Last month, I had the privilege of experiencing “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” film in theaters — twice.
When Taylor first announced that she was bringing her record breaking Eras Tour to the silver screen during the last week of September, my brother, mother and I knew we had to see it and bought tickets right away for the October 14 showing.
In the weeks leading up to the concert, my mother and I spent countless hours making friendship bracelets to hand out and trade with other “Swifties.” At the same time, I was looking for the perfect outfit to commemorate this special experience. I spent weeks scouring the internet, until I found “The One” outfit that made “Sparks Fly.” It was the perfect combination of my two favorite eras, “Folklore” and “Speak Now.” I bought it immediately and made it “Mine.”
Although I had found my outfit, I was determined to find my mother’s and brother’s as well. My brother and I spent hours searching Taylor’s whole discography with a fine toothed comb. We watched every music video and looked at every outfit she had ever worn. But it always came back to one — her iconic Junior Jewels outfit from the “You Belong with Me” music video. If you think that this was an easy outfit, you’d be wrong. My brother and I wanted to make the shirt ours.
Instead of the names Taylor had on her shirt in the video, we wanted to use the titles of her songs and, under the iconic Junior Jewels logo, put the names of all her eras using the colors that represented the eras to write them. For each era we used the same fonts that Taylor did and we used those fonts for each era of hers for the song titles as well. On the back we put the number 13 and “Eras Tour” in a football jersey format. I would like to add that my brother and I came up with the concepts, but our mother was the one who did the real work and spent hours making this shirt within the span of only one week. The final touch to this epic shirt was not up to us but it was up to our fellow Swifties. At the show, we asked everyone as well as every other Swiftie we saw to sign the back of his shirt. By the end of the show we had a 55 signatures.
The morning of October 13, which was the nationwide release date for the film, my mother went to the theater bright and early and waited in line for two hours in order to get our Eras Tour popcorn buckets, cups, tote bags, and light wands.
After a long wait we finally got to experience the concert on October 14. It was everything we could have ever wanted and more. The crowd of Swifties both young and old was energetic and unbelievably positive. I traded bracelets before, during, and after the show. I had move than 110 bracelets when I went into that show and I left with 17 that I had traded and a heart full of life-long memories.
On Halloween night, instead of hanging out at home or taking my little brother trick-or-treating, my mother, brother, and I went to experience the film one last time before it was out of theaters. The showing that we went to was the second to last one that they were playing and, although there were a couple of technical difficulties during the show, it was still an amazing experience to see it one last time before it left the silver screen. When we were leaving the theater I decided to track down a manager to ask if I could have the big showcase poster for the film. The manager told me that they would call me at the end of the week with their decision and thank God it was yes. But I got something better than the showcase poster — I got the pre-order poster that they had out when the film was announced. It’s the size of my queen sized bed and it now proudly hangs in my room as a reminder of the best nights of my life.
“The Eras Tour” was everything and meant everything to me, and although I won’t be able to actually experience it first-hand, what I did experience was enchanting and I will forever remember the tears that I shed and the endless amount of smiles that I had that day.
