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The sound of the eras tour: the audio production behind stadium shows.

What does it take to get an Eras Tour level stadium production sounding amazing?

If you’ve been living under a rock, or, you’ve somehow managed to avoid the barrage of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour content sweeping the internet – Arena and stadium shows are back! Granted, they have been for a while but still, it’s exciting to have some of the world’s biggest artists are gracing stages once again – bringing with them some of the most impressive audio and visual displays one can experience in a live arena.  

Eras Tour Australia

But have you ever wondered how is a show of this scale even possible? How is it all done?

Read up on all the latest features and columns  here .

With the recent announcement of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour showcasing in stadiums in Sydney and Melbourne in February 2024 and Ed Sheeran’s +-=÷x (Mathematics) Tour having wrapped up earlier in the year, we thought it would be fun to do a technical breakdown of what’s involved from an audio production perspective for concerts of this magnitude. We’ll breakdown the the crew, the gear, the planning and what this all equates to come show time! So, let’s dig in.

The immensity of stadium shows is simply staggering, and they bring with them a host of technical requirements unlike any other live setting. I for one am continually blown away by the scale of production possible and common place in 2023 – it’s genuinely astounding.  

A typical audio crew for a concert of this size would require a few key roles, those being the Production Manager, Front of House (FOH) engineer, Monitors Engineer and Audio Systems Engineer  

This is as well as an extra healthy handful of crew including other audio techs, riggers, stage hands – the list goes on and on. While some of these roles can and will often be shared by one person (often the Production Manager will also be FOH) these positions are absolutely integral to being able to effectively manage a stadium sized show and all of its specific audio related requirements – unique to each tour.  

Planning Stage/ Pre Production

Before a show is even close to being ready for deployment, a meticulous planning or pre production phase must happen in order for each piece of the puzzle to be planned out and delegated to its respective team and team members. These initial meetings will usually involve all the aforementioned senior personnel for the tour or given show, meeting with the various integral stakeholders including artist, artist management, promoter, sound and lighting systems providers etc. The show will be designed literally from the ground up, and from an audio standpoint this involves some incredibly detailed work to ensure the best possible system is deployed for the show. A hand full of brands are used for large scale concerts these days which include L-Acoustics, D&B Audiotechnik Mayer Sound, Adamson, Claire Brother and JBL. These respective brands have the product ranges available and industry reputation to meet the specific requirements of most engineers and production mangers alike. It often then just comes down to person preference as to why one brand is chosen over another.  

Sound Systems

I’m going to assume that most reading this article have been to or at least seen photos of a large scale stadium concert and have likely seen a line array PA system hanging from each side of the stage. These sophisticated speaker systems are designed for maximum efficiency, projection, or throw, and accuracy. The systems unlike more old school PA rigs are not positioned on the ground in what is called a ground stack configuration, but instead are flown in the air in arrays, (sometimes also called hangs or clusters), often arching or flared in the shape of a banana. This allows for less speakers to be used but providing more coverage, with smaller a differential in volume or dB SPL across the space of the venue. This is achieved by line arrays being able to defying the Inverse Square Law, which states that a doubling of distance from a point source results in a loss of 6dB – where as a line array system will only drop 3dB. This is very useful when needing to throw sound from speakers over large distances and spaces.  

In a typical end throw stage configuration (where the stage is positioned at one end of a venue and projects sound predominantly in one direction and some to the sides), there will typically be the main front of house arrays either side of the stage, which can consist of up to twenty or more speakers per hang (sometime two or more FOH hangs per side). There will usually also be side hangs which help with the coverage for audience members in the wings or higher up in seated areas to the sides of the main ground area.

To ensure the middle and back of a stadium is effectively covered, delay arrays will also be used and precisely time aligned to the FOH speakers ensuring sound from all the speakers are arriving to audience members at exactly the same time. Without this alignment the sound from the delay speaker arrays would arrive to audience members in the middle and back of a stadium before the main FOH sound and there would be an echo from the time difference between the two speaker arrays, which would be pretty awful sounding. Aside from these arrays, front fill speakers will also be used, positioned at the front of the stage so that audience members right up the front can also enjoy a great sound reproduction from the stage, which they wouldn’t get if it was just the FOH speakers based on their relative location and positioning.  

We’ve covered the main speakers which will take care of the mid and high frequencies by what about the low end? Depending on the design and requirements of a particular show the amount and location of subwoofers will vary. There will usually be a main spread of subs around the front of the stage as most of use would expect and have likely experienced the physical sensation of at a large concert. Sometime subs will be flown in an array for more covered and even dispersion, usually located next to the main speaker arrays, but in a smaller hang. The development of cardioid pattern sub configurations now common place (subs are typically omnidirectional by nature and in their projection), this has allowed audio system engineers to get far more precise coverage across the full audio spectrum, so a stadium concert is able to sound far more evenly dispersed, not only in frequency but in volume. All of these speakers and subs will typically add up to being well within the hundreds, which is pretty insane! And of course this requires 10’s of thousands of watts of power to function and leave an adequate amount of headroom for the entire system to operate nominally.  

As for the tuning of a system, this is typically taken care of by the audio systems technicians who will celebrate a system specifically to the space without tailored processors for that particular PA rig; with any final tweaking done by the FOH engineer from their console or outboard gear depending on the setup. Speaking of FOH consoles, the majority of large scale concerts require large format consoles, usually digital (sometimes analogue), with Digico and Avid having the lion’s share of FOH consoles out in the field.  

A tightly knit team at the top of their game working with reliable, rugged tour ready gear and a carefully planned design should always lead to a successful show, no matter what the scale. But with all things audio, the larger the scale, the more potential for something to go wrong, so with zero room for error on a stadium sized show, every patch, cable run and speaker hang needs to be approached with the same level of care and detail. Thankfully, level of professionalism in the teams that work of these enormous shows is truely world class so all of this tireless work that goes on behind the scenes is most often completely invisible. So for an audience member, it’s just a matter of siting back and enjoying the show.  

Find more info about Taylor Swift’s Australian Eras Tour dates here.

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Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour: Every Surprise Song She’s Played So Far

By Ellise Shafer

Ellise Shafer

• A. G. Cook on Creating His Own Form of ‘Britpop’ With Third Album, Producing Charli XCX’s ‘Brat’ and the Future of Pop Music: ‘Anything Could Happen’ 22 hours ago
• Taylor Swift Masterfully Reinvents the Eras Tour for Its European Version: See All the Changes 24 hours ago
• Taylor Swift Plays ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ Songs Live for the First Time at Paris Eras Tour Show 2 days ago

Ever since the first night of Taylor Swift ‘s Eras Tour — when the pop star announced she’d be performing two surprise acoustic songs at every show — fans have been waiting with bated breath to find out which gems from her discography will be unearthed next.

Swift kicked off the tour in Glendale, Ariz. in March with “Mirrorball” from “Folklore” and “Tim McGraw” from her 2006 self-titled debut album. Now, Swift has taken the Eras Tour worldwide, starting in Japan on Feb. 7 and continuing to Australia, Singapore and Europe in the coming months.

Popular on Variety

Below, find all the surprise songs Swift has performed on the Eras Tour, updating live.

