The Eras Tour, a record-setting tour by Taylor Swift, began on March 17th, 2023 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Over the last year and a half, Taylor Swift has traveled to 50 locations, and 19 countries, performing in front of millions of people. The tour encompasses music from all her albums, or eras in Swiftie’s words. These Albums are Debut, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, Reputation, Lover, folklore, evermore, Midnight’s, and The Tortured Poets Department. Taylor also plays surprise songs from these albums that are not on the set list, changing them up each night. There is a guitar song and a piano song. With the tour nearing its end at the last show in Vancouver, Canada, on December 8th, 2024, it has captivated many people worldwide, including a few at Morgan. The PawPrint met up with several students who purchased tickets to the thrilling event.
Taylor Breen, a sophomore at the Morgan School, attended night two of the shows in Milan, Italy on July 14th, 2024 at San Siro Stadium.
She had tried many different times to get U.S. tickets, but prices continued to increase. When Swift announced her international tour, Taylor decided to look into buying tickets during presale for a few European dates. Ticket prices had gotten so expensive on presale that it was around the same price for tickets and flights to Europe as it was to see her in the U.S., so she didn’t look back and bought them.
Her family had always wanted to travel to Europe so it was the perfect opportunity. Because they traveled so far, they made a whole summer trip out of it visiting various parts of Italy.
The stadium in Italy is very different from most US stadiums where her concerts occur. There was barely anything inside, just two bathrooms and a mini concession stand with only chips and water that fans could access. There was also no merch inside, so when Taylor went in she realized that there wasn’t any after being told that there was, and she wasn’t allowed to leave. It was also very, very hot inside the stadium.
She went with her mom, dad, and 11-year-old sister. She said it was really fun to get to see it with her sister because they both love listening to her so much and are constantly talking about the concerts.
Taylor wore a tie-dye puffy dress with pink Converse and heart glasses. This outfit represented the era of Swift’s album “Lover”. She thought it was the most visually appealing era to dress as. Lover is a happy and bright colored album so she used those themes in her outfit.
Taylor commented, “When Taylor first came on, and I realized that it was happening, I cried lots of tears of joy and during many other magical moments like during the song, “Enchanted.” I was happy for pretty much the entire time, screaming every song, but some sad, relatable songs made me cry.”
Throughout the concert, Reputation was Taylor’s favorite set, which is also her favorite album. Her performance with the flashing red lights and the songs “Ready for it…” and “Look What You Made Me Do” were the highlights of the set for her.
Her surprise songs were a mashup of “Mr. Perfectly Fine” and “Red” on guitar and a mashup of “Getaway Car” and “Out of the Woods” on the piano. Taylor said, “I was very, very happy with my surprise songs, all four songs played are some of my favorites.”
At the concert, Swift wore a brand-new purple Speak Now dress which fans have named Wonderstruck. The 1989 outfit set was a pink top and pink skirt, which is her favorite color.
Taylor ended by saying “Overall I had an amazing concert experience and could go see her a million more times. It was one of, if not the best, night of my life.”
Libby Burns, a sophomore at the Morgan School, attended night two of the show in Dublin, Ireland on June 29, 2024, at the Aviva Stadium.
She and her dad signed up for presale for the show. When it came time to purchase the tickets it was her dad’s job. He quickly got whatever tickets popped up, and they ended up being VIP tickets. As much as they were expensive, the seats were very nice.
Libby’s dad is from Ireland, which in her words “made traveling to a concert even more fun.”She hadn’t been since she was little, so she got to meet a lot of new people from the country. She and her family flew down and traveled to the northern part of the country for a week. Then, they drove back to Dublin to see the concert.
There was much different about the experience at the Dublin show. Libby said, “In Ireland, it was light out almost the entire show which changed the experience because you can’t see all the cool light effects.” Typically, there are many visual effects reflected in the crowd, but they are difficult to see if it isn’t dark outside. Also, there was Irish food at the venue and the merch line was much shorter than at U.S. shows. Although this was different from other shows, she got to see a gorgeous sunset, which made up for some faults.
During the show, the stage broke during the song, The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, and a dancer had to help her down. These malfunctions don’t usually occur, so it allowed fans to have a little laugh at the moment.
Libby went with her family which she said was fun for her because she got to see her sister having the time of her life. Family is a very important aspect of her life, so this concert really embraced that.
Libby wore a silver dress with a black leather jacket and black Converse. This outfit was inspired by the era of Swift’s Reputation album. This is one of her favorite albums by Swift. Reputation is a revenge-themed album with a dark color scheme, of black, green, red, and white, so she used these colors in her outfit.
