Picture by Paolo Villanueva
Taylor Swift: It’s been a long time coming
On July 9th and 10th, Taylor Swift brought the Eras Tour to Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich. On both nights she performed her 3 ½ hour long show in front of a sold-out stadium, taking the 50 000 attending fans on a musical roller coaster covering 18 years of music and a total of 46 songs from her eleven albums.
From breaking records to stimulating the economy and to suing the biggest ticket provider in the US, the Eras Tour is one of a kind. The tour debuted in March of 2023 and has been around the US, Central and South America, Australia, and Asia before coming to Europe in April of 2024. Swift will continue touring Europe and return to the US and Canada, ending the tour in December of this year.
After only 66 of the planned 152 shows she was able to break the record for highest grossing tour of all times by surpassing the one billion-dollar-mark. This record was previously held by Elton John and his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour with $939 million. Additionally, the Eras Tour has been breaking attendance records left and right with sold-out shows everywhere.
Among the countless Swiss people, there were many fans who took a long trip upon them to the singer in the Zurich concert arena. Ironically, the tickets in Switzerland, which were sold for 150 to 800 CHF, combined with accommodation and flights were cheaper than buying tickets in the US. Therefore, the Eras Tour does not only create a large turnover itself, but also increases tourism, which is very beneficial to the economy. According to Bloomberg Economics the tour raised the US GDP by $ 4,3 billion last year.
The expensive tickets in the US are due to the American ticket distributor “Ticketmaster”, who has a monopoly and bases the prices on demand. When the Eras Tour ticket sale went online on November 15, 2022 the website crashed and fans had to spend hours in queues. By the time they were able to access the website the tickets were multiple thousand dollars each. Therefore, many fans were not able to get hold of any tickets and the sales to the general public were cancelled due to “extraordinarily high demand”. Due to the fluctuation prices and hidden fees, fans were forced to pay a lot more money than they had initially expected. Therefore, her fans, also known as Swifties, got together to sue Ticketmaster for “unlawful conduct”. In 2023, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee examined the case and with pressure of U.S. president Biden, Ticketmaster agreed to abolish unnecessary fees and inform the consumers about all costs upfront. The success of the implementation of this promise is still to be determined, but hopefully the ticket purchasing process will be a lot easier and transparent in the future.
But now back to Swift’s shows in Switzerland. On July 9th and 10th she performed her 113th and 114th show of the Eras Tour in Zurich. This was her very first time performing in Switzerland and she welcomed the crowd with a “Grüezi“ in between her first two songs „Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince” and “Cruel Summer”. Her backup dancer Kam, who has become a fan favorite for his “Bejeweled” solo, showed off his German skills as well, in both “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”. It has become a tradition for Swift and her team to say certain lines in the language of the country they are performing in and she even acknowledged the four official Swiss languages by thanking her fans in each one of them. But there are many more traditions that were established throughout her tour. For example, there are certain chants such as in “Delicate” or “Bad Blood”, the fans sign a heart in “Fearless”, clap their hands twice in the bridge of “You Belong With Me”, or wave their hands in “You Need To Calm Down”. Some of these traditions started very early on in Swift’s career and have been continued ever since. For example, Swift used a sharpie to write a lyric on her arm and a 13 on the back of her hand during her first tours. Swifties have adapted this habit as well as started to dress up for the shows, either resembling one of Swift’s outfits, a specific era, or certain song lyrics. Another tradition is the exchange of self-made friendship bracelets, encouraged by one of Swift’s lyrics in “You’re On Your Own Kid”.
Throughout the shows a multitude of celebrities have been spotted in the VIP tent such as Swift’s close friends like Emma Stone, Blake Lively, or Laura Dern as well as boyfriend and Kansas Chief’s tightened Travis Kelsey. On Tuesday evening Tennis legend Roger Federer and his family were spotted on the ground floor of the stadium collecting friendship bracelets.
Despite the hot weather on both nights, the atmosphere was ecstatic both inside and outside the stadium. While waiting in line for hours in the beating sun, stadium helpers provided silver and gold rescue blankets which the fans held over the heads to keep cool as well as bottles of water and large misting machines on the floor of the stadium. Swift acknowledged this and thanked all the workers as well as aided them by pointing out people who were waving for help during the show. And while the fans inside the stadium were enchanted by the super stars present, there were hundreds of fans outside of the perimeter shaking it off to music, which could be heard from multiple blocks away.
The glitter on the floor after the party is bittersweet as two highly anticipated and memorable days come to an end.