• March 17 in Glendale, Ariz. — “Mirrorball” and “Tim McGraw”
• March 18 in Glendale, Ariz. — “State of Grace” and “This Is Me Trying”
• March 24 in Las Vegas, Nev. — “Our Song” and “Snow on the Beach”
• March 25 in Las Vegas, Nev. — “Cowboy Like Me” with Marcus Mumford and “White Horse”
• March 31 in Arlington, Texas — “Sad Beautiful Tragic” and “Ours”
• April 1 in Arlington, Texas — “Death by a Thousand Cuts” and “Clean”
• April 2 in Arlington, Texas — “Jump Then Fall” and “The Lucky One”
• April 13 in Tampa, Fla. — “Speak Now” and “Treacherous”
• April 14 in Tampa, Fla. — “The Great War” with Aaron Dessner and “You’re on Your Own, Kid”
• April 15 in Tampa, Fla. — “Mad Woman” with Aaron Dessner and “Mean”
• April 21 in Houston, Texas — “Wonderland” and “You’re Not Sorry”
• April 22 in Houston, Texas — “A Place in This World” and “Today Was a Fairytale”
• April 23 in Houston, Texas — “Begin Again” and “Cold as You”
• April 28 in Atlanta, Ga. — “The Other Side of the Door” and “Coney Island”
• April 29 in Atlanta, Ga. — “High Infidelity” and “Gorgeous”
• April 30 in Atlanta, Ga. — “I Bet You Think About Me” and “How You Get the Girl”
• May 5 in Nashville, Tenn. — “Sparks Fly” and “Teardrops on My Guitar”
• May 6 in Nashville, Tenn. — “Out of the Woods” and “Fifteen”
• May 7 in Nashville, Tenn. — “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” with Aaron Dessner and “Mine”
• May 12 in Philadelphia, Penn. — “Gold Rush” and “Come Back…Be Here”
• May 13 in Philadelphia, Penn. — “Forever & Always” and “This Love”
• May 14 in Philadelphia, Penn. — “Hey Stephen” and “The Best Day”
• May 19 in Foxborough, Mass. — “Should’ve Said No” and “Better Man”
• May 20 in Foxborough, Mass. — “Question…?” and “Invisible”
• May 21 in Foxborough, Mass. — “I Think He Knows” and “Red”
• May 26 in East Rutherford, N.J. — “Getaway Car” with Jack Antonoff and “Maroon”
• May 27 in East Rutherford, N.J. — “Holy Ground” and “False God”
• May 28 in East Rutherford, N.J. — “Welcome to New York” and “Clean”
• June 2 in Chicago, Ill. — “I Wish You Would” and “The Lakes”
• June 3 in Chicago, Ill. — “You All Over Me” with Maren Morris and “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever”
• June 4 in Chicago, Ill. — “Hits Different” and “The Moment I Knew”
• June 9 in Detroit, Mich. — “Haunted” and “I Almost Do”
• June 10 in Detroit, Mich. — “All You Had to Do Was Stay” and “Breathe”
• June 16 in Pittsburgh, Penn. — “Mr. Perfectly Fine” and “The Last Time”
• June 17 in Pittsburgh, Penn. — “Seven” with Aaron Dessner and “The Story of Us”
• June 23 in Minneapolis, Minn. — “Paper Rings” and “If This Was a Movie”
• June 24 in Minneapolis, Minn. — “Dear John” and “Daylight”
• June 30 in Cincinnati, Ohio — “I’m Only Me When I’m With You” and “Evermore”
• July 1 in Cincinnati, Ohio — “Ivy” with Aaron Dessner, “I Miss You, I’m Sorry” with Gracie Abrams and “Call It What You Want”
• July 7 in Kansas City, Miss. — “Never Grow Up” and “When Emma Falls in Love”
• July 8 in Kansas City, Miss. — “Last Kiss” and “Dorothea”
• July 14 in Denver, Colo. — “Picture to Burn” and “Timeless”
• July 15 in Denver, Colo. — “Starlight” and “Back to December”
• July 22 in Seattle, Wash. — “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” and “Everything Has Changed”
• July 23 in Seattle, Wash. — “Message in a Bottle” and “Tied Together With a Smile”
• July 28 in Santa Clara, Calif. — “Right Where You Left Me” and “Castles Crumbling”
• July 29 in Santa Clara, Calif. — “Stay Stay Stay” and “All of the Girls You Loved Before”
• Aug. 3 in Los Angeles, Calif. — “I Can See You” and “Maroon”
• Aug. 4 in Los Angeles, Calif. — “Our Song” and “You Are in Love”
• Aug. 5 in Los Angeles, Calif. — “Death by a Thousand Cuts” and “You’re on Your Own, Kid”
• Aug. 7 in Los Angeles, Calif. — “Dress” and “Exile”
• Aug. 8 in Los Angeles, Calif. — “I Know Places” and “King of My Heart”
• Aug. 9 in Los Angeles, Calif. — “New Romantics” and “New Year’s Day”
• Aug. 24 in Mexico City, Mexico — “I Forgot That You Existed” and “Sweet Nothing”
• Aug. 25 in Mexico City, Mexico — “Tell Me Why” and “Snow on the Beach”
• Aug. 26 in Mexico City, Mexico — “Cornelia Street” and “You’re on Your Own, Kid”
• Aug. 27 in Mexico City, Mexico — “Afterglow” and “Maroon”
• Nov. 9 in Buenos Aires, Argentina — “The Very First Night” and “Labyrinth”
• Nov. 11 in Buenos Aires, Argentina — “Is It Over Now?”/ “Out of the Woods” and “End Game”
• Nov. 12 in Buenos Aires, Argentina — “Better Than Revenge” and “Slut!”
• Nov. 17 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — “Stay Beautiful” and “Suburban Legends”
• Nov. 19 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — “Dancing With Our Hands Tied” and “Bigger Than the Whole Sky”
• Nov. 20 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — “Me!” and “So It Goes”
• Nov. 24 in São Paulo, Brazil — “Now That We Don’t Talk” and “Innocent”
• Nov. 25 in São Paulo, Brazil — “Safe and Sound” and “Untouchable”
• Nov. 25 in São Paulo, Brazil — “Say Don’t Go” and “It’s Time to Go”
• Feb. 7 in Tokyo, Japan — “Dear Reader” and “Holy Ground”
• Feb. 8 in Tokyo, Japan — “Eyes Open” and “Electric Touch”
• Feb. 9 in Tokyo, Japan — “Superman” and “The Outside”
• Feb. 10 in Tokyo, Japan — “Come In With the Rain” and “You’re on Your Own Kid”
• Feb. 16 in Melbourne, Australia — “Red” and “You’re Losing Me”
• Feb. 17 in Melbourne, Australia — “Getaway Car”/”August”/”The Other Side of the Door” and “This Is Me Trying”
• Feb. 18 in Melbourne, Australia — “Come Back Be Here”/”Daylight” and “Teardrops on My Guitar”
• Feb. 23 in Sydney, Australia — “How You Get the Girl” and “White Horse”/”Coney Island” with Sabrina Carpenter
• Feb. 24 in Sydney, Australia — “Should’ve Said No” and “New Year’s Day”/”Peace”
• Feb. 25 in Sydney, Australia — “Is It Over Now”/”I Wish You Would” and “Haunted”/”Exile”
• Feb. 26 in Sydney, Australia — “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve”/”Ivy” and “Forever & Always”/”Maroon”
• March 2 in Singapore — “Long Story Short”/”The Story of Us” and “Clean”/”Evermore”
• March 3 in Singapore — “Mine”/”Starlight” and “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever”/”Dress”
• March 4 in Singapore — “Foolish One”/”Tell Me Why” and “This Love”/”Call It What You Want”
• March 7 in Singapore — “Death by a Thousand Cuts”/”Babe” and “Fifteen”/”You’re on Your Own, Kid”
• March 8 in Singapore — “Sparks Fly”/”Gold Rush” and “False God”/”Slut!”
• March 9 in Singapore — “Tim McGraw”/”Cowboy Like Me” and “Mirrorball”/”Epiphany”

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The Eras Tour Stage: See the Intricate World-Building of Every Set in Taylor Swift’s Most Ambitious Shows Ever

By Katherine McLaughlin

Since kicking off in March of 2023, the Eras Tour stage has provided an immersive backdrop to Taylor Swift’s most ambitious shows to date. Indeed, there was a joke circling the internet following the opening weekend of the now nonpareil: look at any random collection of photos taken throughout the night—some even snapped mere minutes apart—and you’d never know they all came from the same show. What starts in a hazy pink, cotton candy dreamscape ends in a sultry, sparkling twilight—with plenty of undulating stops in the middle, from ethereal fairytale woods to the energetic skyscrapers of the concrete jungle.

