On October 18th, 2024 Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour started back up for its final leg. After almost a year and a half of touring, Swift is ending her groundbreaking tour by taking the shows right back to where they started, North America. In all three of her Miami shows, Swift stated she wanted to end her tour by performing for the “loudest, most passionate, and most energetic fans.” The Eras Tour, which started in Glendale, Arizona on March 17th, 2023, has grossed over $1 billion in revenue so far and brought over a $5.7 billion boost to just the United States economy, via the Washington Post. The economic boosts do not just stop at hotels, flights, and restaurants, but fans also support small businesses when preparing for their concert. One Etsy seller, Kara White, made about $15,000 dollars this year selling friendship bracelets, a staple for fans attending any of Swift’s tour dates. Needless to say, The Eras Tour has been a vessel for economic growth while simultaneously providing numerous jobs for United States citizens.

Swift’s tour moved out of the United States on August 24, 2023 in Mexico City. Since then, she has had tour dates in Australia, Europe, Asia, and South America. Some economic agencies estimate her tour had an impact as high as $80 billion globally. Making her return to North America, Taylor Swift’s final leg starts in Miami, Florida and ends on December 8th, 2024 in Vancouver, Canada. Tickets for the second U.S. leg of The Eras Tour went on sale in the beginning of August, 2023, over a year before the actual dates. At the time, Ticketmaster estimated that 14 million users were fighting for roughly 625,000 tickets. Fans were given presale codes for specific tour dates that allowed them to log on before the general onsale. Once inside the presale, the battle for tickets quickly initiated. Fans were forced to rapidly compete against others in order to secure seats, but even with presale codes, many fans were either unable to secure the seats that they wanted or unable to get tickets at all. Presale tickets were disappearing in a matter of minutes and were completely sold out in a couple of hours. Since then, tickets have been reselling for copious amounts of money. Even nosebleed seats that originally cost two hundred dollars or less were selling for over four thousands dollars each.

The both of us, Elizabeth Hample and Sousa Waggoner, along with Lily Thompson (12) and Sousa’s Mom, were lucky enough to emerge from the Ticketmaster war with four nosebleed seats for night two of the Miami shows, on October 19, 2024. Although the show was unforgettably amazing, our journey to and from the event was unforgettable in a different way. The show was at Hard Rock stadium and was expected to have over 61,000 attendees. Despite the amazing show, the stadium did not quite prepare enough for the influx of fans who would be doing rideshare or buying merchandise. Which we thought to be interesting seeing as they host NFL games at least once a week. There was only one merch stand for the entire stadium, and even though many fans had been there before, there were still loads who had yet to get their hands on the precious Eras Tour or Gracie Abrams merch. With lines extending from the upper 300s level all the way down to ground level, the wait was almost three hours from the very back. Because of this, we decided to check out the merch stand later on in the show since we had all been at least once before. As much of a hassle as the merch was, the real trouble lay in the rideshare situation.

Aiming to get to the show early, we left our hotel with ample time to get to the stadium, get to our seats, and then buy merch and trade bracelets… or so we thought. We took a lot of Ubers in Miami, but the one from our hotel to the stadium was by far the most interesting experience. To begin with our driver spoke absolutely zero English, only Ukrainian, and was driving about 25 mph under the speed limit the entire time. This caused us to be extremely behind schedule. To top it all off we were mapped to a location about 2 miles away from the stadium. Arriving at this location, we decided to leave our current Uber since he did not quite understand the problem. Immediately we were bombarded by various men driving bike taxis or golf carts who said they could take us to the stadium. We learned that that is where all of the rideshare drivers are routed so thousands of people were experiencing the same thing as us. Reluctant to walk 2 miles towards the stadium, we got in a kind man named Jeremy’s car. (MASSIVE shoutout to Jeremy.) Sousa wanted to add that Jeremy’s car smelled amazing and also had an iPad to play music on for the duration of our five minute journey.

Getting into the stadium was relatively easy if you don’t take into consideration how many times we had our tickets checked. We immediately went to check out the infamous merch line, and to nobody’s surprise, it was even longer than described. Quickly, we bailed and went to see our seats. Although in the 300s level, our seats were still phenomenal. It is very much true that at The Eras Tour there is not a bad seat. Gracie Abrams, who has been opening for The Eras Tour since April of 2023, came on stage at 6:45 which was earlier than expected. Since the last time she had opened for The Eras Tour, Gracie has released her second studio album with a deluxe version as well as gone on the first leg of her own The Secret of Us Tour. Therefore, the setlist was a complete surprise. For all three Miami shows she switched her setlist up a bit, removing and adding songs. Overall, Gracie’s set was amazing. After the show, many users on social media were talking about how Gracie had her “I made it” moment after the crowd turned on flashlights during her song “Let It Happen.” Her set lasted about 45 minutes, ending about 15 minutes before the countdown songs for Taylor began.

The countdown to Taylor’s entrance is composed of a couple of songs, including: “In Ha Mood” by Ice Spice, “Applause” by Lady Gaga, and “You Don’t Own Me” by Lesley Gore. Two minutes before she comes out, a clock appears on the big screen on the stage and a countdown begins. During the last two minutes before her appearance, the stadium filled with tension as fans awaited her arrival. Once she came out, the three-and-a-half-hour show began, and the stadium erupted in cheers and applause. The setlist of the tour recently adopted a new era for Taylor’s most recent album: “The Tortured Poets Department.” This era was incorporated into the show, replacing some songs that were previously on the setlist. We were especially sad about the loss of songs like “The Archer” and “tolerate it,” but the TTPD set was life-changing. Towards the end of the show, Taylor brings out a guitar and a piano to play a short acoustic set, referred to as the “Surprise Songs.” The songs played at our show consisted of a mashup of “Should’ve Said No” and “I Did Something Bad,” and “loml” and “White Horse.” The first mashup added to fans’ suspicions about the re-release of her debut album and her album “Reputation,” which is referred to as “Debutation.” The rest of the concert was phenomenal and it was over before we knew it.

Leaving the stadium, we anticipated some foot traffic on the way to the ride-share area. What we did not anticipate was that getting back to our hotel would take over two hours. When leaving the stadium, we were told by security guards that we were supposed to walk to “Lot 30.” We were not aware that “Lot 30” was over two miles away from the stadium, and as it turns out, the same place where we were initially dropped off by the Uber driver who did not speak English. We did not have shoes on due to the immense pain in our feet from wearing high-heeled boots, so we were forced to walk the two miles over gravel in only socks. Nearing the end of the walk, a kind stranger allowed us to ride in the back of his pickup truck for the last few minutes. Once we made it to “Lot 30,” it took over another half-hour to actually get a Lyft. The Lyft driver who finally picked us up spoke English, drove at a normal speed, had a car that smelled amazing, and had an iPad. Once again, Sousa was over the moon about the iPad. Elizabeth agrees that the car smelled good but does not share the excitement for this iPad since “Sousa always gets the iPads in Ubers.” The ride home was extremely enjoyable and we finally got back to the hotel at 1:32 AM.

Overall, this journey was unforgettable in many ways. Although our experience had some extreme ups and downs, the concert was amazing and we were so grateful for this experience. The Eras Tour is wrapping up soon, after making stops in 22 different countries and being active for almost two years. We are sad to see it go, but we will hold on to the memories that it made.

Sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/10/13/taylor-swift-eras-tour-money-jobs/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eras_Tour

https://people.com/taylor-swift-sings-florida-florence-welch-eras-tour-london-8698668