These days, the closest any Swiftie can get to Taylor Swift herself is the front standing section of the Eras tour. Gone are the days when she did fan meet-and-greets backstage, often sending her mum Andrea around stadiums to pick out the most enthusiastic fans. (That is, unless you’re royal progeny.) As far as I can tell, nobody has met her around the Eras dates – as the hardcore know, she may or may not get smuggled in and out inside a flight case. There have been no exclusive advance fan-listening parties for her new albums, known as the Secret Sessions, since Lover in 2019. Naturally the pandemic meant there were none for 2020’s Folklore and Evermore, yet they weren’t subsequently resumed with 2022’s Midnights, this year’s The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD) or any of the “Taylor’s Version” re-recordings in between. And yet as the possibility of being close to Swift becomes more remote, the hunger for it feels stronger than ever.
In Munich last week, an estimated 45,000 fans sat on an artificial hill outside the Olympiastadion as Swift performed to 74,000 fans inside, picnicking, trading friendship bracelets and singing along, the Frankfurter Allgemeine reported. The night unofficially became the best-attended Eras date, with a combined audience of around 113,000 – versus 96,000 in Melbourne in February; from the stage, Swift acknowledged the “beautiful people” outside.
