Taylor Swift’s almost two-year tour ended – this is what was left of it

Pop star Taylor Swiftin the record-breaking Eras Tour ended on Sunday, December 8 in Vancouver, Canada. A total of three concerts were organized in Vancouver.

During its nearly two-year lifespan, the tour became a huge cultural phenomenon and the highest-grossing tour in music history.

Among other things, all this happened during the Eras tour:

149 concerts, 53 cities

In all the tour was seen by more than ten million fans in 149 concerts and 53 cities.

The tour kicked off from Arizona, USA on March 17, 2023, visiting Buenos Aires, Tokyo and Europe.

At Wembley in London alone, Swift performed eight times and broke Michael Jackson’s record for solo concerts from 1988.

The closest the tour came to Finland was last May, when three concerts were organized in Stockholm. They had a total of approxi’m 180,000 fans, including several Finns.

Swift Quake

of the United States Tour in Seattle even made the earth shake. In Seattle concerts in July 2023, seismic activity equivalent to a magnitude 2.3 earthquake was measured.

Experts estimate that the “Swift Quake” is caused by either the fans or the sound reproduction.

Swiflation

The tour the box office receipts have not been announced, but according to the Pollstar magazine, the profits are estimated to reach more than two billion dollars, or 1.9 billion euros.

This would overtake Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres tour and Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour proceeds brightly.

Not only has the tour increased the bankroll of Swift and the tour organizers, the tour has also improved the economy of the concert venues.

For example, stopping the tour in Stockholm increased the tourism industry’s income by 75 million euros. In total, tax revenues from the turnover generated by tourists increased by approximately 430 million kroner, or more than 38 million euros.

The phenomenon encountered in concert venues has been called “swiflation”: the singer’s visit accelerates economic activity and is followed by an increase in prices.

Swift’s penultimate tour stop was Canada’s largest city, Toronto. where the tour brought additional income of around 189 million euros, says the tourism promotion organization Destination Toronto.

British economy tour was thought to accelerate with 1.2 billion euros.

Swiftiet

It’s about however, it wasn’t just about money and not even about music, as the BBC reminds us in his article.

For a large part of the fans, it has been about community. Fans around the world have found each other.

Fans known as Swifties prepared for concerts by making friendship bracelets, for example. They were written with the names of Swift’s albums and songs, or the lyrics of songs, and were exchanged with other fans.

For many fans of the pop star, thinking about the choice of accommodation was a big part of the concert experience. Many also dressed in Swift’s own different eras.

Fans who missed out on tickets gathered outside the stadiums, for example to sing together.

These events organized outside of the actual concerts have also been called “Taylgate”. The name comes from tailgate, which refers to parties around the open tailgate of a vehicle, especially in the United States and Canada. Events focused on grilling and drinking alcohol are organized informally, especially in the parking lots of stadiums and arenas before sports events.

Fans have also maintained the SwiftAlert application, which has been used to predict, for example, the surprise songs of the acoustic parts of the concerts and Swift’s concert outfits.

For many fans – the majority of whom are young women – going to Swift’s concert has been the ultimate experience of a lifetime.

When HS interviewed Swift fans before the Stockholm gig, many said they couldn’t even remember a time when they hadn’t listened to Swift. As Swift grew into one of the world’s biggest pop stars during the 2010s, they simultaneously grew from elementary school children to adults.

Successes and setbacks

Eras received mostly very favorable reviews from critics. According to AFP, critics praised Swift’s endurance and energy with massive concerts that always lasted nearly four hours.

The New York Times called the opening night in Glendale, Arizona a “master class” concert.

HS:n Juuso Määttänen had a show in Stockholm “as an insane pop spectacle”which inspired appreciation for Swift, the band, the backing singers, and the dancers.

In particular, Määttänen highlighted Swift’s greatest strength, the emotions that he considered the artist phenomenal in evoking. On the other hand, Määttänen criticized the formulaic nature of the concert and the lack of surprises.