“[The stage] changes for almost every song, which is crazy to think about considering most artists have the same stage for their entire set list,” Maya Minocha, a fan who has attended multiple shows, tells  AD. Broken down by “era,” the concert takes fans on a three-plus-hour journey through nearly every album in the singer’s 18-year career. “The sets absolutely made this possible,” Ginnie Low, a fan who attended the tour and runs the TikTok account The Thrifty Swiftie , says. “I didn’t move from my tiny little seat area the whole concert, but was transported to 10 different worlds.” Ariel Miranda , another concert-goer agrees. “It was such an immersive experience,” she says.

Now, over a year into the global phenomenon, the singer is still keeping fans on their toes with an ever changing assortment of costumes, track lists, and even a brand new set to commemorate her latest release, The Tortured Poets Department . With a distinct focus on world building,  AD takes a look at the incredible set design that helps bring her music to life throughout the triumphant concert.

The Lover Era

Swift during the opening number of the Eras Tour

Swift opens the show with tracks off of her seventh studio album,  Lover. “It was as if she picked up right from where she left off,” Miranda says, referring to Swift’s COVID-19-induced cancellation of her sixth headline tour, Lover Fest, in 2020. Having characterized the album with yellow, pink, and blue pastels, Swift—outfitted in a shimmering leotard—belts songs like “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince” and “Cruel Summer” while dancers wielding billowing tapestries perform beneath a rosy glow. Screens show two pink triumphal arcs, which were historically built to honor a person or commemorate an important event—a fitting gesture to begin the one-of-a-kind spectacle.

Taylor Swift performs in front of the Lover House during the Eras Tour.

A familiar dollhouse-like home appears behind Swift later in the set, which many fans recognize from her “Lover” music video. “The screen begins flashing images that eventually piece together to become the Lover House, which was a huge Easter egg,” Miranda adds. In the video, Swift and costar Christian Owens move through various colored rooms  within a house in a snow globe. When the music video first dropped, fans theorized that each room represented one of her existing albums, and with the release of three new albums, many believe the home is now complete .

During “The Man,” Swift uses scaffolding and office props to emulate a corporate environment.

Other notable scenes from the Lover section of the show include a full-scale office cosplay moment during “The Man,” where Swift sings about the sexism she’s faced throughout her career. While it’s been a part of the show since 2023, it certainly fits into the “ corporate fetish ” trend of late, in which offices have become unlikely muses.

The Fearless Era

Projects and stage lights provide a golden glow during the Fearless era.

By Michelle Duncan

By Erika Owen

Next up in the night, Swift performs three songs from her second album,  Fearless, for which she won album of the year in 2010 at the Grammys (the youngest artist to ever win the accolade). Though she was certainly popular in country circles following her self-titled debut album, it was this second record that established her mainstream success. And not only does the singer bring back some classic circa 2009  dance moves , she also showcases a dazzling gold motif that she employed when promoting the album over a decade ago.

Taylor Swift with her bejeweled guitar

Outfitted in soft curls and sequins, Swift was often portrayed as the girl next door and an American sweetheart during this period. Though she did, at times, lean into this persona, fans remember her determination to be bold, strong, and, yes, fearless. The sparkles and shine acted as visual representation of this.

For fans, perhaps the most exciting Easter egg was a nod to the bedazzled guitar that she toured with during her  Fearless era. In an Instagram story, Swift revealed that it was her parents who artfully stuck the shimmering crystals onto her acoustic instrument just days before the Eras Tour started.

The Red Era

Taylor Swift wears an outfit nearly identical to one she wore in the “22” music video.

During the European leg, Swift switched up the order of her sets, and moved the Red era to the third spot. The original tour for the album, which took place between 2013 and 2014, was her biggest at the time. It included a seven-piece band, fifteen dancers, multiple costume changes, as well as jumbotrons and multilevel stages. Though the Eras Tour stage certainly honors some of these larger-than-life moments from the first  Red tour, it also shows considerable restraint.

Swift wears a sparkling red coat during an acoustic set.

During one particularly emotional moment, Swift sings the 10-minute version of her critically acclaimed “All Too Well” with just her acoustic guitar. However, this doesn’t mean it wasn’t exciting. “Even some of her slower songs like “All Too Well,” where it was just her and a guitar, had insane stage effects that you wouldn’t expect, like snow confetti falling across the stadium and the stage rising when she starts singing a high note,” Minocha tells  AD.

The Speak Now Era

Swift sings “Enchanted” during the Speak Now set.

Though Swift only performs one song from her third album,  Speak Now —much to the disappointment of some fans—she makes sure it counts. The singer belts in a ballgown in a digitally crafted field of flowers, thanks to projections on the screens and the stage floor. The color purple defined the album’s aesthetic, and, though the shade is often associated with royalty, it can also symbolize ambition, power, and independence. Following her historic win at the Grammys for  Fearless,   Speak Now was a pivotal moment in her career. Could she keep up the pace or was she another teen star who lost momentum as they reached young adulthood? Not only did Swift deliver, she proved she could do it on her own: Speak Now was the first album she wrote entirely solo.

The Reputation Era

Swift stands atop a raised stage during the Reputation era of the concert.

Spawned from Swift’s 2016 public feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West,  Reputation represented the singer’s reflection on fame, public perception, and an opportunity to rewrite the “good girl” narrative she’d carried around for years. Though the album is often billed as defensive and reactive, it remains one of her most misunderstood collections: It’s also full of love songs and sweet moments. The dark stadium and blood red risers certainly support the most common perception of the album; however, it’s hard to miss the lit candles just below her. After all, it’s no coincidence burning is just as frequently used to describe rage and anger as it is passion and love.

The backup dancers pay homage to Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” music video.

During “Look What You Made Me Do,” Swift’s backup dancers perform in doll boxes dressed in outfits inspired by previous looks she’s worn. The moment is a direct nod to the song’s  music video , in which Swift reenacts various moments throughout her time in the public eye in an eruptive, Easter egg-filled video.

The Folklore and Evermore Era

Taylor Swift on an A-frame during the Folklore set

To make room for new material, Swift now combines two albums, Folklore and Evermore, into one set. “I was so obsessed with the  Folklore set because it seemed like Taylor was living her best life in a little remote forest cabin even though some 60,000 people were watching her,” Minocha says of watching the opening night show in Glendale, Arizona back in 2023. (A version of this home was first seen in her  2021 Grammy’s performance .)

Thematically,  Folklore explored a fictional woodland world Swift dreamed up during quarantine, and while a cabin certainly captures that aura, the choice of an A-frame specifically is notable. Because they were relatively cheap and easy to build, the style of home grew in popularity in the United States following World War II as vacation properties—an appropriate connection given the album is centered around an escapist fantasy.

A-frames also represented a unique moment for architects who, with little financial consequences at stake, were able to test out their more speculative creative ideations. In many ways, with lockdowns, limited promotion, and no obvious answer for how or if the music would be performed live, this is what Swift’s  Folklore era represented too: the opportunity to explore,  uninhibited . “I love that album and she really created this whole world for it,” Low adds, “Building the folklore cabin and bringing us all into that world with her was just so cool.”

Swift uses a moss-covered piano for songs during this set.

