Delaney Bolstein

(Above) The fan project that has dominated the Eras’ Tour has been trading friendship bracelets, which is inspired by the lyric, “So make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it” from the song, “You’re On Your Own Kid” on Swift’s newest album, Midnights. Fans, such as Kathryn Hudson, grade 11, and Isa Tapia Arocho, grade 11, pictured here, traded before and after the show (or in a McDonald’s like the transaction I saw prior to the doors opening). Another thing that was featured on most fans’ hands was the number 13. This comes from Swift’s affinity for the number as she was born on December 13. In an interview with MTV back in 2009, Taylor Swift explained why she always draws the number on her hand before a show, noting, “I was born on the 13th. I turned 13 on Friday the 13th. My first album went gold in 13 weeks. My first #1 song had a 13-second intro.”

If there is one person I have a parasocial relationship with, it’s Taylor Swift. The guitar-strumming, ballad-belting singer who first rose into prominence at the age of 16 after releasing her self-titled debut album, has become my celebrity obsession vice, a statement that I am far from alone in making. Ever since Swift’s first album, she has earned 12 Grammy Awards, three of which were Album of the Year, selling an estimated 114 million albums. Swift also received an honorary doctorate from NYU and became the first artist in history to hold the first 10 spots on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Chart. Thus, over the course of her 17-year career, Taylor Swift has reigned as a global icon and superstar. And so, after four albums never heard live, except for the attempted Lover Tour that was canceled after one show due to the pandemic, Swift launched the Eras’ Tour, encompassing 52 dates in 20 cities, all filling soldout stadiums in the United States. However, over the summer, Taylor Swift added 78 international dates spanning five continents and 15 domestic dates in 2024. These dates will also contain content from the next album up for re-recording, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), which Swift announced at night six of the Los Angeles Eras’ Tour and
will be released October 27. For me, like virtually everyone else who tried to be one of the 70,000 people in a stadium, getting the tickets, deemed the “Great War” by fans, was nothing short of agony and tribulations due to the never-before-seen demand. But alas, my family and I secured the seats for Swift’s third night in Tampa. At the risk of sounding like another Taylor Swift-obsessed teenage girl, (which I am not denying) I for one certainly was not “Ready for It.”