On Friday afternoon, a seemingly endless parade of Taylor Swift fans in floral dresses, glittering cowboy boots, sequined T-shirts and handcrafted friendship bracelets headed to East Rutherford, NJ, turning the sprawling asphalt parking lot at MetLife Stadium into a pop-up performance space. a fashion show and a meeting place for old and new friends.
Two months and 25 shows after the pop megastar’s career-spanning Eras Tour began, the show arrived in the New York area for three weekend dates — her first concerts near (but not quite in) her adopted hometown in five years.
“I really missed you a lot!” Swift told the sold-out crowd of more than 72,000.
And they had missed her.
A young woman announced she cried tears of joy as she walked through a tunnel to the parking lot. Two fans with tickets to Saturday’s concert who had come over from Costa Rica also hoped to see Swift on Friday. A woman in an “I ❤️ TS” shirt declined an interview request, admitting she teaches at a public school and was not allowed to be at the stadium on Friday afternoon.
Even getting into the parking lot required dedication – and a potentially pricey ticket.
Six months after a snag-filled Ticketmaster presale, a single seat to the Friday show was available on the secondary market for a whopping $1,000. The astronomical cost prompted Swift’s loyal fans, known as Swifties, to band together to help each other find tickets at fair prices.
Charlie Tokieda, 39, of Brooklyn, got face-value tickets for Friday’s show by waiting online during presale, and he bought a few more tickets on the secondary market for a show in Denver to celebrate his July birthday.
“We got a great deal, and with that deal you could have bought a nice used car,” he said.
On Friday afternoon, security guards in orange shirts stood at the gates that formed a perimeter around the parking lot and demanded an entry pass before stepping aside. It was part of an effort to crack down on “Taylor gating” — lounging around the grounds and listening to the concert without a ticket — which MetLife Stadium said would not be allowed.
Maria Naeem, 32, who arrived via Uber around 9:30 a.m. and slipped into the parking lot undetected, was among the small group of fans and chaperones who remained outside as Swift prepared to take the stage. Naeem, a doctor, had asked two colleagues to take over her shift and had driven from Virginia in hopes of buying a ticket at will.
“They don’t sell and everything online is very expensive,” she said disappointed.
Many of Swift’s most devoted followers dressed in DIY costumes, which resembled the singer at various points in her career. A fan draped herself in a pink and white “Taylor Swift 2024” flag. Others wore snakeskin skirts, a reference to Swift’s 2017 album, “Reputation.”
Robert Pszybylski, 19, of Long Island, wore a floral shirt inspired by Swift’s 2021 Grammy dress, more or less tailored for the concert.
“I kept googling ‘3D embroidered floral fabric,'” he said. “I ordered Etsy from China. It took a month to get here.”
Even those who weren’t lucky enough to get tickets found other ways to take part in Taylor Mania.
For months, ticketed and non-ticketed fans have been obsessed with buying concert merchandise, sometimes camping overnight to be the first to get their hands on the most coveted items. Perhaps in anticipation of a frenzied rush to sellers, the MetLife Stadium flagship store started handing out merchandise a full day early.
But those efforts didn’t help shorten lines on Friday, when, in addition to a prized blue crew neck sweatshirt, fans hoped to take home a new special edition “Midnights” CD (yes, a CD!) with a remix of the song “Karma”, featuring up-and-coming Bronx rapper Ice Spice.
Near the end of the show, Swift premiered the remix’s video starring Ice Spice, announcing that while in the studio, she “not only fell in love with her, but just decided she’s the whole future.” The rapper later joined Swift on stage to debut the remix and close out the show. Cue another round of frenzied screaming.
While she’s played about 40 of the same songs during each three-plus hour set, Swift has also revealed a handful of “surprise” songs to keep elated fans on their toes.
On Friday, she invited longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff to perform “Getaway Car,” a fan favorite from “Reputation,” then took a seat at a piano for “Maroon” from “Midnights,” the most recent of the four albums she has released. released since her last tour.
The LP, she said, was about “nights in my life,” “things that kept me awake,” and “memories you keep going back to.”
“Maroon,” she said, was about a memory of—you guessed it:
And I lost you
The one I was dancing with
No shoes in New York
Looked up at the sky and it was maroon