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The Eras Tour has dominated the zeitgeist since it launched in March, 2023 and has cemented Swift as one of the biggest artists in the world. A fan poses for a photo while wearing glasses that read ‘Swifmas’ before Swift’s concert at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Feb. 16, in Australia.Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images
Five continents, 20 months, 143 shows, more than four million tickets and US$1-billion later, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour has finally landed in Canada. The tour, which celebrates the singer’s 11-album career onstage through 10 “eras,” each with its own costumes and set designs, has dominated the zeitgeist since it launched in March, 2023. It has cemented Swift as, arguably, the biggest artist in the world – and, if you don’t believe that, the financial records she set during the Eras Tour at least make her inarguably the most bankable one. Here’s a brief look at the milestones of Eras tour, so far, as the show lands in Toronto today for a six-day run ahead of a three-date tour finale in Vancouver.
2022
Nov. 1: The Eras Tour first enters public consciousness. In a post on Instagram, Swift announces the tour, calling it “a journey through the musical eras of my career (past and present!),” adding that tour openers would include HAIM, Paramore, Phoebe Bridgers and others. On X, Swift provides more details, revealing that the U.S. leg of the 27-date tour would kick off March 13, 2023, in Glendale, Ariz., and promising international dates soon.
Nov. 4: Swift adds four more dates to the U.S. tour …
Nov. 11: … then another 17.
Nov. 15: Tickets for the first leg of the tour are available via Ticketmaster’s Registered Fan program, which fans could sign up for until Nov. 9 (this system would continue throughout the Eras Tour, including for Canadian ticket sales in August, 2023). In a sign of things to come, the sale descends into chaos: Ticketmaster’s website crashes, fans complain, and House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gets involved, saying the Ticketmaster-Live Nation monopoly needs to be “reined in.”
Nov. 17: In response to the unprecedented demand, Ticketmaster announces that the general ticket sale scheduled for Nov. 18 will be cancelled.
Nov. 19: Ticketmaster releases a lengthy statement (with graphs!) explaining the fiasco. According to the retailer, 3.5 million fans registered for the Verified Presale, with 1.5 million fans being sent codes. But the number of bot attacks as well as fans who didn’t have codes drove unprecedented traffic to the site, resulting in 3.5 billion system requests the day of the presale. “Never before has a Verified Fan onsale sparked so much attention – or traffic,” Ticketmaster said. “This disrupted the predictability and reliability that is the hallmark of our Verified Fan platform.”
Nov. 22: U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Mike Lee announce an antitrust investigation into Ticketmaster – a direct result of Swiftie furor.
2023
Jan. 23: Just under two months before the Eras Tour begins, a number of U.S. senators use Taylor Swift lyrics in their arguments at a senate hearing about Ticketmaster’s selling practices.
March 17: The Eras Tour officially kicks off. Fans – and, indeed, the world – get the first taste of the career-spanning, costume-change-heavy, three-hour-plus extravaganza that Swift will tour for the next year and a half.
April 13: Swift’s gig in Tampa, Fla., is her first since her breakup with long-time beau Joe Alwyn. For those wondering what this might have to do with the tour, well, just ask a Swiftie: Eras setlists became instant fodder for speculation and dissection, and her decision to swap love song Invisible String for maudlin ballad The 1 was widely assumed to be rooted in the breakup.
June 2: Swift announces the Latin American leg of the Eras Tour, with stops in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. At the same time, she reveals that Sabrina Carpenter will be her opener on those dates, a move that bolstered the Espresso singer’s own ascendancy last year.
June 20: Swift announces her long-awaited international Eras Tour dates, revealing stops in Asia, Australia, Europe and the U.K.
July 8: Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is spotted in the crowd at Swift’s Arrowhead Stadium show, kicking romance rumours into high gear.
July 23: At her tour stops in Lumen Field in Seattle, Swift fans literally make the Earth shake: During the shows, Swifties cause seismic activity measured at around 2.3 on the Richter scale.
Aug. 3: The moment Canadian Swifties had been waiting for: On this day, Swift announces a six-date Canadian, er, tour, with all six of the scheduled shows taking place at Toronto’s Rogers Centre in November, 2024.
Aug. 9: Tickets for Swift’s Canadian dates go on sale – and sell out immediately, with Canadian fans experiencing the same frustration and, indeed, grief that characterized U.S. sales in late 2022. In Canada, that frustration was compounded by the fact that only 300,000 tickets total were available, making the odds of snagging a ticket about one in 400.
Aug. 31: Fans unable to secure access to Swift’s tour itself got some reprieve with the announcement of the Eras Tour Movie on this date (to open on Oct. 31).
Nov. 2: West Coasters, rejoice: Swift announces that the Eras Tour will visit – and, indeed, culminate in – Vancouver, with three shows from Dec. 6-8 at BC Place.
A young fan exchanges friendship bracelets with Taylor Swift as she performs onstage during The Eras Tour at Allianz Parque on Nov. 24, 2023 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.TAS2023/Getty Images
Nov. 18-26: Swift’s Brazil tour dates, during a severe heat wave, are marred with tragedy. Fans are unable to bring water bottles into Rio’s Nilton Santos Olympic Stadium, where sweltering temperatures resulted in “sauna-like” conditions. After the death of 25-year-old fan Ana Clara Benevides Machado, who sought medical attention at Swift’s first performance in Rio and died shortly after, Swift postpones her show the next day, citing concerns for the safety of her fans.
Nov. 25: The Eras Tour movie becomes the highest-grossing concert movie in history …
Dec. 8: … and the Eras Tour becomes the first tour ever to gross US$1-billion.
2024
Taylor Swift performs at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Feb. 16 in Australia.Graham Denholm/TAS24/Getty Images
Feb. 16-18: Swift plays to her biggest crowds yet, with 96,000 fans filling Melbourne’s Cricket Ground stadium each day for three days.
April 2: Taylor Swift is officially declared a billionaire.
May 9: After the April 19 release of Swift’s 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, the Eras Tour adds a new, well, era. The TTPD era made its debut in Paris, with Swift adding seven songs from that album to her performance. Several songs, including fan favourite Long Live, are cut to make time, and sets for sister albums Folklore and Evermore are combined to create “Folkmore.”
June 13: Swift performs her 100th Eras Tour show, in Liverpool, England.
June 23: Nearly a year since the start of dating rumours, Kelce appears onstage as a dancer during Swift’s show at London’s Wembley Stadium.
Oct. 19: Swift kicks off the final leg of her Eras Tour in Miami with four new outfits, including an update to the now-iconic bejewelled snake jumpsuit.
