I am going to try to put into words our experience at the Taylor Swift Eras Tour in Miami, FL on night one.
My husband and I had been talking about this concert weekend for almost a year as a special experience to give to our nine year old daughter as a surprise. He was definitely not a Swiftie, but only knew how much this show would mean to her and watched her love and adoration only grow over the last year for Taylor Swift. I was somewhat of a Taylor Swift fan as I am an (older) Millennial and grew up with Taylor Swift (I am about 5 years older). I always knew she was incredibly talented and I could enjoy her music, but I was never overly passionate about it. I have never seen her in concert and never tried to purchase tickets prior to this experience. Taylor may have certain views that don’t align with mine and has done some personal things that I may not agree with but overall, I have always felt like she just tries to be a kind person and do the right thing and works really freakin’ hard. And that, I love about her.
We have spent the last year seeing and hearing the craze for this Eras Tour throughout the United States and then in Europe and all I knew were that tickets were extremely hard to get and they were outrageously expensive if you were not one of the lucky ones to purchase them on their initial drop from Ticketmaster (those starting around $250/each).
Last year, Taylor announced she was adding on a few more US dates to her tour in the Fall of ’24 and that is when we decided we would start trying to consider going. She was headed to two close-by cities to us, Miami and New Orleans, and we figured this was our chance! We definitely missed out on the drop of tickets through Ticketmaster, so we knew we would have to purchase through one of the resale sites.
Here’s what it looked like when we surprised our daughter with the tickets.
This is where you realize this is an entire experience and not just a concert. The excitement and passion that comes with this concert is what gives you all the feels. I was looking for ways to share this surprise with our daughter when I found the sweetest poems on the internet that utilize lyrics from Taylor Swifts songs to share the surprise of gifting these Eras tour tickets. We purchased the tickets on Stubhub (one of the resale sites) about a week before the Miami concert and spent a fortune, but it was worth every penny. The tickets are all electronic, so I also went on Canva and made my own version of an Eras Tour ticket to print for her to see. We put the letter and the tickets in a gift bag and the whole family sat around as we gave her this gift. It was such an emotional moment that I will remember forever! We were all in tears. You can find the whole moment here on TikTok. You can edit the tickets I made with this link here and the poem we used here. I would love for you tag me in a post if you use any of it, so I can watch their enjoyment.
It’s time to head to Miami.
It is Friday morning and my husband, daughter and I all head to the airport in complete excitement to see Taylor Swift THAT NIGHT!! From the second we walked up to our gate, the connections to other Swifties began to happen… we saw TS sweatshirts and men, women and kids in their friendship bracelets that were sharing the same enthusiasm as we were! I loved talking and listening to each persons story on how they secured their tickets for the concert. Some were won in marketing giveaways and others were purchased on a last minute release of tickets from Ticketmaster the night before and others bit the bullet and spent the money on resale tickets. It was all so incredible and exciting.
The same thing happened when we arrived at our hotel on South Beach. We ran into groups of women that were in their thirties and forties that were taking a girls trip (no kids!) and seeing Taylor Swift one of her three nights as well. We saw families with young kids and families with grown kids and mothers and daughters and childhood best friends all united and in this city to come see Taylor Swift. This is the Taylor Swift nation that I just had no real clue about or had never experienced. It still makes me teary eyed thinking about it and watching the bustling city of Miami fill up with hundreds of thousands of Taylor Swift fans all with this incredible enthusiasm and zest for life over her music.
We stayed in Miami for two nights (I wish we could have stayed Sunday night too!) and every where we went (restaurants, shops, elevators, and pools), we met more and more Swifties and listened to their stories. Did I mention how you immediately feel like these people are your friends or that you have an immediate connection to them all because they may be wearing one of their Taylor Swift friendship bracelets or a tee?? Madelyn would spot someone wearing the bracelets and she wanted to stop them and ask them if they were going to the concert and if they wanted to trade bracelets. Of course they did because they are all the kindest fans and share the same excitement as everyone else and they are happy to stop and choose the perfect bracelet for you depending on what “era” or song is your favorite. It’s truly incredible.
It was time to get ready for the show and we made sure we did our hair and makeup together and planned out some fun Tswift TikTok “get ready with me” or outfit reels to share. There are so many fun ones out there. I have a few different ones on my Tik Tok here that you can look at for inspiration. When we were all dressed, it was go time and we were ready to head to the stadium!