Swift’s ninth album, Evermore, was positioned as a deeper exploration of the “folklorian woods,” the fictional, cottagecore-inspired place Swift used to direct her first foray into indie folk music. In the combined set, trees circle the singer on the screens behind her while Swift croons behind a moss-covered piano.

The 1989 Era

The 1989 set of Swift’s Eras Tour

“Another thing that I loved about the stage design in general was how there are basically three different parts of it that all connected together: the main stage, the diamond stage, and the catwalk that leads to the end of the stage,” Miranda says. “She really utilizes each and every one of these sections of the stage at different times during the night.”

Swift and dancers wield golf clubs during “Blank Space.”

Though examples are abundant, a particularly creative use comes during Swift’s  1989 set, a record which won Album of the Year at the Grammys in 2016. While performing “Blank Space” on the central diamond, the raised portion displays a Shelby Cobra, which Swift and backup dancers “hit” with light-up golf clubs in a live reenactment of an iconic scene from the song’s music video.

The Tortured Poet’s Department Era

Following much speculation, Swift added a brand-new set to the Eras Tour when the show began its European leg in Paris on May 9. Designed for her latest record-shattering album, The Tortured Poet’s Department , the stage takes on a noir palette for this portion of the show. Screen projections and props include a UFO ship that beams a spotlight on the singer as well as a rolling bed-table hybrid seemingly designed to resemble a 19th-century hospital bed.

“For a minute I knew cosmic love,” Swift sings beneath the beam of a UFO.

The Tortured Poet’s set also includes the addition of a new stage piece: an elevated box that mirrors the floor projections, giving the appearance that Swift is levitating around the stage. Some fans have endearingly describe the prop as a “ stage Roomba. ”

The bed recalls Swift’s “Fortnight” music video.

The set ends with a highly theatrical performance of the singer’s “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” in which the stage takes on the appearance of a vaudeville-, burlesque-style theater . Many fans linked the design to Clara Bow, a silent film star who Swift name-checks on the album. However, perhaps the most notable aspect is the simulated proscenium arch. In theater architecture, the detail marks the metaphorical plane separating performers from the audience, similar in concept to the “fourth wall.” It’s a unique addition considering the architectural detail is not possible in a stadium designed for 360-degree views—generally the only venues in which Swift performs.

It’s particularly impactful when considering a recurring theme on the album: Swift’s complex relationship with fame and fans . In songs like “But Daddy I Love Him” and “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” she sings about the pressure to please fans and her frustration with commentary about her life and decisions. The proscenium could represent a metaphorical separation between Swift, the performer, and Swift, the person, showcasing which version of her she believes fans are entitled to.

The Midnights Era

During the final set of the show, Swift performs songs from her album Midnights.

The non-stop show ends with cuts from Swift’s 2022 album,  Midnights,  with the stage cast in dark light, representative of both the title of the album and the end of the concert. Standing firmly in the present,  Midnights still has its roots in the past, since the album tells “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life,” Swift explained in a  Instagram post . It’s easy to follow the way the previous two-plus hours of sonic reflection—aided through the incredible set design—brings her to where she is now. As Minocha summarizes, “I’ve been to almost all of Taylor’s past tours ,and the stage and production has always been above and beyond, but because this one explores all the eras of her career, everything is just next level.”

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‘This Is Extraordinary’: Why the Eras Tour Is Taylor Swift’s Greatest Live Triumph Yet

By Rob Sheffield

Rob Sheffield

“Jersey, welcome to the Eras Tour!” Taylor Swift yelled on Friday night. “There is one thing that I daydream about with the childlike enthusiasm of a hundred birthday parties, and that is MetLife Stadium Night 1.” That gets the mood about right. She spent this weekend at her long-awaited MetLife Stadium shows in New Jersey destroying the hearts and lungs of 83,000 of the planet’s most godforsaken messes. All three shows were chaotic jubilation, full of songs we’ve waited years to sing. And Taylor missed this more than any of us. 

This weekend I spent three consecutive nights at these shows, singing and weeping and suffering and agonizing through an emotional epic Tay-pocalypse every night. But it feels brutal that it’s over so soon. Nobody wanted it to stop. Not even Taylor, who paused on Sunday night at her piano during “Champagne Problems” to rave, “If you think I’m just coasting along thinking this is normal, I can assure you this is not the case. This is extraordinary.”

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The communal vibe is always intense at a Swift show, but never more than at this one. I was in the Night 1 parking lot about 10 minutes before someone I’d never met gave me a BETTY’S CARDIGAN friendship bracelet that I’m still wearing right now. I brought extra packs of pocket tissues, which came in handy when the Fearless interlude inspired a few meltdowns in my row Sunday night. When Taylor began the Evermore section into “Tis the Damn Season,” the security guy came over and said, “You the guy with the tissues?” Another couple of fans were having tear-duct emergencies, sobbing to me, “I really love this album!” ONLY at a Taylor show. 

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Over the show, she celebrates every part of her career, except her 2006 country debut, which surprisingly doesn’t even make a token appearance, though she’s done some of the songs as acoustic one-offs. (There’s no other career where such a great debut could turn out to be Not Era Enough.) Some of the eras turned into full-blown dance parties, like 1989 , Reputation , and Midnights . Fearless was the one era where she flashed her early twangy side — she made such a statement by stepping out on the catwalk after the first verse for a triumphant power twirl. It was pandemonium when she introduced “You Belong With Me” and “Love Story” by asking, “Jersey, are you ready to go back to high school with me?” 

By the time she got to the Folklore era, it was already a few hours into the show, but her emotional brutality never let up — honestly, the worst thing that she ever did was what she did to us. She sang “The One” on the roof of a mossy cottage — the line that blows up into a real audience screamer is “You meet some woman on the internet and taaaaake her hooome .” She did just the peak of “Illicit Affairs,” the “don’t call me kid” chant — a song about sordid meetings in parking lots hit hard coming an hour after “Fearless,” a very different song about a couple in a parking lot, but maybe the same girl a few years down the line. So many of the songs felt extra cathartic live, since virtually all of us in the crowd learned to sing these songs in a moment of extreme solitude and isolation. She did “Betty,” “Cardigan,” “My Tears Ricochet,” and the unstoppable “August,” pouncing on that final “get in the car!” Also, it wouldn’t be Tay’s style to forget that MetLife Stadium is literally behind a mall .

She slips acoustic surprise songs into the set list every night, one on guitar and one alone with her piano. On Friday night, she did “Getaway Car” (with Jersey boy Jack Antonoff) and “Maroon.” On Saturday, it was a pair of New York love songs, “Holy Ground” and “False God.” But the peaks were Sunday night, when she did a stripped-down “Welcome to New York,” leaning hard on the line that people chose to overlook in 2014 — “You can want who you want/Boys and boys and girls and girls.” Then she did a devastating “Clean” on piano. Her enthusiasm spilled over with quips like “You guys always give 113 per cent” or “You will get a treat for that!” Early on Friday night, she declared, “You guys are historically a great crowd. Do you think that you want to continue that tradition?” When the fans roared, she replied, “I was hoping you would say that. In case you said no, I was going to just ditch this plan completely.”

“All Too Well (Ten Minute Version)” was the coup de grace, filling up the enormous space with the sound of just Taylor and her thousands of confidantes. It couldn’t help but evoke the moment when she sang it the first time she played MetLife Stadium — 10 summers ago, in July 2013. That night, it already seemed incredibly to think of how far she’d come so fast. But 10 ears later, hearing “All Too Well” in that same venue, it seemed to sum up everywhere she’s traveled in those past 10 years. Like the rest of the Eras Tour, it was a celebration of all the holy ground she and her audience has covered.

