Taylor Swift performs during the Eras Tour concert, in Vancouver, on Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
VANCOUVER – Taylor Swift touched down on five continents during her Eras Tour, and now fans from around the world are awaiting its final curtain at BC Place in downtown Vancouver.
Fans are anticipating what the singer has in store for the 149th and final performance of a tour that has explored Swift’s vast song catalogue, past and present.
Grossing an estimated US$2 billion in revenue with the Eras Tour, Swift has bucked the downward trend of a music industry disrupted by the downfall of physical album sales and the rise of pennies-per-song streaming services.
The tour that began in the spring of 2023 saw Swift make countless outfit changes while fans enthusiastically handed out their trademark friendship bracelets.
Hours before Swift was set to take to the stage, fans like Meme Bautista and Jean Batac were milling about near BC Place, planning to visit Swift-themed signs erected around Vancouver before the superstar’s third sold-out night at the stadium.
Bautista says her fandom has only grown since she last saw Swift in the Philippines a decade ago, and she has 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.”
While Bautista has been a diehard Swiftie for years, Batac is a new convert.
Batac said she’s looking forward to seeing her friend’s reaction because Swift is Bautista’s “dream artist.”
“I’m looking forward to her emotion,” Batac said.
Batac and Bautista are two out thousands who descended on downtown Vancouver over the last three days, including celebrities like rapper Flavor Flav.
The Public Enemy hype-man said on social media he’s on his way from Los Angeles to “Taycouver” on a “flight full of Swifties” ahead of Sunday’s last 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 have been planning something special to end the tour, with Swift forums abuzz with suggestions to surprise her by singing “Happy Birthday” at tonight’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.
Swift performed six shows in Toronto last month.
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.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 8, 2024.
