TAYLOR SWIFT: The ERAS Tour

16.08.2024 @ Wembley Stadium, London (92,000 Capacity)

Written Oct 2024

No matter the album, or tour, it’s always a dream to see Taylor Swift live in concert. This highly anticipated run of 5 London dates fell towards the end of her world tour, with only a few North American dates at the end of the year afterwards. The entire tour spans from March 2023 to December 2024 with 149 dates - this was the 128th night of the tour, the 5th London show overall but night 2 of this Wembley run, having done 3 earlier shows in June as well. I am glad we went to these August shows over the June ones as the hype was at a peak because people knew what to expect and in some ways, it was easier.

I have seen Taylor live twice before, on the Reputation Stadium Tour back in June 2018 in both Manchester (Etihad Stadium) & London (Wembley Stadium), so I kinda knew what to expect in terms of her and how she performs. Even back then Taylor’s tours were a full-on production - The Eras Tour is no exception. The woman knows how to put on a show. She truly is a theatre kid through and through, just with an insane budget.

There were many times during each era’s song set I  just took in the set and props. I was in awe. Not just because this is what I’m going to study, but because it’s crystal clear to everyone just how much effort goes into this show. It ran so smoothly with no hitches or even hiccups that I can’t not commend every crew member on the tour. Purely thinking about the logistics for each individual set gives me a headache, let alone the whole show! Even the outfits are complex, she has set bodysuits, jackets & dresses for each Era’s set, sometimes multiple! Whilst the actual outfits don’t change, the colours do rotate every show so it’s fun to try and guess which ones she’ll wear. A surprise to everyone was that she debuted a new ‘Midnights-Era’ bodysuit at our show, which was fun, but also a little confusing to notice in the moment!

I absolutely loved when, during both the ‘Fearless Era’ and ‘Speak Now Era’ sets, that the band got to come out and have their moment. It’s clear that they love what they do (who wouldn’t?) and it’s such a full-circle moment especially for those like Paul (Sidoti, Guitar) and Amos (Heller, Bass) who have been there since the start of Swift’s career. Of course, there are certain aspects that also change every night. A highly anticipated change is Kam during ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ where during the original song, Taylor would say “...like ever!”, at the end of the spoken bridge, Kam gets the line. And he says something related to the city/country they’re in. For example, in Liverpool he said “eee, get on your bike” in a scouse accent, or in Melbourne, “Like naur” was the line . On our night, it was “what a knobhead!” , which, I think, was one of the best choices he could’ve made! Another special thing that happens during the ‘Red Era’ set, is that Tyalor’s team chooses someone from the crowd (mostly little kids) to receive her ‘22 Hat’ that she wears on stage during the song ‘22’. It’s such a cute experience and a once-in-a-lifetime moment that I’m sure those chosen will remember forever.

During the ‘Folklore/Evermore Era’ set, there were a few moments that stood out to me. It’s tradition for the audience to maintain a comically long applause after the song ‘champagne problems’, and on our night it lasted for around 4 minutes. It was so loud, and so long, that Taylor exclaimed “You win Wembley night two!”, once she was finally able to talk, she also shared that her parents were at the show and that she could “...guarantee my parents were just recording that on their phones. [...] Every time I have a sad or bad day from now, not only will I have the video in my mind but I'm going to revisit that moment". It lasted so long, that immediately after those comments, she launched straight into the next song, which happened to be ‘august’. This is a song that I was highly anticipating, and not just because it also happened to be August at the time. It’s one of my favourite songs from ‘Folklore’ and it then directly transitioned into the bridge of my favourite song on the album, ‘Illicit Affairs’. THis rendition of the song was also heavier, and more powerful than the softer  recorded version, which I absolutely loved. One of 3 songs from ‘Evermore’ on the setlist is a particularly meaningful song called ‘marjorie’ dedicated to Swift’s grandmother, an Opera singer who died when she was young. Hearing a song like this that I can somewhat relate to in a city that means so much to was an emotional rollercoaster but I definitely wasn’t the only one crying, it is a very emotional song.

Similarly to her last tour there is a dedicated part of the setlist every night, where Taylor sits down to sing two songs not on the setlist.  I remember at the date we went on the Reputation Tour, she played ‘So it goes’, a Reputation album track and the only one that wasn’t on the setlist then, meaning that I was among the first audience to hear the whole album live, and I think that’s pretty special. During the Reputation tour, it was one song on the acoustic guitar on a B-stage at the back of the stadium, but here on The Eras Tour, it’s one on acoustic guitar and one on the piano, and they’re often mashups. It became such a phenomenon over this tour, that fans started keeping track of which songs she had/hadn’t played and whether or not they could hear their favourite songs by the date they were going to. The night before our show one of Taylor’s longtime friends, Ed Sheeran, came out during this part to sing a mashup of all their collaborations over the years, so I thought we weren’t going to get anything super major for our surprise song set, and I didn’t really have any burning desires for a specific songs. The first song genuinely surprised me as she played ‘London Boy’, (an album track off of her 7th studio album ‘Lover’) because she’d never played it in front of a  live audience before and I didn’t think she ever would, considering she’s no longer together with the person she wrote the song about. So hearing ‘London Boy’ in London was amusing. The second surprise song shocked me. She played a mashup of ‘Dear John’ (off of ‘Speak Now’) and ‘Sad Beautiful Tragic’ (off of ‘Red’).  I don’t think we were the only people to experience this, but there was a moment during both piano songs where we knew what the song was, and we were singing along, but couldn’t place the song title till a few lines in! Before The Eras Tour, Taylor hadn’t played ‘Dear John’ in almost 11 years, since the ‘Speak Now’ tour in 2011-12. She sang it for the first time on this tour in Minneapolis, and this was the only other time on the tour that she played the song. It’s a massive fan favourite at over 5 minutes long. The slow piano power ballad mixed perfectly with ‘Sad Beautiful Tragic’, another album track, but for another album. ‘Red’ was the first Taylor Swift album I listened to. After my sister got it on CD for her birthday, it lived in the car from that point onwards, and even now when one of the songs comes on in the car, we all stop and sing along. 'Sad Beautiful Tragic' is one of my favourites off the album, so I was extremely happy we got to hear it live.

There were so many mums and daughters (including us!)  there together enjoying the show and it was so wholesome, to bond over something wonderful so much so that you’d make a day of it. There were also many dads at the show, some reluctant and on their phones and others fully immersed into being a ‘Swiftie Dad’. The whole show is just the peak of girlhood. It’s a fun and interactive experience for all ages and I could tell that so many core memories were being made that night. The swapping of friendship bracelets didn’t stop with the show either, even on our way out, we swapped so many and gave some to security who asked for them - vendors, merch sellers, and even some of the on-duty police officers had some on! 

Seeing Holly Humberstone, Paramore and Taylor Swift all in one night was without a doubt, the highlight of my summer and the perfect closer before I start my life as a uni student, hopefully venturing into this exact industry for my professional career.