The lights have been turned off, the confetti has been swept up, the dancers have danced their final count and Taylor Swift has sung her last note on her historic Eras Tour.
The tour started March 17, 2023, and ended Dec. 8, 2024, after 149 shows across the world. Throughout the tour, Swift had no shortage of magic and surprises in store for her fans. From album announcements and surprise guests to performances one can’t let go of, the Eras Tour had something for everyone.
Although the tour has dominated entertainment news headlines and word of Swift’s doings and goings on have been documented heavily, here is a recap of the most memorable moments from the Eras Tour.
Ticketmaster troubles
The first memorable moment from the Eras Tour came before opening night. In fact, it came before the general sale for tickets or lack thereof.
Tickets for the Eras Tour were supposed to be on sale starting Nov. 15, 2022, for Ticketmaster verified fan presale and later Nov. 18, 2022, for the general public. However, the general sale was canceled after an unprecedented turnout for the verified fan sale.
The verified fan sale invited a select group of people via code to purchase presale tickets. Around 1.5 million verified fan codes were sent out; however, 14 million people logged onto Ticketmaster to try and get tickets during the presale. This led to slow response times on the Ticketmaster website and left people without tickets despite having a code for the presale.
During the presale, 2 million tickets were sold and resulted in Ticketmaster making the decision to cancel the general sale for the public.
Tickets to the Eras Tour became the hottest ticket on the market, and fans who did not get to purchase tickets from Ticketmaster had the opportunity to spend over $1,000 on resale tickets.
“Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” announcement
Although the three-hour spectacle was enough to keep fans engaged, Swift sprinkled surprise announcements throughout the tour. On May 5, 2023, Swift announced the release of “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” at an Eras Tour show in Nashville, Tennessee. This marked the first, but certainly not the last, album announcement on the Eras Tour, and it was a special moment for fans in attendance.
“1989 (Taylor’s Version)” announcement
In addition to the “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” announcement, Swift also announced “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” at an Eras Tour show in Inglewood, California Aug. 9, 2023. Throughout the concert, Swift debuted new blue outfits for each era to go along with the album announcement, earning roaring cheers from the audience.
Addition of “The Tortured Poets Department” set
Swift released her latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department” April 19, 2024. Fans were given a not-so-torturous surprise when Swift added songs from “The Tortured Poets Department” to the Eras Tour setlist May 9, 2024.
Swift dazzled in a new outfit, interacted with new stage props and added six songs from the album to the setlist: “Down Bad,” “Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me?” “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart,” “So High School,” “But Daddy I Love Him” and “Fortnight.”
Surprise song mashups
Each Eras Tour show had an acoustic part of the set where Swift performed a different set of songs on the piano and guitar. At a show in Buenos Aires in November 2023, Swift began to play mashups of multiple songs during the acoustic set. This furthered the unpredictability of the set and became another way for Swift to surprise fans.
Surprise guests
If seeing Swift herself wasn’t enough for concertgoers, the singer brought out multiple special guests across many different shows including Ice Spice, Jack Antonoff, Maren Morris, Phoebe Bridgers, Aaron Dessner and Marcus Mumford. Swift also brought out Sabrina Carpenter to perform “Espresso” and Grace Abrams to sing “Out of the Woods” and “Us.”
While the only thing left of the Eras Tour is the memories, Swift ensured those memories will last a lifetime.
