Nobody Fuck With Taylor Or Her Fandom.
Absolutely worth it.
That's what I told someone earlier today about the experience, from ticket purchase to leaving the stadium parking lot, of going to opening night of the Taylor Swift Eras Tour.
I didn't realize I was a "Swiftie" till the announcement came last autumn that she would be doing a concert in the Spring. And that it would once again be kicking off in Arizona.
"I would 100% go to that and pay good money for it," I told Red, my sister.
She agreed.
And we decided to pre-register for ticket purchasing. And while we both got codes for the sale, I was put in charge of the purchasing.
"How much do we want to spend?" I asked her.
We agreed on a top-end budget with which we were comfortable. And this, the strategy for purchasing became as follows:
- I made sure my credit card information saved in my Chrome browser was up to date.
- I would load the special link address I was given into a browser starting an hour before tickets went on sale.
- I would spend that hour hitting "refresh" every few minutes.
- Once I was let into the site's sale, I would ask the system to give me the best seats it could find on the floor.
- If the price was in our range, I would buy two tickets, as well as parking.
- I would't dilly-dally with comparing seats, I would try to get checked out quickly.
I got into the "waiting queue" about 15 minutes before the sale started. I had read online to not hit "refresh" once you were in the waiting room. After 45 minutes, I was let into the site... And two minutes later, I had my confirmation code for my purchase.
Yep. I did not dilly-dally. I got in, I went with the "best available" on the floor... And confirmed I was confirmed the price was well below what we were willing to spend. Then my saved credit card information made the rest of the experience super fast.
I was not there to fuck around.
I thought others had this same approach. But I get it... No one anticipated site problems. I, however, working somewhat tech-adjacent knew to anticipate slow site experiences.
I am forever a cynic.
And now, four months later, I have the experience of the show tucked away.
And it was a beautiful show...
And a loooonnnggg show.
She went on just before 8pm. It wrapped at 11:12pm with Karma...
She started with the Lover era and ended with the Midnights era. My favorite part of the show was the Folklore era. But it was all outstanding.
Definitely worth it.
And there were so many people of all ages there. People well into their 80s. People with walkers. People barely out of strollers.
It's not just Taylor Swift that shouldn't be fucked around with by the mean girls and mean boys of the celebrity sphere...
The Taylor Swift demographic is one to not fuck around with, people.
Which brings me to my two complaints from the whole experience...
They are directed to State Farm Stadium and are summarized below:
Dear State Farm Stadium in Glendale, "Erazona"...
Overall, great facility and experience. (Especially with the women's bathrooms - so many stalls! Thank you!) But two things you need to do better on:
- Know your demographic better, and next time have a better solution for mixed frozen cocktails than having them be blended and made by hand. Why don't you have the frozen cocktail machines? This demographic likes their frozen blended drinks. Invest in the proper solutions for quick (and repeatable) service.
- You had a game plan for parking before the concert. WTF happened post concert? We stood still in our vehicle - as did everyone else - for 75 minutes after the concert. Turns out you had one exit lane for everyone to go out... But with that it shouldn't have taken 75 minutes.
Even with the long lines for drinks and exiting, still worth it.
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