When asked about her favorite era performed at the concert, Libby stated, “I really liked The Tortured Poets Department because I hadn’t seen that era before, being that the album was new and just released at the time, and it was cool to see.” During the show, she was excited and could not wait to see what was going to happen next. There was a lot of anticipation and nerves throughout the crowd.
Her surprise songs were a mashup of “The Albatross” and “Dancing With Our Hands Tied” on the guitar and a mashup of “This Love” and “Ours” on the piano. She was very happy with those songs, mainly because she likes “Dancing With Our Hands Tied.”
At the show, Swift wore a blue dress during the Speak Now set, which Libby wanted. It is her favorite of the outfits Swift wears for the Speak Now era. She was also excited to see the Tortured Poets Department-era white dress with lyrics written on it.
She finished off by saying, “I enjoyed the Dublin show, and it was an experience I will never forget.”
Rylee Coffin, a sophomore at the Morgan School, attended two shows. Her first show was night one of the Massachusetts shows on May 20th, 2023 at Gillette Stadium. The other was night three of the Edinburgh, Scotland shows on June 9, 2024, at Murrayfield Stadium.
Her mom and dad had applied for presale for both of the concerts. Her dad was able to buy tickets for the Edinburgh show, but not Gillette. However, her friend Libby’s mom was able to buy everyone’s tickets for the Gillette show.
The location of the concerts affected her experience to a great extent. Rylee said “It was much harder to get into and out of Gillette stadium. It was raining super hard and there was so much traffic that we had to park a mile away from the stadium and walk there.” However, at her Edinburgh show, she stayed at a hotel that was only about a 15-minute walk from the stadium. On the way back it took about 30 minutes which is a big difference from the Gillette traffic.
At Gillette, the stage was very wet, which led to some malfunctions in the piano. Eventually, Swiftie’s labeled this as “the rainiest rain show.” She was able to play on it that night, but the next day the piano broke and started playing on its own. In Scotland, there was also a small malfunction which involved the screens glitching. A very big difference with this show though was that a lot of people passed out. Rylee commented, “It was so weird because it wasn’t even that hot.” Because of this, there were a lot of water signs and Swift herself called for help in the crowd.
From the Gillette show to the Edinburgh show, the setlist had changed. A whole new set for The Tortured Poets Department was featured at the Edinburgh show being the new album had just been released. Not only this, but she also removed songs that were featured at the Gillette show such as “The Archer”, “’tis the damn season”, “tolerate it”, and “the last great american dynasty.” She added, “Those songs were my biggest losses ever.” Being that Swift had removed many songs from the folklore and evermore sets, she had combined the two albums into one set.
When Rylee attended the Gillette show, she went with her mom, her friends Emerson Dunning and Libby Burns, and their moms. In her opinion, being with friends created a more fun and thrilling experience. At the Edinburgh show, she went with her mom, dad, and sister. This still allowed her to make friends with the people surrounding her on the floor and to enjoy it with them.
At her first show, Rylee based her outfit on Swift’s debut album era. She wore a dress made of multicolored lace with cowgirl boots. She accessorized it with an Era’s necklace from Swift’s shop. At her second show, she based her outfit on Swift’s The Tortured Poet’s Department album era. She wore a black tank top, a white lace skirt, black Converse, and silk gloves. Although, it did get cold so she put on a black long-sleeve turtleneck.
Being that evermore is Rylee’s favorite album, this was her favorite set at the Gillette show. Her favorite at the Edinburgh show did differ though, as it was The Tortured Poets Department. Not everyone who attended the Eras Tour got to see that part of the show so it felt special to her.
At Gillette, her surprise songs were “Question…?” on the guitar and “Invisible” on the piano. And then in Edinburgh, her surprise songs were a mashup of “It’s Nice to Have a Friend” and “dorothea” on the guitar, and a mashup of “Haunted” and “exile” on the piano. She was very excited because “dorothea” is her favorite Taylor Swift song.
Swift wore a new outfit at Rylee’s Edinburgh show. It was a green 1989 skirt, which was paired with a purple top. Whenever a new outfit is debuted, fans go crazy, so she thought it was very exciting.
Overall, both experiences were very magical for Rylee, and she is super grateful to have had the opportunity to attend the concerts. As the interview concluded, she added “It’s one of those moments where it’s like, hey, you’re at a Taylor’s concert. No one’s judging you. You just dance, scream, and have fun.” However, she does think the Gillette show was more enjoyable for her because it was a rain show and her anticipation was much higher.
