1. First, the opening night of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour in Glendale, Arizona broke the record for the most-attended concert by a female artist in the US with 69,000 fans. The record was reportedly previously held by Madonna.
2. During the Seattle tour dates, fans caused a “2.3 magnitude earthquake,” according to a seismologist. The small earthquake activity was recorded at Taylor’s second Seattle show on July 23, where the only difference from night 1 was that it started later and she performed “Message in a Bottle” and “Tied Together with a Smile” as surprise songs.
The “Swift Quake” was similar to the “Beast Quake,” which was recorded at the same stadium when Marshawn Lynch scored a touchdown in 2011. The Swiftie-caused quake registered 0.3 bigger than the “Beast Quake.”
3. The guitar Taylor uses during the Fearless portion of the concert was decorated by her parents using, as Taylor put it, “super glue and a free afternoon.” The guitar is coated in silver rhinestones, which matches the guitar she used during the Fearless tour in 2009.
Taylor Swift / Via Instagram: @taylorswift, Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
They even hand-placed the rhinestone “13” that can be seen on the guitar as well.
4. Gladys Tamez is the designer behind Taylor’s “22” hat, which is a handmade classic fedora that she gives to a fan every night on tour. Gladys is also the hatmaker behind Lady Gaga’s iconic pink hat, which is featured on the cover of her fifth studio album Joanne.
Omar Vega / John Shearer / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
5. The “Enchanted” dress Taylor wore during the Speak Now portion of the concert while performing her second show in Arizona was custom-made Zuhair Murad Couture, which reportedly required “50 meters of tulle” and took “over 350 hours of atelier handwork” to create.
John Shearer / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
6. The blue “Enchanted” ball gown Taylor wore during the final Eras Tour stop in LA, when she announced 1989 (Taylor’s Version) was from Nicole + Felicia, and it was their third gown featured on the tour. It took roughly “2,100 hours for completion,” according to the brand.
Kevin Winter / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
7. The now-iconic bodysuit Taylor wears during the Midnights section of the show, namely “Vigilante Shit,” was made by Oscar de la Renta, and features “315 hours of construction [and] over 5,300 hand-embroidered crystals and beads.”
Lisa Lake / Getty Images for TAS
8. The bodysuit Taylor wears during the Lover portion of the show, and the blazer she puts on for “The Man,” are designed by Versace, and it’s paired with Christian Louboutin knee-high boots.
Ethan Miller / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management, Jeff Kravitz / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
Donatella Versace shared an Instagram post of the look when The Eras Tour kicked off, writing, “@taylorswift you are breathtaking in Versace. I’m so proud of you. Best of luck on The Eras Tour.”
9. The Eras Tour creative director and production designer is Ethan Tobman, who previously worked with Taylor on her 2021 Grammys performance and her music videos for “Anti-Hero,” “The Man,” and “Cardigan.” Ethan has also worked with Beyoncé, and he was the production designer for movies like The Menu, Room, and more.
Kevin Winter / Emma McIntyre / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
10. It reportedly takes a team of an estimated 90 trucks to construct the elaborate stage for The Eras Tour. Dave Brooks, Billboard Senior Director of Live Music and Touring, assumes there is a team that is “prepping and pre-building” as much as possible leading up to the show.
Emma Mcintyre / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
11. As many fans know, in order to get Taylor from backstage to behind the stage without concert goers spotting her, she reportedly rides inside a janitor cart. You can typically spot this happening during when “Applause” by Lady Gaga starts playing during the pre-show playlist.
@shaydanazifpour / TikTok / Taylor Swift / Via tiktok.com
12. During the moment when Taylor dives into the stage, there appears to be a red light, which tells Taylor not to jump yet, then when it turns green, she’s able to jump down. Then, Taylor seemingly crawls, and she goes underneath the stage.
@isabelgzzf / X / Taylor Swift / Via x.com
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13. For “Tolerate It,” when Taylor sets the table before singing, everything is pre-set up for her in a drawer that is on the backside of the table. You can see into the drawer if your seats are on either side of the stage.
@swiftiesupremacy013 / TikTok / Via tiktok.com
14. Fans creating friendship bracelets for The Eras Tour has led to a spike in jewelry sales, with Michaels stores reporting that in cities where Taylor has a show, they’ve seen a “300% sales lift in beads and jewelry categories in the days leading up to the concert.” In Pennsylvania, where Taylor played four shows, Michaels reported a 500% increase in sales.
Allen J. Schaben / Michael Buckner / Variety / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
And for fans who don’t have time to make bracelets but are buying them, one Etsy store owner told CNN that she sold “over 5,000 Taylor Swift-themed friendship bracelets” and brought in “about $16,000 in sales” in the summer of 2023.
15. The Eras Tour was choreographed by Mandy Moore — no, not the actor — who has worked on TV shows like So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing with the Stars, and Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. She also worked on Damien Chazelle’s La La Land.
@a.bbymae / TikTok / Taylor Swift / Via tiktok.com
The Eras Tour marks Mandy’s first collaboration with Taylor, who had different choreographers for her previous tours.
16. In order to achieve the visually stunning experiences seen in The Eras Tour film, it was filmed “like a proper movie” over the course of three nights at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. According to the New York Times, “upwards of 40 camera operators” are typically hired to film a tour of this size.
AMC Theaters / Taylor Swift / Via youtu.be
They used drones, Spidercams, and GoPros to help achieve some of the shots and make it so the movie felt like you were in the best seat in the stadium watching the tour.
17. In terms of recording the audio for Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, “sometimes more than 100” microphones are placed in larger stadiums in order to capture the vocals, instruments, and crowd noise on separate tracks. “Just a recording of the room would be useless,” explained John Ross, the rerecording mixer for The Eras Tour.
AMC Theaters / Taylor Swift / Via youtu.be
Typically what mixers do for concert films is they are able to “blend parts of a song recorded on one night with parts from another night to create the best combined version,” according to the New York Times.
18. Toward the end of the first US leg of the tour, Taylor reportedly gave over $55 million in bonuses to everyone working on The Eras Tour. Sources reportedly told People that everyone from caterers to truck drivers to dancers and more received bonuses.
Jeff Kravitz / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
19. As many people remember, the tour’s presale caused chaos on Ticketmaster. On Nov. 15, 2022, “over 2 million tickets were sold,” according to Ticketmaster, making it the most tickets ever sold for an artist in a single day.
Taylor Hill / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
20. In order to combat re-selling Eras Tour tickets for a lot of money, Brazilian lawmakers introduced a bill, nicknamed the “Taylor Swift Law,” that would “criminalize ticket scalping with penalties of up to four years in prison and fees up to 100 times the original ticket price,” according to NBC News.
Lisa Lake / Getty Images for TAS
Taylor is scheduled to play three shows in Rio de Janeiro and three in São Paulo in November 2023.
21. And finally, Taylor currently holds the record for the highest-grossing concert tour by a female artist for The Eras Tour. As of right now, the tour has grossed $780 million with Taylor only playing 56 concerts so far.
Taylor Hill / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
The summer of 2023 saw both Taylor’s Eras Tour and Beyoncé’s Renaissance world tour breaking records, with Beyoncé currently holding the record for the second highest-grossing concert tour by a female artist.