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At one point on Sunday night, during the Midnights finale, I heard voices and thought the security guard near me was arguing with a fan. It turned out they were just trading friendship bracelets. It’s THAT kind of show. That’s the world this woman and only this woman creates, on an epic scale, night after night. There’s no experience in music like being part of that world Taylor Swift creates for a few hours. And there’s no way not to feel joyful about taking it all with you when you leave. 

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Taylor Swift review – pop’s hardest-working star gives Eras tour her all

State Farm Stadium, Glendale, Arizona

The electrifying start of the singer-songwriter’s first tour in five years saw a mammoth, fan-pleasing 44-song set and extravagant staging

B y Friday afternoon, there was a new destination in Arizona: Swift City, population 70,000 fans in town for the first stop on Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, and designated by some of them on Google Maps as a place of worship. “Welcome to ERAzona,” the 33-year-old pop star’s publicist emailed me hours before the show, referring to one of the hashtags Swifties developed to tag their arrival for what was billed – and delivered – as an expansive celebration of her undeniably prolific catalog. Team Swift is, as ever, attuned to the online conversation around her; you cannot consume Taylor Swift music without dipping (or diving) into Taylor Swift content. This is an artist who, as some have argued, has come closer than Mark Zuckerberg to building a true metaverse and cultivated a famously chatty, close virtual relationship with her fans.

Those fans turned out in force on Friday night in Glendale – fittingly for the base of her popularity, a suburb, roughly the same distance from Phoenix as Hendersonville, the town in Tennessee where Swift attended her one year of high school, is from Nashville, home of the country music industry that shaped her early career. Mostly women and gay men (along with a few good sport boyfriends/husbands) dressed in the instantly recognizable iconography of her 10 albums – Reputation-era black leotards, Lover-era pastels, mock-ups of her 2021 Folklore Grammy dress, rhinestone-adorned bodysuits a la Bejeweled music video, and at least two men in “sexy baby” T-shirts (see: Anti-Hero ).

From the outside, such intensity, courted by Swift with notorious Easter egging and rewarding, can be eye roll-inducing. But when viewed from inside the Swiftieverse, in a deafening stadium she comfortably commanded for over three hours, it is rapturous, especially for those who have grown up with her 17 years of diaristic music, and particularly for white suburban women for whom Swift is the most famous avatar.

The Eras tour, as a show, is possibly the best-case scenario for fan service. Those who battled Ticketmaster and won were rewarded with a staggering 44-song setlist (about twice the number in her previous shows), some cut second verses but no mash-ups, that lasted the length of the movie Titanic (three hours and 12 minutes). It was a flex of unmatched productivity – since her last tour in 2018, Swift has released four original albums (or, as she put it, “we added four new members to the family” with Lover , Folklore , Evermore and Midnights ) on top of two album re-recordings. And she dipped substantially into all of them. Going album by album (or, era by era) in color-blocked, outfit-delineated segments (including two sparkling bodysuits, a ballgown, two ethereal dresses, a one-legged snake suit, and the outfit from the 22 music video), Swift packed more than many TikTok speculators thought possible into one show, with almost no breaks and seemingly endless stamina.

The production was more Broadway extravaganza than singular concert – multiple set changes, from mossy Folklore cabin to high-rise office for The Man; a phalanx of backup dancers and four backup singers; color-synced bracelets for every audience member timed with the full array of stadium lights. The T-shaped stage with rising platforms provided each area of the floor with ample chances to ogle and photograph her; visuals (not subtle, as is her style) and staging drawn from her music videos blared on a giant curved screen behind her. Save for a few numbers, it was a less heavily choreographed routine than the Reputation tour (a good thing), more an enthusiastic acting out by Swift of each of her songs, as if engaging in a dead-serious karaoke battle with each of her screaming fans for 44 straight songs. (I mean this in the best way – her commitment to each bit did not waver.)

There wasn’t time for much banter in between all this, though she made sure to cover the bases: gratitude for the crowd (“I don’t know how to process all of this and how it’s making me feel”), cheeky crowd-pleaser lines (“I love to explain to men how to apologize”), a nod at criticism of the woodsy Evermore (“an album that I absolutely love despite what some of y’all say on TikTok”). On that note, the scale of the production did make the earthy, whispery numbers on Folklore and Evermore (five and seven songs live, respectively), somehow work for a stadium (it helped that people sang along, as with almost every number, almost as loud as her vocals).

There were some sound issues, which seems less like a tour or performance problem than the challenge of projecting sound to a stadium full of 70,000 people screaming at the top of their lungs. When dialed up for the heavier, harder, synthier numbers (ie, anything not on Folklore or Evermore but especially Reputation, 1989 and Red), it could be difficult to hear her enunciate, or just grasp texture within the wall of cathartic sound. At one point, the volume on her mic seemed to go wildly up and down.

The best showcases for her vocal abilities, then, were when she returned to her roots: one woman and an instrument, as on the acoustic versions of Mirrorball and her first-ever single, Tim McGraw. And, most effectively, on the 10-minute version of All Too Well – the crown jewel in her songwriting catalog and the emotional highpoint of the evening, a number she commanded from silence to goosebump-inducing crescendo and back with guitar pick in hand.

Or, at least, my emotional highpoint. Pick any fan in the stadium, and they will probably name another song, maybe one not even sung (sorry to Speak Now fans, which got one track), as their favorite. In sheer scope of songs and devotion to lyrics, no artist can match her – a point she stomped home, from Miss Americana through the aptly titled Mastermind (with a dose of Karma at the end), in an indisputably epic start to the Eras era.

This article was amended on 18 March, 2023 to remove a reference to a backing track. Swift and four backing vocalists all sang live.

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Set List: Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour

Taylor Swift has released four albums since her last full-scale tour, to say nothing of the unearthed trove of Taylor’s Version treasures. Now that her headline-making Eras Tour is well underway, explore three-plus hours of career-spanning hits, grouped by, uh, eras. The set list may continue to change (and surprises have abounded), but to get a sense of what’s in store—and what she’s been performing so far—check out this playlist.

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‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ Concert Film Review: A Bombastic Celebration of Joy and Color

The near three-hour event is a spectacle of sound that benefits from the biggest screen possible

Nicole Kidman tells AMC audiences before every showing about “sound I can feel” and how “heartbreak feels good in a place like this.” She could just as easily have been talking about watching “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.” The near three-hour presentation of Swift’s final U.S. tour dates, filmed in Los Angeles at Sofi Stadium, is a bombastic celebration of not only Swift’s musical catalog, but friendship, joy and color that benefits from being on the biggest screen possible.

Whether you were at the concert or seeing it for the first time, Swift put on a show that dazzles, amazes and enchants. Swift plays nearly all the songs included in the Los Angeles shows, minus a few here and there. Hits like “Shake It Off” and “Cruel Summer” are present and accounted for, but it’s wonderful to get to see how Swift plays with her audience and plays different characters during the performance. Case in point, a sequence during her “Evermore” set where she performs “Tolerate It.” Like a mini-play Swift and a dancer act out an estranged couple with all the emotion of watching an actual movie.

Director Sam Wrench introduces each section, highlighting a specific Swift album, with a CGI-heavy intro that feels at odds with the practical effects on stage but it helps break up the music-heavy tour. Swift is constantly in motion, a whirling dervish in a variety of diaphanous gowns and body suits that the camera lovingly captures. You can see literally every sequin and bead.

And that’s really one of several reasons to see “Eras” in a theater, to take in the detail of the massive undertaking that is Swift’s tour. Wrench’s camera swirls around Swift and her dancers, in several scenes making the audience wonder if a physical camera was present or a drone. The level of detail on-stage is a testament to Swift herself, but it’s a delight to watch amongst all the songs, whether that’s the fact that her microphone changes to match each album or how the audience can see the name Taylor on Swift’s guitar.

