, Taylor released a concert film of The Eras Tour to cinemas, the first of Taylor’s concert films to get a theatre release. What was so cool about the cinema release was that it gave all the fans who missed out on tickets the opportunity to still get to experience the Eras Tour in some way. Even at the movie showings, fans were still bringing friendship bracelets to trade, and theatres were even allowing movie-goers to get up out of their seats to dance and sing, and also film whatever parts of the movie they wanted.
I went to the opening night of the Eras Tour film at my local cinema, and you can tell they put effort into making it as much of an experience as possible. They handed Eras posters out to everyone beforehand and did Taylor trivia before the movie started (I won a bag of chocolates during the trivia). Throughout the screening I went to, there were lots of young kids and teens who got up out of their seats to dance at the front. Some may think of that as annoying, but honestly, it just made it all the more memorable; the energy in the room was infectious. It was by far the most unique experience I’ve ever had watching a film in cinemas.
Paris Night 1
When The Tortured Poets Department came out during the 2 month break of the Eras Tour, everyone was wondering the same question: was she going to add the new album to the setlist? And if so, what was she going to cut to make room for it? I don’t think anyone was prepared for how much she was going to change.
Throughout 2023, Taylor did the North American and South American legs of the show. In early 2024, she did her Australian and Asian shows before taking a break to release Tortured Poets. The first show back was in Paris, and it was also the first show of the European leg. When the show started in Paris, it was roughly 3am where I live. I debated staying up for it, but ultimately decided against it. By pure happenstance, I woke up at 4:30. I decided to quickly check my phone to see if anything interesting had happened, and as soon as I saw that Taylor had skipped evermore, Reputation, and Speak Now and had gone straight to the Red set, I no longer cared that it was 4:30 in the morning and immediately hopped on a livestream.
She debuted a new outfit for every era except Reputation, she merged the folklore and evermore sets, and she cut seven songs from the setlist. It was practically an entirely new show. But of course, the craziest change was the addition of the Tortured Poets set. The Tortured Poets set included three brand new outfits and seven new songs to the setlist. Making such drastic changes to the show halfway through the tour must’ve been risky and time-consuming, but she did it because she knew the fans would want to hear the new stuff live; you gotta respect the hustle. Paris night 1 will forever be known as one of the most iconic and memorable nights of the Eras Tour.
We Never Go Out of Style
We can’t talk about the Eras Tour without talking about some of the amazing outfits she wore throughout the show. As I said earlier, there are over 60 different outfit variations for this tour. Taylor has had some great tour outfits in the past (Rep tour bodysuit and Red ringleader outfit, you’ll always be famous), but personally, the Eras Tour has had my favourite outfits out of any Taylor tour. I think that’s largely due to the range of outfits this show has that we wouldn’t usually get on a tour that only focuses on one era; on this tour, we’ve got bodysuits, we’ve got ball gowns, we’ve got flowy dresses and capes, we’ve got jackets and skirts and bedazzled boots.
I love that the show both starts and ends with a bodysuit, but the Lover bodysuits we get in the opening era are bright and colourful, and the bodysuits we get in the closing set for Midnights are navy or dark blue. This detail is especially cool when you consider that for many of the shows, the opening era would take place during sunset, which the Lover bodysuits would mimic; while the Midnights set would take place well and truly once it was dark and the moon was out, which the Midnights bodysuits would reflect.
Considering that every era would have a variety of outfits, you’d never know which outfit combinations you were going to get at your show, which added an element of surprise. Swifties even found a way to turn this into a game. The app SwiftAlert made a game called Mastermind, in which every night you could place a guess on what outfits you thought Taylor was going to wear, and would get a certain number of points for every outfit you got correct. There would even be a leaderboard for players with the most points.
Although every era had multiple outfit variations, there was one era that almost didn’t. And that was Reputation. For the first 130 shows, Taylor only wore one black and red Reputation jumpsuit. This led lots of fans to wonder why Reputation was the only era to only have one outfit, and there was much speculation that a new Reputation outfit would be debuted only when Taylor decided to announce Reputation (Taylor’s Version). At the first night of Miami on the final leg of the tour, Taylor surprised the audience by debuting a new black and gold Reputation jumpsuit. As they did when she strutted out wearing a blue two-piece for 1989 a year earlier, the crowd lost their minds. She didn’t end up announcing Reputation TV, but it was still an iconic moment for the Swiftie history books.
