On November 1st, 2022, Taylor Swift announced The Eras Tour on Good Morning America. The shows on the tour would span three and a half hours while she sings songs from each “era” or album she has ever released.
The first shows would take place in Glendale, Arizona, and the tour would last from March 2023 to August 2023, ending in Inglewood, California. Other artists like Pheobe Bridgers, Gracie Abrams, Sabrina Carpenter, Beabadobee, Girl in Red, and many others would be openers or featured on the tour.
Soon after the announcement and the tickets going on sale, the waitlist for tickets had a frantic uprising. After seeing the overwhelming success and the demand for tickets, Swift decided to expand the tour dates and announced that she would be performing in various countries in Latin America, Europe, and Pacific Asia.
This would lead to The Eras Tour became the highest grossing tour of all time and the first one ever to surpass 1 billion and 2 billion dollars worth of revenue. The Eras Tour grossed 2.1 billion dollars and over 10 million tickets across 149 shows.
But for many fans, it was more than just a tour–it was also the experience of a lifetime.
“Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour was a fun and exciting way to bring people together. Many people traded bracelets and made so many friends,” freshman Morgan Salvi said. “All the album releases were really exciting, and every time she changed a costume it was really interesting to see what she was going to come out in. It brought suspense to the tour.”
As the demand for tickets increased, so did the prices. The lines for presale grew exponentially . The market for third party ticket sellers rose. Many ticket holders were reselling their tickets for hundreds and even thousands of dollars.
“During the eras tour, her tickets were priced at around $1000 depending on the area,” freshman Jane Maharjan said. “Taylor Swift or her company was targeting people who had excess income such as the upper middle class.”
Since The Eras Tour took place across cities, countries, and even continents, Swift had to travel by private airplane which garnered a lot of controversy.
“I believe that the emissions caused by Taylor Swift during the eras tour were unnecessary and insanely high,” Maharjan said. “She produced nearly 140 tons of carbon emission by plane when she could have traveled by land, in some cases, for a much smaller carbon footprint.”
However, others defended Swift, pointing out how she wasn’t just the only celebrity that relies on private air travel due to her performances.
“I think it’s very unfair to hate on Taylor for the CO2 emissions because many other celebrities use private planes way more often and use more emissions than her but only she is getting called out for it,” senior Angelina Vasquez said.
Even besides the impact it has for “Swifties” or even the ecosystem, the tour had an undeniable impact on the economy. The tour generated around over a billion dollars for the hotel industry across the United States, Europe, and Asia. This impact also affected small business, clothing stores, hospitality industries, revenue from public transit, and more.
“I saw she was on tour, and I saw clips of it on social media,” freshman Saymon Zeinu said. “I remember seeing something on the news of how she helped boost the economy of like 21 countries, which I thought was shocking because at the end of the day she’s just a singer but that was very astonishing. She definitely did bring a lot of impact though with her fanbase as well.”
Swift also released two new albums during the tour: “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” and “1989 (Taylors Version).”
The Eras tour most definitely had a huge impact on the Taylor Swift community; there were so many feelings during that tour, and so many memories were made. The tour was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for a lot of people.
“Every time she changed costume, as it was really interesting to see what she was going to come out, which brought suspense to the tour,” Salvi said. “This tour had a huge impact on people all around the world. People made their new best friends there, and some people said it was their favorite experience.”
“When the tour ended, I saw people posting about how sad they were that it had ended,” Vasquez said
Despite the differing opinions on the tour, the one clear thing is that the Eras Tour left a lasting impact on the music industry, the economy, and her fans. For many, it was the experience of a lifetime as everyone got to bond over their favorite music artist and make lifetime friendships.
