When Taylor Swift made her star-studded appearance in the Big Easy for The Eras Tour, it felt like the entire city had embraced her. From the giant friendship bracelets on the dome, an entire section of the skeleton house dedicated to Swift, to characterized beignets at Cafe du Monde dressed up in each era, everyone had pulled out all the stops to greet the popstar and the Swifties who’d be visiting the city for the show. For me, who has been lucky enough to call New Orleans home, it was indescribably special to see a city I love so much embrace a person I love so much – whose music has been the soundtrack of my life and time in NOLA.
In 2023, I was lucky enough to see the show in Atlanta on April 29, and even though I was lucky enough to score tickets at all, but especially on such a special day, it didn’t even compare to seeing the show in New Orleans. For the Atlanta show, my best friend and I traveled 13 hours – go figure – each way on the Amtrak, and on the journey there, we ate packed lunches and made friendship bracelets until we were sufficiently annoyed with dropping beads on every bump we hit. When we got to our hotel room, we ate lukewarm ramen because that’s all that we had at midnight in a city we’d never been to. On the day of the show, we were proper tourists and visited the World of Coca-Cola – where we took a million photos and got to try so many different sodas. Even though I’ll cherish those memories forever, and while it was fun to travel to a new place, especially to see Swift perform, it was an entirely different experience for her to come to us. When it was announced that Swift would be making a stop in NOLA, it was over a year in advance, and even though I signed up for a presale code with at least four different email accounts, there were no codes in my inboxes. And with the demand for this tour, I was starting to accept that our trip to Atlanta, where we sat behind the stage, would be the only time I’d see her. I also knew deep down that if she was coming to my city, I’d do everything in my power to be there.
Luckily, I had a friend who had a friend – which seems to be the only way to get tickets to the show these days – and we scored tickets for night one, and the countdown began. From there, I had already begun planning my outfit, but little did anyone know – a new album was on the horizon. During the first leg of the U.S. tour, we were all still sobbing during “Tolerate It” and hadn’t yet been introduced to “Female Rage: The Musical.” Nearly a year after seeing Swift in Atlanta, she released “The Tortured Poets Department,”and when she went back out on tour in Paris, she revealed the new era in the show – which left me forever changed – even though I was only watching from a grainy livestream thousands of miles away.
That’s when I knew that my outfit had to be the dress that she wears during the TTPD set.
As a proud member of the Tortured Poets Department, I was truly counting the days until I’d see the new songs live, and when I did, I was sobbing in my white dress, screaming “So High School,” which were the song lyrics I’d spent hours adorning to my dress to match Swift’s tour outfit. Not only did the new set make her New Orleans shows special for me, but the speeches she gave were so sweet, and anytime she speaks to the crowd, I often feel like she’s talking only to me, which is pretty hard to do in a stadium filled with 65,000 other people.
In the speech before “All Too Well,” on night two, she said, “There’s just so many things that you’ve done that have made this tour feel more special than any tour I’ve done. Like, you know I write one song that has a line about ‘make the friendship bracelets’ in it, and all of a sudden, I show up at the tour, and you guys are making bracelets, trading them, and making new friends… and spreading so much joy. Now, fast forward, we come to play New Orleans, and there’s a giant friendship bracelet on the outside of the stadium. That’s all you. You have made this tour into this magnificent display of joy and excitement, and that’s honestly why I’ve had more fun on this tour than I could ever have imagined.” There were so many special aspects of Swift’s New Orleans visit, including a couple anniversaries. And there’s nothing that Swift loves more than an anniversary.
Swift celebrated her 18th year of making music by playing “Our Song” from her self-titled debut album on night one during the surprise song set. She celebrated “1989,” her fifth studio album’s 10 year anniversary and the rerecorded version’s first anniversary, which she honored by playing “How You Get the Girl” mashed up with “Clean,” which are some pretty deep cuts for Swifties. I remember standing, tucked in a corner – since I didn’t have an actual ticket – struggling to breathe because I was crying and singing at the same time, and no one could’ve prepared me for what it would be like to hear one of my all-time favorite songs live with no warning. And I should also probably mention now that I was fortunate enough to attend all three shows, which still doesn’t feel real to me.
And I know you’re wondering how I got so lucky…
Well, a few weeks before the show, a friend forwarded me an email that was asking for student leaders to work the merch stands at the concert, and without hesitation, I wrote my name on the Google form and filled out the application. At that point, I was completely fine with just getting to be outside of the stadium on the other nights of the show, but instead, I got to be in the 100s section, screaming-singing my heart out – each night more and more incredible than the last.
It didn’t matter that I wasn’t covered in glitter or wearing an outfit that took hours to create, I was so honored to just be there, even if I had been standing in the heat for 12 hours prior.
Those three hours felt like nothing, and even though by the end, I’d seen the show four times, it felt like the first time every time.
There were just so many tiny details that Swift put into the show to make it uniquely ours. On night one during the 1989 set, Swift rose from beneath the stage wearing purple, gold, and green to represent Mardi Gras. During “Bejeweled,” the stage also lit up those same colors.
And my favorite part was the ad lib in “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” from beloved backup dancer Kam Saunders who changes the spoken “like ever” part of the song for each city.
For night one, he said, “Oh no baby,” with the New Orleans twang that everyone knows and loves. For night two, he said, “Uh, uh ain’t gone happen.” For night three, he said, “She said what she said.” It was also incredibly special for Saunders to be on his “brother’s turf,” as his younger brother plays for the Saints and was formerly a guy on the Chiefs, alongside Travis Kelce.
Each night Swift and her team went above and beyond to make every show special, including bringing out Sabrina Carpenter for night two to perform a mash up of “Espresso,” “Is It Over Now?,” and “Please, Please, Please.” It doesn’t matter if you’re in the front row or in the nosebleeds, at Swift’s concerts, it’s just magical to be in the room, but there was nothing like The Eras Tour in New Orleans.
During opening night before “Lover,” Swift said she knew that when the tour came to end, she wanted it to be in the “most fun cities with the craziest, most passionate, generous crowds,” and that’s when she said, “We’ve got to go, you guessed it, to come see you in beautiful New Orleans, Louisiana.” Now, I don’t know if Swift has favorites, but if she does, New Orleans is definitely one of them. I think Swifties everywhere can agree that we got some of the best outfits, surprise songs, and the most magical moments of any shows on the tour.
And to top it all off, Swift not only recognized our generosity, but she matched it by donating 75,000 meals to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana, and my hope is that her donation was able to counteract some of the harm that came with Governor Jeff Landry’s forced relocation of the homeless camp beneath the overpass near the stadium. The food bank shared on their Instagram account, “When kindness meets action, magic happens.”
And it seems like everywhere Swift goes, she brings magic and leaves a little behind, and New Orleans was no different.