What it is like when you arrive at the stadium.
It is completely electric!!!! It is a sea of beautiful PINK and metallic and all the sequins, tulle, fringe, cowboy boots, and rhinestones that you can imagine. It is little girls dreams becoming a reality. It is mothers and daughters connecting in a whole new experience that maybe they never have. It is fathers watching their daughters with tears in their eyes not believing they are actually really here to see Taylor Swift. It is spouses supporting their 5o year old wives wild obsession of this 34 year old blonde chick with cat eyes and bright red lips! It is people winning a free ticket that maybe have never could afforded to go. It is women that have spent countless hours working on costumes or homemade friendship bracelets in anticipation to be at the best show of their lifetime. It is 60,000 different people coming together for the love of one performer and giving everyone something in common. It is truly amazing.
Once the show begins and Taylor takes the stage, it is 3.5 hours of non-stop performance. It is 16 outfit changes that literally happen in the blink of an eye. You can’t fathom how she does it so quickly and effortlessly. It is hidden sips of water that the audience never sees and energy and high heels that you just can’t believe. She is truly a talent like no other and how she does this three nights in a row, city after city, is beyond me. To watch her facial expressions and the way she invigorates the crowds is just incredible. I don’t care if you don’t like her music, you can’t NOT love her show. The dancers, the special effects and all the stage props are terrific and all I want to do is go back and see it again and again. That is not a lie. I love her energy.
If you are lucky enough to get the opportunity to go, I have rounded up some of our best tips from our experience and hopefully answer a few of your questions that you may have heading into the concert.
A few tips for the Eras Tour from our Experience.
- Dressing Up: I am sharing some inspiration for outfits below that I put together, but the main thing to capture when you are there is that anything with sequins, fringe, rhinestones or pink and lavender will do the trick! You will see everything from the most elaborate handmade outfits to just simple jeans and a Tswift t-shirt. You can’t go wrong, but I will say that part of the fun and charm of the shows is to get into the crazy outfit frenzy.
- Transportation: When it comes to transportation, I have some mixed feelings. We decided to order a car service at the 9th hour right before we were leaving for the show. It meant that we were paying a driver an hourly rate, purchased a parking spot for the show (around $100/$150 or so) and then hopped in the car when we were ready to leave. Obviously that can be pretty awesome (yet expensive), but I felt like we would have been better off grabbing an uber to the show and then walking out of the stadium and just hopping in with a taxi or uber that was waiting outside. If you go to the actual “ride share” area to pick up an Uber, I heard that can be long and a bit of a nightmare. But there were tons of people out around the stadium ready to give you rides places. Remember, everything is EXPENSIVE! Your other best option is to drive your own car and purchase a parking pass. I purchased our parking pass on Stubhub as well.
- Comfortable Shoes: I highly recommend wearing comfortable shoes even though I did have a few moments of regret before the show that I didn’t have my pink cowboy boots with me! You are standing for pretty much the whole show and there is still a lot of walking before and after the concert no matter what transportation you decide to use. You will be so happy that you wore something comfortable, I promise. My daughter wanted to wear her cowboy boots, but thankfully we brought a tiny pair of foldable flats that she changed into mid show. She would have never made it after the show walking back to the car in those boots!
- Bag Policy: Before heading to the venue, double-check the bag policy. Many shows only allow small, clear bags for security reasons. They may allow a small size bag that is not clear if you really want. I found a perfect clear bag on Amazon that was ideal for concerts and other events with similar restrictions.
- Merchandise: I think each show can be different when it comes to merchandise, but for our show, there was only one place to go purchase merch and it was high up in the stadium. I had heard it can be absolutely crazy to try to buy merch before the show (think 2hr wait!), so we did not do that. We went at the end of the show (Madelyn was exhausted and we did walk out a few songs early) and there was absolutely no line which was awesome. However, they did have very limited sizing. She got one shirt her size but everything else was huge and she really wanted a sweatshirt but they had nothing even close to her size. The merchandise as a whole does run really large to in my opinion.
- Bathroom Breaks: The bathrooms lines are pretty outrageous as you might imagine. I was so happy with our decision to actually hit a random portopotty in the parking lot before we entered into the stadium. Once we were in the stadium, I learned that they actually converted several of the “mens” bathrooms into ladies room for all the extra ladies that would be in the building. The problem with those is that they only actually had 3 stalls and the rest were urinals. So you only had three women that could go at a time. So those lines move really slow and I would definitely try to look for those signs and avoid them!
