The tickets alone were hard to get — and by no means cheap.
Then there was the merch, lodging, parking, airfare, the search and cost of the perfect fits – and who knew the price of thousands of tiny plastic beads could add up to so much?
It cost Taylor Swift fans hundreds or thousands of dollars to attend The Eras Tour, the singer-songwriter’s first outing since 2017-2018’s The Reputation Tour and a jaunt that found Swift floating through nine out of her 10 studio albums and nearly two decades of hits.
She’s ending the first North American leg of the biggest-selling tour of the year with a record-setting six sold-out shows at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Aug. 3-5 and 7-9. And simply going to one of those evenings wasn’t going to be enough for two mother-daughter duos from Orange County.
There are Swift fans, and then there are the full-blown, diehard loyal Swifties. How do I know? Because some of the diehards are my friends.
I’ve witnessed my longtime friend Lori Totten, of Brea, and her soon-to-be 19-year-old daughter Tiffany go to extraordinary lengths to join the millions of fans that scored tickets to see Swift out on her The Eras Tour. I was with Lori on a trip to Boston in 2019, sitting at an Italian restaurant and waiting for our dinner, when she manically tried to purchase tickets on her phone to Swift’s Lover Fest, the ill-fated 2020 outing in support of Swift’s seventh studio album, “Lover.” That would have played off as the first big concert at the all-new SoFi Stadium that year had it not been for the COVID-19 pandemic.
I just also happened to be with her and two of our girlfriends on a trip to Big Bear when Swift dropped her latest album, “Midnights,” last year. We stayed up to listen to the album through and through in our cozy cabin as the clock struck midnight.
When The Eras Tour went on sale last year and the overwhelming amount of fans crashed the Ticketmaster website, Lori and her longtime friend Andrea Ramos of Yorba Linda were both frantically attempting to score tickets to any and every show. By some divine stroke of luck — and hours and hours with no bathroom breaks — Ramos was able to pick up tickets for the Totten ladies, herself, and her 18-year-old daughter Emma, to Swift’s concert on May 5 in Nashville, Tennessee. After more stress and haggling, the two now-very-savvy ticket-buying women were finally able to secure tickets to a show closer to home and bought passes to see Swift at SoFi Stadium on the first night of the tour on Thursday, Aug. 3, too. The Totten’s are also going to the shows on Aug. 7-9 and Ramos women are headed to Aug. 7 and 9, too.
So why all of the trouble and headaches just to see this one artist on tour?
I joined Lori, Andrea, Tiffany and Emma on their ride to see Swift in Inglewood on Aug. 3 to find out that it wasn’t just about the music, there was much more to it.
“I just love what a phenomenal role model Taylor is for my kid,” Andrea said as we cruised down the 91 Freeway on the way to the show. “When ‘Reputation’ came out, Emma started having a stronger voice. It’s like ‘Reputation’ released Emma. Not to mention Taylor is just kind, generous and a great businesswoman.”
Emma and Tiffany have known each other since about the age of three and grew up dancing competitively — even one year dressing up as Swifties with blonde bob wigs and dancing to Swift’s music.
“Aw, we are each other’s longest friend,” Emma realizes as the two, who are cozied in the back of the vehicle adjusting their “Folklore” and “Midnights” themed outfits and pondering aloud which secret songs Swift will play later that evening. (Spoiler alert: It was “Maroon” and “I Can See You (Taylor’s Version)”.)
“I have a bracelet that says ‘I heart Mama Swift’ and I just think Taylor’s mom has to be such a great person to have raised such a great daughter,” Andrea said, referring to Swift’s mother, also named Andrea, who has become a rock star herself at her daughter’s shows, as she walks the venues to meet fans.
“I mean, the two of us are raising daughters, too, and it’s not easy,” she added.
I asked the young women why they liked Swift’s music and was met with a loud “Pffttt” and a laugh from Emma, the kind of response only a teenager could deliver without uttering, “Duh! My mom’s friend” at me.
“There are too many things, I can’t even name,” Tiffany offered.
And I very much believe she feels that way.
For their mothers, it has become something special that they can share with their daughters.
“It’s something that Tiffany and I can bond over,” Lori said. “She has her music and I have mine, but this is our music. I also love that Taylor is so great with her fans and the music just makes me feel good.”
For Andrea, this is her final summer at home with Emma for now, who is heading to Indiana State University next year. As luck would have it, the day we were headed to Inglewood, Swift announced additional dates for The Eras Tour in 2024. And she’s hitting Indianapolis, not far from Emma’s new college, in November.
“We’re going to try to get tickets,” Andrea assures. “I just like that I have this time with Emma. I get to experience this with her.”
Lori is the first to admit she’s gone a little overboard this year with The Eras Tour, especially with her outfits. Since she’s going to four shows in Inglewood, she has a different outfit for each evening, all inspired by Swift’s costuming in her music videos or on previous tours. She did give my friends and me a fashion show the week before of each outfit, stuff she purchased off of Poshmark and Etsy and went to work bedazzling and glittering herself to make the looks just right. She did this for herself as well as for Tiffany and she laugh-cringes when she shares the outfits for four Southern California dates and the early stop in Nashville cost over a grand. She and Tiffany also made dozens of Swiftie friendship bracelets, each one with a Swift saying and song titles or lyrics, dates and more that meant something to them.
And because they’re both cat ladies, just like Swift, Lori made tiny little friendship bracelets for cats to give fellow cat-loving Swifties.
“It’s crazy how much those little beads cost,” she said with a laugh.
Some may think it’s insane to indulge so much in a silly little concert, but as these women put the final touches on their outfits and drew on glittery 13s on the backs of their hands (Swift’s favorite number), I watched them laugh, smile, hug and at time squeal in delight as they met other Swifties on the way up to the Stadium.
It was almost like a scene from the new “Barbie” movie — instead of the normal “Hi, Barbie!” greeting inside Barbieland, it was “Hi, Swiftie” in Taylorland. They took pictures, traded bracelets with other fans and danced to the Swift songs that were being played outside the venue in anticipation for the big event.
They scream-cried-sang and danced through the entire show and took lots of pictures and videos to post on social media. And, of course, they picked up more merch.
“It’s totally worth it,” Lori said of their Eras Tour experience.
