I Went To The Eras Tour: Here Are My Top 5 Tips
This weekend, I was fortunate enough to be able to experience The Eras Tour. If you’re wondering what the heck is an Eras Tour, or wants some tips for when you and your friends go, you’ve come to the right place. The Eras Tour is Taylor Swift’s tour where she is playing songs from each of her albums or ‘Eras’. Since Swift hasn’t been able to tour her last four albums, she decided to combine all of them into a massive show. Swift is the first woman to headline at Allegiant Stadium, (where I personally saw The Eras Tour) and has broken numerous other records like longest female performances and most attended female concert. This epic show features Swift singing for over three hours with little to no breaks. She played over 40 songs. Allegiant Stadium which was built specifically for the Raiders, can hold up to 60,000 guests. So as you can imagine, it’s very busy, crowded and hectic. Here are some of my tips and what to expect on your journey with The Eras Tour.
1. Bracelet Trading
One event that the Swifties have put together during the tour is bracelet trading. Swifties can make bracelets themed after albums, songs, lyrics, etc, and bring them to the tour where you can trade with each other. My friend and I made about twenty bracelets to trade and we ended up trading most of them. Most of the trading occurred while waiting in lines for the merch booth, security, or checking into the stadium. Unless you have floor seats, there probably won’t be much trading once people have settled into their seats. I think this is a really fun idea and it really builds community, so I would recommend making bracelets to trade.
2. Merch
Merch is usually a big part of concerts and some might say it is part of the experience. The process of getting merch is a bit complicated because so many people are attending the tour and there is so much to do like trade bracelets, get food, and find seats. I think we got really lucky because our timing worked out perfectly. There are a couple of different strategies, but here’s what I suggest. The merch truck (times may vary based on location) opened at 12 pm, and the doors to the stadium opened at 4:30. We got there around 4:15 via cab. You should decide whether or not you want to go to the merch truck or the merch stands inside the stadium. Once you enter the stadium, you cannot leave to go back outside for the merch trucks. The merch truck line is longer than the merch stands inside, but they have more variety and more selection in terms of merch. If you decide to go to the merch truck, I would arrive about three hours before the show starts, just to give yourself plenty of time to check in, get food, find seats, trade bracelets, etc. We decide to do the merch stands inside the stadium and we waited in line for just under two hours. The line was moving pretty fast, so it didn’t feel like forever. In terms of price, the merch ranged from $25-$75 per item. I think it’s better to leave yourself extra time than risk missing part of the show. For us, we didn’t care too much if we missed the openers, but we didn’t anyways. One more thing is I do recommend getting merch at the concert rather than online, while online may have a wider selection, buying merch at the concert has a much higher sentimental value. The only thing I might purchase online is a poster. At the merch booths and truck they sell an Eras Tour tapestry and poster. The tapestry is $35 and the poster is $30, they have different designs and the tapestry is larger so generally, I think the tapestry is the better deal if you have the wall space, but it’s up to personal taste. I would buy the poster or tapestry online because if you have traveled to get there and are taking a flight you wouldn’t want to risk damaging your poster. The posters are made of the typical material so they can be rolled. On the website, the tapestry is not sold, but there is a poster with the tapestry design on it. If you want a poster that has the location and date of your tour on it, those are available online for about two days after the concert. Besides that, those are only available at your venue.
3. Getting there and getting back
Since the stadium holds 60,000 people, there’s going to be a lot of traffic getting there and coming back. We didn’t have an issue getting there, and the line for security and getting into the stadium wasn’t too bad since we had arrived fifteen minutes earlier than when the doors opened. We had heard people talk about exit strategies, and we didn’t really pay it any mind. Big mistake. Depending on how far away your hotel is, your feet will hurt after standing for four hours, but I recommend walking back. This is because, no matter how big or small your city is, not everyone is going to get a cab. You will end up waiting hours for an Uber or Lyft or a taxi. It cost us $16 to take an Uber to the stadium and they were charging $73 to get back. They upcharge a huge amount and it is really hectic and hard to find a ride, so I recommend just walking back because, in the end, it will be faster. The merch booths are open after the show, but I don’t recommend buying your merch after the concert because you waste time getting back to your hotel and they are pretty much sold out of everything.
4. Food
Most stadiums won’t let you bring any outside food or drink in, and the food there is pretty expensive. You won’t be eating while Taylor is playing, so either eat an early dinner or a big lunch and maybe get a snack to eat during the opening. They charge about $7 per bottled water, but at some of the food stalls you can buy a cup of fountain soda for less and fill that with water from the machine. You will need water during the concert if you plan on singing a lot.
5. Preparing to go
One must-have when you go is cough drops. They really help soothe your throat from all the singing and cheering and yelling. Different stadiums have different bag policies but finding a cheap clear backpack or purse on Amazon that fits your stadium’s requirements is the way to go. I brought a clear backpack and it was perfect for storing merch, cough drops, bracelets, and extra layers. On the topic of layers, while it’s fun to wear a cute outfit you have to think about after, the concert. After the concert, it will be around midnight and it will probably be cold. So if you plan on wearing a dress or t-shirt bring an extra layer or buy one there.
That’s all! Thanks for reading and I hope this helped you prepare a bit for the tour! You can check out photos I took from the tour on my Instagram, @lieubird.