The worst setback of the tour came this summer in Viennawhen three sold-out gigs had to be canceled due to a terrorist threat. According to the CIA, the terrorists intended to kill tens of thousands of people gathering outside the concert.

The main suspect is a 19-year-old Austrian man who is said to have sympathized with the extremist organization ISIS.

Last November at a gig in Rio de Janeiro one fan died of cardiac arrest as a result, possibly due to heat. Rio experienced “extreme heat” at the time: the heat index was at its worst at 59 degrees.

Concert film

Although Eras Tour is now history, it will live on as a record. A concert film about the tour was released in autumn 2023 Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. The film is Swift’s first musical film to receive a wider theatrical release.

When the film was released on the Disney+ service in the spring, it immediately became the service’s most watched music-themed film.

Ticket chaos

Problems was also caused by the record demand for tickets to concerts. Ticketmaster, which sold tickets, repeatedly ran into chaos in different countries. Ticket sales were suspended and fans were frustrated.

It must have been the worst traffic jam Statesidewhere despite the problems, more than two million tickets were sold per day.

After the chaos in the US, Swift criticized Ticketmaster harshly, and fans ended up suing Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation.

Interviewed by HS Finnish fans told Buying Eras Tour tickets was a complicated process that required effort, preparation and time. Graduation had to start even a couple of years earlier, and at h-moment buying a ticket could take 10 hours.

Fans described the ticket race as “The Great War of Ticketmaster”.

Love story

Eras Tour has been significantly influenced by the worlds of music and sports to a connected love story.

American football NFL player Travis Kelce walked into Swift’s tour concert in July 2023. His idea was to hand Swift a friendship bracelet with Kelce’s phone number on it.

“I was disappointed because he doesn’t talk to anyone to save his voice before the show. However, he sings 44 songs during the show. So I was a little hurt when I didn’t get to give him the friendship bracelet I made,” Travis later lamented to his brother on the New Heights podcast.

Kelce invited Swift to watch his game. Swift answered the call once and soon more often.

The excitement around the duo grew week by week to huge proportions. At the same time, those hungry for romance were reminded that it could also be a cold PR trick.

The status of Kelce and Swift’s relationship has been closely watched for over a year now. Even the worst cynic has had to admit that the relationship is starting to seem genuine.

It was recently reported that Kelce was unable to attend the final concerts of the Eras Tour because he has a game. However, they got to spend Thanksgiving together for the first time.

Exciting moment

On tour there was also a surprise moment that united fans, during which there was tension whether Taylor Swift would make it to Las Vegas after the concert held in Tokyo on February 10.

The Super Bowl, a major American football event, was waiting for him in Vegas. Swift had to witness her boyfriend Travis Kelce play for the Kansas City Chiefs.

According to AFP, the Japanese embassy in Washington issued a statement assuring that Swift would be fine in the game.

In the end, 200 million TV viewers got to watch Swift and Kelce’s mom enjoy a beer and watch the Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers.

“The most exhausting and rewarding thing”

Taylor Swift himself describes the Eras Tour as “the most exhausting and all-encompassing, but also the most joyful, rewarding and wonderful thing” that has ever happened in his life, according to the BBC.

The 34-year-old singer-songwriter says that he has performed during the tour in pouring rain, scorching heat, high humidity, high winds and freezing temperatures.

He has taken the stage even when he was sick, exhausted and injured or when his heart was broken.

He tells all this in his tour book, published at the end of November, which also broke sales records and, according to Rolling Stone magazine, turned Black Friday into “Swift Friday”.

Swift says in her book, criticized for not being finished, that the reason for the whole tour is actually a recent dispute with the record company.

Swift had a dispute with her record company in 2019. She decided to re-record the albums in order to regain ownership of her records.

The recording project made him fall in love with his old songs all over again. That’s how the 45-song set list was born, and the rest is history.

No one can predict Swift’s musical future, but one thing is certain: after 149 concerts, there will be a vacation, maybe even a proper break.

Correction 9.12. at 10:30 am: The tour did not last more than two years, as the article and its title incorrectly stated. The Eras Tour started in March 2023 and thus lasted almost two years.