A week after I attended the Era’s Tour in Los Angeles last August, I was watching a Tiktok about where the tour was going next and as I watched the cartoon plane fly from Mexico, Brazil, and Japan, I saw it was going to Melbourne. I got excited and looked to see whether Taylor Swift would be there within the two month time frame that I would be in Melbourne and discovered we would indeed be in the same city at the same time. I immediately jumped on a ticket re-seller site to see if I could get a ticket and found that although there were tickets, they were expensive. I had to sleep on the decision to spend money to see the concert again.
I couldn’t resist the opportunity to see the concert again so I crossed my fingers (hoping I wouldn’t get scammed) and clicked the buy button.
Thinking about going to the concert in a foreign country (Australia barely feels foreign to me anymore), I had to consider my clothing choices. I wore cowboy boots to the LA concert but I did not want to carry the weight so the quest to find cute, comfortable, lightweight shoes began. I ordered some shoes from Amazon but they were too small and I decided I didn’t like the style well enough to upsize. I went to local stores and even drove 60 miles to the nearest outlets but didn’t find what I wanted. I saw that some women where bedazzling converse tennis shoes so I went to a craft store to find no bedazzling options and I wasn’t excited about what I was finding online plus I was having problems finding local converse options. Online I found a pair at Macy’s and went to the store to find the perfect pair. My size weren’t stocked so they were delivered to my house and were perfect. My dress, lipstick, and handbag could all be re-used so I was ready for the event.
The Whole City Shimmers
Melbourne was already a TS friendly place with restaurants often playing her music during our meals. I learned that The University of Melbourne was hosting “Swiftposium 2024: An academic conference on Taylor Swift” and that although it was only supposed to be for academics, there was going to be a Fanposium. I got on the waiting list when tickets became available (sold out within hours) and after a few weeks, got tickets. They added a bracelet making workshop before the Fanposium but again I had to sweat it out on the wait list until I got tickets two days before the event.
At the bracelet making event, all supplies were provided and I plopped myself down between two young women just beginning their beading. A Channel 7 ABC television crew sat down and asked us if we were all friends and we said no, we had just met each other. He was intrigued and interviewed us about being Swifties. I don’t know whether I made it into the news cast or not, but it was fun to be interviewed. The table of women shared a collective fear of arriving at the ticket gate and having the ticket be denied. I wonder if this will become the new nightmare, ousting the “I have a test but didn’t study for it” traditional nightmare.
The Fanposium had 3 sections. The first event had 5 fan presentations, the second was a screening of the “Miss Americana” documentary, and the third was a 5 person panel from the music industry discussing TS impact on music. I had a break and then went to a Swiftposium lecture on TS and feminism.
As the concert approached, posters showed up on the street welcoming TS to Melbourne, buskers all played her music, and the visibility of sequins on the street skyrocketed. City transportation announced that the free-tram zone was being extended to the stadium and they lit up Flinders Station with Eras Tour graphics. Non-Swifties complained bitterly, because of course they did. I, on the other-hand was tickled that the whole city was happy and buzzing with the Swiftie positive vibes.
The Concert
I walked 2km in my sparkly yet comfortable shoes from the apartment to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. There were so many sequins!!! I had extreme relief when I scanned in the ticket and the light turned green. Whew!! I wasn’t scammed, I just paid a lot of money. Here are some observations between the LA and Melbourne show:
Men
In LA, men were a scarcity. I could look in all directions and not see a male-presenting person. All of the bathrooms were converted to women’s bathrooms so there was never more than a 5-minute wait. Heaven. I did see men at the bar, but they seemed like they were just hanging around. In Melbourne, there were SO MANY men. Everywhere. The men’s bathrooms were open to women and men just walked by to use the urinals. Lines were very long. One cool thing was that many of the men were out-fitted so I appreciated that if they were going to be in that space, they were actively engaged with the experience. The energy was different with so many men though. In LA, there was such warm and inclusive vibe which was missing from last night’s event.
Outfits
Melbournians leaned-in hard on sequins. Sequins were every color, shape, and size on all kinds of clothing. Looking out across the sea of people walking to the concert or sitting in setting sun, I could see ripples of sparkles everywhere. I blended well with my lavender sequins and had no twin since my dress since it was imported from the US. There weren’t many Eras-themed outfits which was the key difference between Melbourne and LA. Women in LA were more theme-based with an outfit clearly representing a specific era. In LA, Reputation outfits were black bodysuits with red snakes. The Lover outfits were sweet pink fluffy bits of loveliness.
Seating/View
In LA, my seat was nose-bleed adjacent facing the side of the stage. I was challenged to see the screen graphics and theatrical performance, plus I was overwhelmed by the experience in general and felt like I missed key components of the show. When I watched the Eras Tour Movie, I saw so much more and was surprised by the detail I’d missed from the concert e.g. the coordinating microphones and guitars for each era, and the video integration into the show. For Melbourne, I picked seats that were as close to center as possible because I wanted the whole integration of video, stage, performers, and TS herself. But being as close to center as possible and buying from a scalper meant that I was in the last row of the arena, the true nose-bleed section. The Melbourne Cricket Ground was designed so there are no bad seats so I did have an un-impeded view of the stage.
Our seats were westward facing so I watched the sun set over the city and was only blinded for 10 minutes when the sun shined directly in my eyes. Even after seeing the concert once and watching the move, I was impressed by the production. There’s a lot going on and I still feel like I missed a lot. In the excitement of the moment, and trying to video certain parts, I know I didn’t absorb everything.
Although I sing the bridge to “Cruel Summer” daily, when it came time to filming myself singing along, the words were absent. Why? In LA, I was shaking when “Style” came on and couldn’t focus or sing along. I was more composed during “Style” in Melbourne so I could at least film that and not embarrass myself. People in front of me sat half of the time so I didn’t have to stand for the entire 3.5 hours. Thank you people in front of me.
Exiting
When there are 96,000 people leaving a place at the same time, chaos reigns. So many people all going in the same direction but also actively trying not to bump into anyone was exhausting. Santa Barbara’s population is under 90k so it was like the entire city of Santa Barbara was evacuating the arena. There were no bins for us to drop our lighted wrist bands resulting in a flashing river of bodies snaking towards the train station, over the bridges, through the parks, and into the city streets. I could identify fellow Swifties as I walked home.
After Thoughts
It was totally worth the money spent to attend the Melbourne Eras Tour. The time and energy expended before and during brought me joy. Seeing a master performer at the peak of her game is inspiring.
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