Natacha Pisarenko/The Associated Press
Our polarized world teeters beneath the weight of existential threats, but there has been a light travelling around it these past couple of years: a testament to positivity, female empowerment and kindness in an unrelenting red lip and Christian Louboutin soles on her lightning feet to match.
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour has been so massive on every level – scope, buzz, economic impact, sheer love and adoration – that the tour itself has become an era; a phenomenon now spoken of, justifiably, in the same breath as Beatlemania.
Her flotilla of 18-wheelers has landed for one last stop, as the tour ends with three shows in Vancouver this weekend – drawing Swifties and their infectious happy vibe out into the streets in their clever, celebratory outfits, long before showtime Friday night.
“It’s an honour, a privilege and a bittersweet celebration that this incredible, monumental tour is ending in a city that I love and that I live in,” says Vancouver-area author Sarah Chapelle, author of the new book Taylor Swift Style: Fashion Through the Eras. The Lower Mainland resident has tickets for all three shows, and, no surprise, has meticulously planned outfits for each.
“You’ll spot a Swiftie from a mile away,” said Ella Shaw, 26, who spent her lunch hour Wednesday trying to visit as many as possible of the Swift-themed light installations that have gone up around the city, along with a co-worker with whom she’s bonded over their fandom. “It’s either in the way they dress or in the way they speak or in the way they offer to take a photo for you.”
Vancouver-area author Sarah Chapelle attends Swift's Seattle concert in July, 2023.Supplied
It’s beginning to look a lot like Swiftmas around Vancouver. There is a ticket contest for people who visit all the marquee-like signs and collect digital stamps. Gastown’s famous steam clock is chiming Shake It Off. Hotel prices are sky high – well over $1,000 a night downtown this weekend; people are advertising rooms to rent on Facebook Marketplace for hundreds of dollars.
The same sorts of stories have accompanied Ms. Swift around the world since the tour launched in Glendale, Ariz., on March 17, 2023. Hitting five continents, it is the first concert tour to break the billion-dollar threshold.
Along the way, Ms. Swift put out a new album, The Tortured Poets Department, adding another Era to the show.
During the tour, she has become, arguably, the world’s most famous living artist.
That infamous Kanye West stunt (he interrupted her acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards) seems impossible to imagine now – not just because of her enormous fanbase, but because of who she has become: the most powerful performer in pop music.
Fans take photos of a "Shake it Off" sign near the Vancouver Art Gallery the night before the first of three concerts that Swift is putting on in the city.Lindsey Wasson/The Associated Press
Ms. Swift is supremely talented, especially as a songwriter, and the show – based on reviews, the Disney concert movie and the livestreams I’ve watched from attendees’ phones – seems glorious. But that alone can’t account for what has truly become a juggernaut.
For this, there is timing, marketing – and fans.
Eras has felt like the antidote to everything. Launching after the pandemic that left music lovers wondering if they would ever see a live show again, the tour brought people together to commune with joy, tears and an almost religious energy over songs about love, heartbreak and friendship.
Ms. Swift’s music is full of angsty smart lyrics, the kind that fans love to parse for autobiographical details and Easter eggs, but which also feel uncannily universal.
She is a feminist role model, with her soldiering on in the face of private heartbreak and public betrayal and belittlement, refusing to give up or go low. She has kept writing catchy and beautiful songs and even re-recorded her own music after her former label was sold along with the rights to the master recordings.
Where rock ‘n’ roll hasn’t always been that welcoming to young women (as participants or attendees), Ms. Swift’s shows – and her fandom – feel like a safe space for all.
And she chose us, Canada, to wrap it up. Could it be our reputation for being nice? Even if it’s simple logistics, it’s still a badge of honour.
“It was awesome to play in Canada after so much time,” she posted on Instagram after six Toronto shows. “As always, the fans in Toronto treated us like it was a hometown show.”
Dozens of Swifties like Jayzee Calingasan, have already descended onto Vancouver's BC Place stadium ahead of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour concerts, which runs from Dec. 6 to 8.Marsha Lederman/Supplied
You might be sick of hearing about Taylor Swift by now, and who could blame you, but there’s something about this community she has built, or which has built itself around her. A single lyric in a song about a friendship bracelet has birthed a warm tradition where handmade bracelets are traded and some actual friendships made. There are fan-hatched plans in the works for the tour’s final show on Sunday.
Still, there is certainly an air of privilege about this whole thing, with ticket costs in the thousands, if you can even get your hands on them, disappointing so many young Swifties.
Taking photos with her parents at the “Red” marquee just outside the concert venue, BC Place, Vancouver film student Jayzee Calingasan said she’s still trying to get tickets to see a show this weekend. She saw Ms. Swift in Toronto last month, thanks to a ticket she bought at face value from someone she met at a different event – a Taylor Swift dance party in Winnipeg. But she really wants to see the show at home, this weekend, with her parents and sister. “It’s something that you would want to experience with the people that you love,” said Ms. Calingasan.
Her older sister snagged one of those single $16.50 no-view seats, at the inflated price of $500.
“We’re trying, we’re praying, we’re stamping,” said their mother, Clarissa, who had visited each Swift sign on foot on Tuesday and repeated the route again with her husband and daughter on Wednesday.
Upon hearing that I’ll be reviewing Sunday’s show, Ms. Calingasan, 22, offered a tip: “Bring tissues,” she said. “You’re going to cry. Or somebody next to you is going to cry.”