Taylor Swift - The Eras Tour
Well, she didn’t disappoint!
I wouldn’t dare call myself a ‘Swiftie’ - I simply don’t have the qualifications - but I was in awe of how this amazing woman owned every inch of the enormous stage.
I recently wrote about gig-tripping and mentioned the insane struggle to get tickets last July, to see Taylor Swift, aka Tay-Tay.
Together with my daughter, and Canadian niece, who purposely gig-tripped from Toronto, we were some of the lucky ones, as after days of trying for multiple dates over multiple locations we secured tickets for Cardiff.
It’s strange that out of the 152 date Eras Tour, this city was the only venue to have hosted her for just one night, but I’m not moaning. It’s around a two hour drive from my house to Cardiff which meant that we could travel there and back on the same day, without the need for the extortionate hotel costs that the Eras Tour has resulted in.
Cardiff welcomes Taylor Swift
We arrived at 11am and found the city had been Taylorfied in readiness for the star’s arrival.
From the huge ‘Welcome to Cardiff, Taylor’ sign on the Capitol building, to restaurants decorating their doorways with balloons and ‘Tay-Tay Day’ signs, there was no doubt about who was coming to town. Street vendors were at every corner selling pink ‘I Love Taylor’ scarfs and glittery accessories, such as cowboy hats. Unlike so many fans, I hadn’t spent weeks creating stunning costumes, so purchased a white cowgirl hat with sparkling dangly bits around the edge.
As the city swelled with people and excitement, it was wonderful to see how much effort fans had put into their outfits for this one night. There was glitter and sparkle everywhere you looked - Cardiff was probably glittering from space. We headed straight for the stadium merchandise store as my niece wanted some bits. The queue wasn’t as long as we expected and moved quickly with fans swapping friendship bracelets as they waited.
Taylor Swift sings for an astounding 3.25 to 3.5 hours at every performance, so the gates opened very early, with her support act, Paramore, coming on stage at 17:45. They did a great job with a pleasant surprise cover of Talking Heads ‘Burning Down the House’.
‘Shwmae’ - meaning ‘Hello’ in Welsh
At 19:00 the screen clock counted down to zero, suggesting her first songs might be from her Midnights album.
We had top tier side seat tickets near the main stage which gave us a pretty good view. We felt for those further to the right of us, as many seats were behind the stage which must have been disappointing considering the ticket cost.
I’ve been to a lot of concerts over the years, and seen many different stage set ups, but never one as enormous as this. Although expecting Taylor to emerge from the back of the main stage, her dancers cleverly concealed her entrance from the middle of the central diamond. She rose from below the stage on a cube, dressed in a silver leotard and high heeled boots, the first of many costumes.
Her opening songs were shortened versions from the ‘Lover’ album, starting with ‘Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince’. Sadly for me, one of my favourites ‘You Need to Calm Down’ was also shortened.
Then she welcomed the 67,000 strong crowd in Welsh.
’Shwmae,’ she said. ‘Croeso i daith Eras,’ meaning ‘Hello. Welcome to the Eras Tour.’
The stadium erupted.
True Swifties
Over the next three hours she worked her way through a further 40 songs covering 8 of her albums!
I have a few Taylor Swift albums but there are so many songs, I simply couldn’t remember them all. I enjoy listening to the songs mostly played on the radio but knew there would many more I didn’t recognise. But true Swifties, like Shannon and Bailey, knew every single word to all 45 songs!
We sang and danced to the bangers such as, Love Story, 22, Shake It Off and Anti-Hero, and I wept like a baby at some of the emotional songs. ‘Champagne Problems’ almost broke me.
As I didn’t recognise all of the songs, I was often just listening and watching her perform. And I was unexpectedly awestruck. Yes, I absolutely wanted to see Taylor Swift live but I wasn’t prepared for such a presence on stage. She has a powerful charisma and magical connection with her fans.
In summary, as exceptionally difficult as it was to get tickets last summer, I’m thrilled we succeeded, as I have witnessed one of this era’s greatest icons.
The full Cardiff setlist can be found at setlist.fm.