Taylor Swift — Toronto’s version — finally hit the stage Thursday night at Rogers Centre as the world’s biggest pop star launched the first of six Eras Tour shows — an unprecedented number at the stadium — with major anticipation.
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It’s been a year since Swift announced she was coming to T.O. and the hunger for the arrival of the 34-year-old singer-songwriter has been palpable in the city.
Swift-adjacent events have popped up all over the GTA, from Taylgate ’24 at the nearby Metro Toronto Convention Centre every day and night the shows take place to the Swift-inspired digital wall at Pearson International Airport for incoming fans to pose in front of at the Terminal 1 international arrivals area that will be active until Dec. 12.
Outside the stadium on Thursday, her faithful Swifties could be seen dressed in various sequined and feathery outfits to mimic the singer’s clothes on her 11 album covers, in her videos or during the Eras Tour show itself, which celebrates her 17-year career. Fans were also trading friendship bracelets, an activity popularized by a line in one of her songs, You’re On Your Own, Kid.
But it was two girls dressed up as Christmas Trees who won the costume contest.
Another draw for fans was the oversized friendship bracelet that said, “Taylor Swift – The Eras Tour,” which has been installed on one side of Rogers Centre and is proving to be a favourite spot for selfies and group shots.
Inside the stadium, there were incredibly long lineups for both food and merchandise, plus two Swift cocktails named after her songs were on offer — Lavender Haze and I Knew You Were Trouble — at a whopping $30 each.
Following opener Gracie Abrams, daughter of Hollywood director/producer JJ Abrams (Star Trek, Star Wars), Swift has routinely been playing 45 songs over 3 1/2 hours.
It’s expected the pop star’s presence in Toronto will translate into a $282-million economic impact for the local economy with about 50,000 fans attending each concert and a total of a half-million people expected in the city during the entirety of her run, which continues Friday and Saturday and again from Nov. 21 to Nov. 23.
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Swift will end her Eras Tour trek, which began in March 2023 in Arizona, on a Canadian note in Vancouver next month after 14 months on the road, during which she visited five continents, 51 cities and played 150 shows.
The Eras Tour has become the highest grossing tour of all-time and her concert movie of the same name, currently on Disney+, is the highest grossing concert movie.
In other words, it’s good to be Swift.