- Food: We really didn’t eat at the show but did try to hunt down a pretzel towards the very end and a lot of the spots were already sold out. I saw mostly nachos, pretzels and hot dogs at our venue, but I did hear that there were other things that we just didn’t see. Drinks are available throughout the stadium and are super expensive as you might imagine. Mixed cocktails came at a $3o price tag which was crazy. That may just be Miami though.
- The Best Seats: I honestly hear that there is not a bad seat in the house and I really mostly believe that. They do such an incredible job with the huge screens all around for everyone to feel like they are close to Taylor. I did love sitting on the floor and the vibe was really fun, but it can be hard to see for some if you’re on the floor and 30 rows back. We were row 23 and Madelyn was able to stand on her chair to be our height and it worked out. I hear the elevation from the lower bowl seats is really nice plus you really get to see all the excitement and color changes of the stages.
- If You Are on the Floor: If you do have floor seats, there will be a special spot for you to go and grab a “floor bracelet” before you head down to your seats. Make sure you go and do this and you need everyone in your party if you are holding their tickets on your phone. We messed this up and tried to go down to our seats without the bracelets because we didn’t know and it was a bit of a pain.
- Timing for Getting to the Show and Leaving: I think most of the shows open around 4 or 430 and I think a lot of people probably choose to get there that early. Since we had a nine year old, I knew that would be a long day for her. We also were a little rushed since we arrived in Miami that day, so we left our hotel at 5pm and got to the Hard Rock venue around 6/615pm. That was only an hour before the 7pm start time. Looking back, I wish we had gotten there earlier; but it was also totally fine. Gracie Abrams opened for Taylor and started promptly at 7pm and was finished around 745pm and then it was time for Taylor to take stage at 8pm. She does play non-stop for 3.5hrs and it’s incredible. Rain or shine, she is performing. Show is over right around 11:15/11:40pm.
What to Wear to the Eras Tour.
You can find my full post for outfit inspiration with links here.
What to Bring to the Eras Tour.
You can find my full post for what to bring to the Eras Tour with links here.
Song List from Night One in Miami, FL.
Lover
Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince (shortened)
Cruel Summer (extended outro)
The Manm(spoken intro)
You Need to Calm Down (shortened)
Lover (spoken intro; extended outro)
Fearless
Fearless(shortened)
You Belong With Me
Love Story
Red
Red – Intro (contains elements of “State of Grace”, “Holy Ground” and “Red”)
22
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (Kam Saunders: “pero like, never!”)
I Knew You Were Trouble (shortened)
All Too Well (10 Minute Version: spoken intro)
Speak Now
Speak Now – Intro (contains elements of “Castles Crumbling”)
Enchanted (shortened)
reputation
Delicate
Don’t Blame Me (shortened)
Look What You Made Me Do (extended outro)
folklore / evermore
cardigan (shortened)
betty (shortened; spoken intro)
champagne problems(spoken intro)
august
illicit affairs(shortened)
my tears ricochet
marjorie(shortened)
willow (extended)
1989
Style (shortened)
Blank Space
Shake It Off
Wildest Dreams (shortened)
Bad Blood (shortened)
THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT
Female Rage: The Musical (contains elements of “MBOBHFT”, “WAOLOM”, “loml”, “So Long, London” and “BDILH”)
But Daddy I Love Him / So High School
Florida!!! (with Florence Welch) (extended outro)
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? (shortened)
Down Bad (shortened; with “Fortnight” outro)
Fortnight
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived (shortened)
I Can Do It With a Broken Heart (extended intro)
Surprise Songs
Tim McGraw / Timeless (spoken intro; mashup on guitar; new outfit)
this is me trying / Daylight (mashup on piano)
Midnights
Lavender Haze
Anti‐Hero
Midnight Rain
Vigilante Shit
Bejeweled
Mastermind
Karma
The Surprise Songs
The surprise songs are something that she does at every concert acoustically and she picks two different songs for each show. You don’t know what they are going to be. She does one on the piano and then one on the guitar. People anxiously await this moment and get so excited to see what their songs are going to be for their show. The secret songs happen just before the Midnights era and you don’t want to miss it! Each night they are totally different.