It’s also great seeing the way Swift commands Sofi, with the camera capturing several shows of the massive crowd. Fans are seen singing along and, in many cases, outright sobbing. Swift may say at the beginning of the concert that she feels like “the man,” but watching the fans react to her makes her feel more akin to all four of the Beatles. At one point the cameras capture the heavily publicized moment of Swift hugging Kobe Bryant’s daughter Bianka and while it became a huge deal in the news cycle, on-screen it’s, dare we say, an intimate moment that brings tears to the eyes.

The “Evermore” and “Reputation” sections of the movie are the highlight of the concert and film. The former, one of two pandemic albums Swift produced, yields utterly beautiful choreography and production design, with dancers coming on-stage with beautiful globes evoking candlelight. Swift’s performance of her songs from “Reputation” are hard-hitting which allows the theater’s sound system to show it’s power, the vibrations are pretty intense.

It’s interesting that the film doesn’t include any actual documentary elements. This is the concert itself, nothing more, nothing less. Swift occasionally sits down to talk with her audience but she’s still just as curated and polished as she is anywhere else. This isn’t a criticism and, if anything, gives the audience directly what they want: the ability to experience Eras in a theater with the best seat in the house. But it is nice watching the end credits where Swift fans are shown alongside moments where Swift endures costume malfunctions.

An audience’s mileage will vary depending on how much they love Swift or if they value one album over another. The runtime sails, especially as it doesn’t have the downtime you’d experience at an actual concert. Swift and Wrench have done something truly special with the “Eras” film and that is making a colorful celebration of music and, unintentionally, cinema.

To watch the audience at the film’s premiere dance in the aisles and sing every song is only a small example of how this will hit audiences when it goes wide. This has the ability to become a true communal experience that reminds us, as Nicole Kidman tells us, why we come to the movies: to find magic.

“Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” will be in theaters, distributed by AMC, starting October 12.

One response to “‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ Concert Film Review: A Bombastic Celebration of Joy and Color”

Hey Kristen. Simply posting to let you know that bombastic does not mean what you think it means. It means pompous, wordy, and overinflated, which seems counter to the positive impressions you are attempting to convey through this piece. It might be worth editing the title as some readers might misinterpret the overall messaging.

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Related brands, related tags, what guitar does taylor swift use the varied and unique instruments of the eras tour.

As The Eras Tour arrives on Disney+, we check out the myriad heavily customised instruments that Taylor uses live – and how you can get the same vibe yourself.

Taylor with one of her most long-serving instruments (Photo by Kevin Winter/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)

The most famous person in the world is a guitar player. Yep it’s easy to forget that long before Taylor Swift became perhaps the defining cultural icon of the 2020s , Time’s Person Of The Year and an artist so universally popular that she can single-handedly boost NFL TV ratings and jersey sales , she was an aspiring songwriter with a guitar and a dream. But what guitars did Taylor Swift use?

• READ MORE: Taylor Swift’s Gibson J-180 will be auctioned for charity

And like any other guitar lover, the more famous and successful Tay-Tay has become, the more interesting and unique guitars she’s added to to her collection – mainly some acoustics but also a fair few interesting electrics along the way.

The epoch-defining Eras Tour has revealed the full gamut of Taylor’s unique and interesting guitar collection, and also showcased it to a wider audience than ever before – it is of course the highest grossing tour of all time, a $200-million cinema box office smash, and is likely to break the internet all over again when The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version) launches on Disney+ today.

The Eras Tour is a three and a half hour trip through Taylor’s entire career to date – from her self-titled 2006 debut all the through to Midnights – and most interestingly of all from a Guitar.com perspective, the tour has seen her showcase many of the guitars she used to write and perform those songs at the time.

As such, The Eras Tour gives us a definitive picture of what guitars Taylor Swift uses – many of which are custom-versions of standard models, or rare limited-run designs – read on to find out more about Taylor’s guitar history, and your best options to capture Taylor Swift guitar tones in the real world.

Taylor 50th Anniversary 314ce LTD Acoustic Guitar

Taylor Baby Taylor Koa Acoustic Guitar

Gibson 1957 SJ-200, Murphy Lab Aged Acoustic Guitar

Taylor’s taylors.

It’s perhaps not shocking that going all the way back to her earliest records, Taylor Swift has been a fan of Californian acoustic guitar company Taylor Guitars – after all, who needs a signature model when your name is already right there on the headstock!

Taylor’s Taylor guitars are clearly very sentimental to her, as she’s used them constantly throughout her career, and brought out some of her most cherished examples on the Eras Tour – they’re also some of her most iconic instruments, including her custom red Taylor 614ce that was the main acoustic on the Red Tour, and a diamante-encrusted GS6 that was used on the Fearless Tour in 2008.

Taylor Presentation Series PS-24ce Grand Auditorium

If there’s one guitar that we think might be Taylor’s most sentimental instrument, it’s this one – this stunning guitar has a flamed koa body with a distinctive matching soundhole cover and a ‘Taylor Swift’ in what Taylor calls a ‘Byzantine inlay’ on the fingerboard.

A custom-build, this is based on Taylor’s super-high end Presentation Serie PS-24ce Grand Auditorium model, but with a very unconventional ‘Florentine’ cutaway, which has a sharp point, unlike a regular GA model. The guitar also has an ebony peghead and bridge, Gotoh tuners and ivoroid binding.

Taylor started using the guitar around 2007, but it’s clearly a meaningful one as she’s been using it for several songs on The Eras Tour, and displaying it proudly on a stand in front of the audience when she’s not using it.

Get the sound: Taylor’s 214ce is an affordable route to a similar kind of look and sound, with Grand Auditorium body style and koa top

Taylor Grand Symphony “Living Jewels” Series

This guitar is often referred to as the “Living Jewels” Guitar or the “Koi Guitar”, and is one of the most distinctive and unique instruments seen on The Eras Tour. She first began using the Living Jewels guitar around 2011-2012 during the Speak Now Tour, famously performing songs like Last Kiss . She also used it in 2022 for the music video Anti-Hero , and even put the guitar on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame until it was removed in 2023 for use on the Eras Tour.

This particular guitar came from a very limited series of acoustics designed by Pete Davies Jr. around the year 2000. Only around 100 of these guitars were made, in different designs – one featuring a grey whale, one with a sea turtle, and one with koi fish that Taylor owns. Each of the guitars features beautifully ornate inlay work of the aforementioned sea creatures on the body and fretboard.

Get the sound: While these guitars are incredibly rare, if you’re just looking for a tonal alternative, you might opt for a standard Grand Symphony, with a spruce top and maple back – which won’t give you the cool koi art but will have everything under the hood to replicate her tone. If you’re looking for a similar design with a smaller size for a smaller frame, Taylor’s hugely popular GS Mini line is a perfect place to start – and Taylor even has a signature model version .

The Gibson Eras

As befits any country star worth her salt, Taylor has had a long love affair with Gibson guitars – particularly the brand’s acoustic instruments. However, the Eras Tour has seen Gibsons replace Taylors as her primary instruments, with a whole host of new and bespoke instruments of various types that often have colours and customisations that reflect the various albums that she’s referencing in that portion of the show.

While none of these guitars is commercially available (yet!), they have quickly become as iconic as the popularity of the Eras Tour has exploded, with each of the unique instruments telling its own story about a period in Taylor’s glittering music career.

Gibson J-180

While several of the guitars used on The Eras Tour are instruments she’s pulled out of the rack from the period in question, she’s also brought out several new instruments that are themselves designed to nod to those eras, but with her 2024 sonic preferences.

Key amongst these are a series of Gibson guitars derived from the company’s iconic SJ-200 model – first introduced back in 1937 and used by everyone from The Everly Brothers and Jimmy Page to Billie Joe Armstrong and Justin Timberlake.

