Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, a glittery global phenomenon, draws to a close in Vancouver

By Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press on December 8, 2024.

Taylor Swift performs during the Eras Tour concert, in Vancouver, on Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

VANCOUVER – Taylor Swift fans poured into BC Place stadium in Vancouver for the final show of the pop superstar’s blockbuster Eras Tour, closing out a glittery global cultural phenomenon of 149 shows across five continents.

Among about 60,000 fans in the arena was fan Cindy San, who cut short a holiday in Hawaii and flew back to her hometown on Friday after her father won show tickets in a contest.

“I may just cry,” said San before the show, draped in giant homemade friendship bracelets, a sparkly blue dress and white cowboy boots. “I just peaked. Nothing gets better than this.”

In many ways she is right. There has never, ever, ever been a concert series like the Eras Tour, which became the first to surpass US$1 billion in revenue and is projected to more than double that.

Along the way, Swift became the first entertainer named Time’s person of the year.

Host cities including Vancouver and Toronto, which hosted six shows last month, have embraced Swiftmania, which has brought hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity to Canada.

Also among the fans waiting for Swift to take the stage were Jean Batac and Meme Bautista, who said being a Swiftie meant belonging to a community.

Bautista said her fandom had only grown since she last saw Swift in the Philippines a decade ago, and she had mixed emotions about the tour coming to an end.

“A lot of people are expecting something like a surprise announcement or something special,” Bautista said Sunday. “A lot of people have described it as like a kindness convention. It’s more than just a tour, it’s like a community coming together celebrating “¦ having fun.”

“And it’s very sad to see that coming to an end.”

Other Swifties who have descended on downtown Vancouver have included celebrities like rapper Flavor Flav. The Public Enemy hype-man said on social media he was on his way from Los Angeles to “Taycouver” on a “flight full of Swifties” ahead of Sunday’s show.

B.C. singer Michael Buble was handing out friendship bracelets on night one, also attended by Swift’s parents, while Canuck Jake DeBrusk was at Saturday’s show according to a social media post and photo by his girlfriend.

Swift has reciprocated fans’ feelings, telling the audience on Friday night that she chose Canada and Vancouver to close out the tour because the fans not only know the lyrics, they “scream them.”

Swifties had been planning something special to end the tour, with Swift forums abuzz with suggestions to surprise her by singing “Happy Birthday” at Friday’s show, ahead of Swift’s 35th birthday on Dec. 13.

Fan projects like this have been a big part of the Eras Tour, with chants and patterned clapping breaking out during various songs.

On Saturday, after the ballad “Champagne Problems,” Swift was met with a ritualistic standing ovation that lasted more than four minutes, along with chants of “thank you.”

“I don’t even know how to thank you for everything that you’ve given to me to get me to this place that I get to even stand here and have this experience,” Swift told the crowd.

University of Kansas sociology professor and “Swiftologist” Brian Donovan says such moments of joyous social solidarity are known as “collective effervescence.”

“What is interesting about the Eras Tour is that it also brought about unique cultural things like the trading of friendship bracelets,” he said, noting such practices were fan-driven and were not organized by Swift or her team.

Canada was announced as a late addition to the tour last year. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had previously pleaded with the star on social media to visit Canada, telling her “don’t make it another ‘Cruel Summer,'” a nod to one of her hits.

Trudeau and family members were among Swifties at the Toronto shows, as were former U.S. president Bill Clinton and his wife former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Swiftie Jenny Fox got tickets to Saturday’s show after seeing her daughter Avery’s reaction to the Eras Tour movie.

“I texted my husband in the theatre and said that if this is how it is in a movie theatre, I can’t even imagine what it would be like to see and experience this in real life in a massive stadium, and to see the joy on Avery’s face,” she said.

Fox is the primary caretaker for her own mother, who has late-stage Alzheimer’s.

“As soon as we put certain music on, mom comes back,” she said.

“So music is very near and dear to us. We play a lot of music, and a lot of Taylor Swift with her, so there is that love and memory and special tie to it.”

– With files by Darryl Greer.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 8, 2024.