Taylor Swift

Though Beatrix likes to remind me that she's been a Tay-Tay fan since she was tiny, it was not until Folklore that I fell in love with her. I'm a sucker for a concept album, and that one was  alright spot that got me through a heavy part of the pandemic. Back when we were measuring closures in weeks or even months instead of years, I thought it would be a great first concert to bring Beatrix to.

But it was not until two more albums came out that the tour was announced, and though I dutifully became a "verified fan" back in November, we all know what happened with the ticket sales for this tour. Completely shut out of the first wave of ticket sales, I joined a few Taylor Swift groups on Facebook, tried to buy tickets twice through people who turned out to be scammers, looked at resale ticket sites and marveled that tickets were in the 11K range for a single seat, and resolved us to settle for watching livestreams on TikTok.

Until ten days ago when I got a text from Ticketmaster that some producer holds had been released. I hopped right on, grabbed us a pair of floor seats at reasonable prices, smarted a bit at the Ticketmaster fees (yikes!), and bough them anyway. Then I reached out to my friend K, who loves live music and whose daughter F is a good friend of Beatrix's, and nabbed them a pair (not near us but not too far back and with a nice central view).

So then Beatrix and I had a little over a week to plan outfits, make friendship bracelets, drink Taylor Swift coffee flights, and generally get ready. (I can't even imagine the economic impact that pair of concerts had on the Twin Cities).

The night of, we got dropped off early, easily got in to the stadium, traded friendship bracelets, checked things out, and enjoyed both Gracie Abrams and Girl in Red (who I describe as a mix of Billie Ellish and Greta Thunberg — she's soooo Norwegian!) as opening acts. 

I don't know that there's a way to describe the main part of the concert, though as I just said to a friend, I have mad respect for everyone involved in putting it on. From the friendly stadium staff to the incredible crews to the hard-working band and back-up signers to the even harder-working dancers to the unparalleled performance generosity of Ms. Swift herself, this was a concert where everyone was All In, all the time. I have never seen any performer as aware of her audience as Taylor Swift was, as connected to them (another friend described it as an "almost eerie" connectedness), as generous in spirit. She conveys a sense of incredible gratitude to be there with her audiences.

It was both an incredible first concert for Beatrix and one that sets the bar very high for the future. It's nothing like I have ever experience before.

So yes, as someone who perviously described myself as liking Taylor Swift, I guess I've become a Swiftie. I will be eternally grateful for the chance to have had this experience with
my teen (and thanks to F and K for being the best concert buddies one could hope for!) I still can't believe it actually happened — it feels like a dream!