Swift recreated her crystal rhinestone-encrusted Taylor Guitars GS6 that was used on the Fearless Tour for The Eras Tour, only this time she used a Gibson J-180 (a thinner-depthed version of the J-200). The GS6 was retired sometime around 2013, but the new guitar featured around 5,400 Swarovski Lead Crystals attached with silicone epoxy by Taylor and her family just days before the tour – the original GS6 was apparently also blinged out by Taylor and her mom.

One notable difference between the new guitar and the original – the addition of a “13” (Swift’s favourite number) rhinestone pattern just behind the bridge.

Taylor clearly really loves the J-180 body shape, as she’s also got several other customised versions of the guitar, including pink and powder blue examples, plus a black one that she auctioned off for charity in 2020 – the guitars are notable for having star inlays on the fretboard as opposed to the usual dots or blocks.

Get the sound: Sadly, Gibson doesn’t produce the J-180 currently, so a standard J-200 is your best bet. If you’re looking for the vibe on a more condensed budget, the Epiphone J-200 is a really good guitar for the money .

Gibson J-45

While the J-180 might be her preferred instrument, The Eras Tour also sees Swift playing two different versions of Gibson’s J-45 model – one in a deep red colour and one in a black sparkle finish. Unlike the J-180s these guitars just have standard dot inlays and feel a bit more restrained. As with pretty much all of Taylor’s guitars though, these J-45s are certainly custom builds, given that they use non-standard finishes, and do not feature pickguards.

Get the sound: Thankfully, Gibson’s J-45 is still in production, though it’s certainly not cheap you can get it in both Cherry Red and Black. If your budget doesn’t stretch to that however, the Epiphone J-45 might be more up your street .

Gibson J-45 Custom Ebony Acoustic Guitar

Gibson hummingbird.

Most of the guitars we’ve seen Taylor use on The Eras Tour have been heavily customised and personalised, but there’s one guitar that has the distinction of being stock – a Cherry Sunburst Gibson Hummingbird. Asides from the soundhole plug to prevent feedback (which is common with all her guitars) this instrument is pretty much identical to the guitar you could walk into a store and buy today – including that iconic hummingbird motif on the pickguard.

Get the sound: As mentioned, Taylor’s Hummingbird seems pretty much stock, which means you can buy one from Gibson’s Original Collection today. If you’re not up for spending thousands however, there’s an Epiphone Inspired By version that even comes in the right colour .

Gibson 1960 Hummingbird, Murphy Lab Aged Acoustic Guitar

Taylor’s electrics.

The Eras Tour sees Swift relying mostly on her acoustic guitar collection, and leaving the electric guitar work to her backing band – that said, she has been known to use a variety of electric guitars over the years, including a red-sparkle Les Paul Standard, a similar guitar with mini-humbuckers, a Les Paul Studio with red diamante finish, and even Taylor T5 and a Johnny Marr Jaguar back in the day.

The Red Sparkle Les Paul Studio even got a run-out on the opening night of The Eras Tour, though the other guitars have yet to make an appearance – they’re all pretty stock spec-wise however.

Get the sound: Taylor has generally been drawn to Gibson-style single-cut guitars over the years, particularly the Les Paul – while her guitars are custom, the recently released Gibson Les Paul Modern Lite is available in a very Tay Tay-style matt red finish.

Gibson Les Paul Modern Lite Electric Guitar

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Fifty-two dates, 20 stadiums, 10 albums, 44 songs taking up more than three hours: Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour , which kicked off March 17 at State Farm Arena in Glendale, Arizona, is a production of epic scale.

There are nonstop costume changes, large-scale set swaps and stunts on the outrageous order of a Las Vegas residency.

“It’s almost like a different Broadway musical for each song,” Dave Brooks — Billboard Senior Director of Live Music and Touring — told The Post. 

“The production quality is just so far ahead of whatever has been [done] … They’re building these very elaborate sets that they’re using for several songs as opposed to the whole concert.”

The price tag is also astronomical.

“The cost has gotta be well north of $100 million … probably a lot more than that,” said Brooks. “It’s gonna be one of the most expensive tours ever, but it will also be one of the highest-generating tours financially. So it pays for itself basically.”

Want to see Taylor Swift live on tour? Get tickets here.

And it seems to have put all of the Ticketmaster-crashing drama behind the “Anti-Hero” singer with her legion of Swifties.

Erica Gabriel, an event producer who traveled from Salt Lake City to Glendale to see the second show of the tour on March 18, told The Post that the experience was “unbelievable.”  

“It literally exceeded every expectation that I had set for myself — like, by 10 times — and I already had high expectations.” 

Here’s a peek inside Swift’s next-level spectacle.

Setting the stage

A gigantic catwalk stretches nearly the entire length of the stadium, the better for Swift to work the runway with an army of over a dozen dancers. 

The process of building that stage — and all the rest of the sets — begins at the venue weeks before the pop princess launches into the “Lover” opener, “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince.”

For a stadium tour of this magnitude, Brooks said, “They have advance teams that can be prepping and pre-building.”

Closer to the date, a team of an estimated 90 trucks pulls into the venue to construct the sprawling scene for Swift to sing career-spanning hits ranging from her 2006 self-titled debut album to her latest LP, 2022’s “Midnights.”

“It takes two to three weeks, in my understanding,” said Brooks.

The big set piece

One of the structures — the mossy cabin atop which Swift sings during the “Folklore” section — seems especially tricky to build and break down from city to city. 

“It’s almost like you think that they’d have to have two,” said Brooks, “so they can be building one while the other is [being used].”

A daring stunt

Swift takes stage-diving to a whole different level.

Rather than plummeting into the crowd, the 33-year-old superstar plunges headfirst into a trapdoor in the stage after singing her breakout hit “Tim McGraw.” Then she appears to swim through the stadium via a water-filled catwalk before resurfacing — dry and fresh in a new costume — to perform “Lavender Haze.”

The stunt likely involves her landing on a crash mat and then using the same “rocket sled” apparatus that she employed to zoom through the stadium hidden from view during her 2018 “Reputation” Tour. Brooks credits the oceanic illusion to precisely timed, pre-filmed visuals that “are almost kind of a second performer with her up there.” 

Costumes galore

Swift wore more than a dozen different looks on opening night, including a gold Roberto Cavalli flapper dress, a lavender Alberta Ferretti gown and bedazzled bodysuits by Atelier Versace and Oscar de la Renta.

Quick changes are key.

“All costumes are typically modified in some way that’s going to make it really easy to get in and out of,” Dan George, a onetime tour manager who has worked for Shakira and Britney Spears, told The Post. “A dress that would typically have buttons, maybe they add a zipper on it instead. Or the performer might need to have a pouch for a battery pack in a  costume. You know, little customizations that make things easier.”

A marathon playlist

And at the end of the day, Swift— who will bring her Eras Tour to MetLife Stadium May 26 to May 28 —  is the ultimate special effect, no matter how massive the production is.

“Her endurance is really the ‘next level’ to me,” said Brooks. “The fact that she’s gonna do these marathon, three-hour-plus shows — it’s gotta be exhausting.”

George, however, notes that her style of singing isn’t as tiring as some divas’.

“Taylor is more of a stylistic vocalist. She’s got a very pretty voice, but she’s not a power vocalist. So when she’s singing live, she’s not screaming at the top of her lungs,” he said. “So it’s not, like, super challenging for her vocally.”

Still, the performance is an amazing feat.

Brooks said, “You can innovate a stage, a touring element. But you can’t really innovate the human body too much — and the person’s ability to deliver.”