My Experience at the Eras Tour
Getting tickets was one of the most stressful experiences of my life. We only just got them in time; we came so close to missing out. But in the end, we managed to get tickets to her third and final night in Melbourne at the MCG. The three nights she performed there were the biggest crowds she’s ever played to, with 96,000 each night. I’ve been a Taylor fan for 10 years now, ever since the original 1989 era, but this was my first time seeing her in concert. Between tickets, airfares, accomodation, merchandise, food, and my outfit, I spent more money on that concert than I care to admit, but I wouldn’t take it back for the world.
We had Sabrina Carpenter as our opener, and she was incredible. She has such a great stage presence; and this was before her blow-up in success with Espresso and Short n’ Sweet (Emails I Can’t Send, you’ll always be famous to me). I’ll be fully honest and admit I cried when I caught a glimpse of Taylor for the first time. The video I have of the opening of the show is essentially ruined because my hands were shaking so bad. Without a doubt, the set with the highest energy was Reputation. As soon as that snake appeared on screen, everyone was on their feet cheering. The stadium felt like it was literally shaking during Look What You Made Me Do.
I loved screaming the lyrics to Long Live at the top of my lungs, and getting to hear the 10 minute version of All Too Well live was an out-of-body experience. My guitar surprise song was a mashup of Come Back… Be Here and Daylight, and my piano surprise song was Teardrops on My Guitar, which, being a Debut song, means I got all 10 eras. The Karma fireworks were quite possibly the most magical moment of my life; it was the perfect way to close out the show.
For weeks afterwards I was in a daze, wondering if it had actually happened; constantly going back through my photos and videos for crucial evidence I didn’t imagine the whole thing. The best word I can use to sum up the experience is magical. Everywhere I turned, I saw people with glitter on their faces, sequins on their dresses; wearing cowboy hats and sparkly boots and friendship bracelets up their arms. In every direction, there were people dancing, singing, laughing, crying, and being unabashedly joyful and passionate.
I know so many Swifties unfortunately missed out on going, whether it be because they never made it out of the queue, or they couldn’t afford it, or they were among the thousands who sadly didn’t get to attend the Vienna shows. I nearly missed out on tickets myself, so I will forever be insanely grateful I got to go. I see so many people who went complaining about so many trivial things; whether it be their seats, or the outfits they got, or their surprise songs. It disheartens me, because I wouldn’t dream of complaining about any second of it. In my eyes, getting to go was a privilege and I consider myself lucky for it (and that’s coming from someone who was way up in the nosebleeds).
The Eras Tour has taken place over the span of 21 months. When I look back on my life when the Eras Tour first started and compare it to now, so much has changed in that time. I’ve been through so much in the last 21 months — some of it good, some of it bad — but always there, as a beacon of light in my life, was the Eras Tour.
In Summation
The Eras Tour is not only an amalgamation of all of Taylor’s albums and the greatest hits throughout her career, it’s a celebration of her music and the bond that she has curated with fans over the years. It has also been, in a lot of ways, a celebration of girlhood and femininity. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Taylor Swift is for the girlies. That doesn’t mean other people can’t like her, of course, but there is just something about her music that perfectly captures the experience and the essence of girlhood, and I think that’s why a large portion of her audience is mostly women. During the Fearless set, before Taylor sings You Belong With Me, she says: “Are you ready to go back to high school with me?” It’s a simple line, but it’s accurate. For a lot of people in the audience, they have grown up with Taylor and her music. I know for me personally, Taylor’s music has been an integral and formative part of my teen years and adolescence.
This is a fundamental part of what makes the Eras Tour so special; you’re not only experiencing Taylor’s current music live, you’re also getting to revisit the music you grew up listening to. I have a feeling when we look back on Taylor’s career in however many years, this tour will be a standout moment. When I’m old and wrinkly, I love that I’ll be able to say I got to experience The Eras Tour in all its glory.
“It was the end of an era, but the start of an age…”