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5 Things To Know Before Seeing Taylor Swift At “The Eras Tour”

Taylor Swift is touring for the first time since 2018 and has released four studio albums — Lover, Folklore, Evermore and Midnights — in the five years that followed her Reputation Stadium Tour. Swift announced The Eras Tour on Nov. 1, 2022, just weeks following the announcement of Midnights, her tenth studio album. 

The timing of the announcements led some to believe that The Eras Tour would essentially become a Midnights-centric tour, but that wasn’t the case. Swift opened the tour on March 17 in Glendale, Arizona with a 44-track set list that spanned much of her discography to date.

Since a showing of The Eras Tour is a long concert bringing unprecedented fan turnout, you’ll have to consider different things than other concerts when preparing to see Swift on tour.

Wear Comfortable Shoes 

The Eras Tour can extend beyond five hours in length when you consider openers, intermissions and Swift’s lengthy performance. Though exact total times will vary based on the openers and final set list at each venue, Swift’s typical set list runs roughly three hours and 13 minutes. 

At the March 17 show in Glendale, fans remained on their feet for the entirety of the show, and other showings to date have displayed the same fan involvement. That’ll mean attendees will need to stand up to catch a glimpse of Swift for hours straight, most likely standing on concrete stadiums. To stay comfortable and avoid missing out, wear running shoes, quality sneakers or other sturdy shoes to the concert.

Don’t Stand In Line For The Merch Truck

The Eras Tour has brought incredible demand for tour merchandise, and some items have sold out at showings within minutes of gates opening. Though some merchandise items are available on Swift’s online store , others — like the highly-sought blue crewneck — are exclusive to the tour. 

Gates typically open for 6:30 p.m. showings two hours before the scheduled start times. A large merchandise truck usually opens at noon, with lines forming even before that. Though people have suggested standing in line for the merch truck hours before entering the venue, that isn’t the best way to be successful. 

Instead, wait in line after passing through the security checkpoint in front of the stadium’s gates. There are a multitude of merchandise stands inside the venue that have stock of all the most popular merchandise items. Waiting in front of the stadium gates will allow you to be the first to enter the venue, all but guaranteeing access to merchandise. 

However, keep in mind that not all merchandise stands have the same items available. Be sure to glance at the red tapestry showcasing available items before getting in line to wait. 

Bring Earplugs. Seriously.

A ton of people have suggested that concert-goers wear protective earplugs to The Eras Tour shows, and it’s easy to dismiss the idea. Of course, after paying hundreds of dollars to see Swift, attendees want to make sure they are enjoying the atmosphere to the fullest. 

Regardless, people going to The Eras Tour should seriously consider wearing earplugs to the concert. It’s not necessarily to protect the wearer’s ears from the sound of Swift’s music — that sound level is about the same as other stadium concerts. 

But not many other concerts have more than 70,000 people scream-singing lyrics at the top of their lungs for hours straight. Ever experienced ear pain because someone was screaming in your ear? That’s essentially what The Eras Tour can be, at times. 

And yes, you’ll still be able to hear all of Swift’s stunning vocals while wearing ear protection.

Make A Clear Bag Plan Before You Go

Most people attending The Eras Tour will be going to stadiums near their home, and may have attended those venues previously. However, Swift has enacted her own bag policies that may differ from the stadium’s typical policies. 

Generally, The Eras Tour has a stringent bag policy that requires all bags to be clear and not exceed 12” x 6” x 12” dimensions. A detailed list of prohibited items for Swift’s showing at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan can be found here , but check with your venue for the exact policy. 

To make sure your items are in compliance, make a plan before leaving to ensure nothing gets thrown away at the security checkpoint. It’s important to purchase a clear bag in advance, because prices will be higher at and around the stadium on the day of the showing. 

Ready Your Smartphone

The length of Eras Tour shows poses another problem, this time for your phone. Since the concert is upwards of five hours long — and attendees might have to travel before and after with their device — battery is a concern. To combat this, make sure phones are fully charged, low power mode is enabled and brightness is down when possible. 

Consider purchasing a portable charger for the event and remember to bring the right cables for your device. This could extend a phone’s life by hours, depending on the portable charger.

For people that plan to record a lot of photos and videos of the concert, check how much storage is left on your smartphone. A photo can take up as many as 25 megabytes of storage, with videos taking up gigabytes of space based on their length. To free up space, upload media to the cloud, save it to a computer or delete unnecessary apps for the time being. 

If you’re really in a pinch for space, Android users can utilize expanded storage with a microSD card or a USB-C flash drive. For iPhone users, the Sandisk iXpand flash drive can add up to 256 gigabytes of extra storage.  

Enjoy The Show

After fighting tooth-and-nail for concert tickets, you’ve gotten the chance to see The Eras Tour, so follow these tips for the best experience.

• Brady Snyder
• Taylor Swift

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Taylor Swift changed The Eras Tour set list to include 'The Tortured Poets Department.' Here are all 46 songs she performs now.

• Taylor Swift's blockbuster Eras Tour resumed Thursday in Nanterre, France.
• Swift altered the set list to include songs from her new album, "The Tortured Poets Department."
• The current Eras Tour set list, which includes 46 various hits and deep cuts, is cataloged below.

Taylor Swift is back on the road for her record-breaking , economy-altering Eras Tour.

The stadium series kicked off last year in Glendale, Arizona, and quickly became a sensation . After making stops across the US, Mexico, South America , Japan, Australia, and Singapore , Swift will continue to perform throughout 2024 in Europe , plus a second North American leg scheduled for later this year.

On Thursday, Swift resumed The Eras Tour in France after a multi-week hiatus.

During that break, Swift released her 11th studio album, " The Tortured Poets Department " — so she adjusted the original 44-song set list to include brand new tracks, though other fan favorites (including " The Archer ," " The 1 ," and " Tolerate It ") were cut for time.

The updated show stretches for over two hours and includes 46 songs. The complete set list is cataloged below, in order of Swift's performance.

"Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince"

The Eras Tour is Swift's first live tour since 2018. The show opener includes the lyric, "It's been a long time coming, but / It's you and me, that's my whole world." 

"Cruel Summer"

"Cruel Summer" was released as the second track on 2019's "Lover" and never promoted as a single.

However, once The Eras Tour was underway, the song experienced a delayed surge in popularity and became Swift's milestone 10th chart-topper on the Billboard Hot 100 .

"The Man"

"The Man" was promoted as the fourth single from "Lover," alongside an Easter egg-filled music video .

"You Need to Calm Down"

"You Need to Calm Down" is an ode to LGBTQ+ rights . The music video, which features a huge cast of queer celebrities , ends with a call to sign the Equality Act .

"Lover"

"Lover" is the solo-written title track from Swift's seventh studio album. Before she performs the song during The Eras Tour, she tells fans that she hopes it'll hold a special meaning for each individual who hears it.

"These are songs that I have written about my life or things I felt at one point in time," she says in the concert movie. "But after tonight, when you hear these songs out and about in the world, my dream is that you're gonna think about tonight, and the memories we made here together." 

"Fearless"

"Fearless" is the title track for Swift's 2008 sophomore album, which is still known as the most-awarded country album of all time .

"You Belong With Me"

Swift won best female video for "You Belong With Me" at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards .

"Love Story"

"Love Story" was the first rerecorded song that Swift ever released from her "Taylor's Version" series.

"22"

When Swift performs "22" during The Eras Tour, she always gives her bowler hat to one lucky concertgoer .

"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"

"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" was released as the lead single from "Red" in 2012. It became Swift's first-ever No. 1 hit on the Hot 100 .

"I Knew You Were Trouble"

The third single from "Red," coproduced by Max Martin and Shellback, peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100.

"All Too Well (10 Minute Version)"

The extended version of "All Too Well" was released as the final track on " Red (Taylor's Version) " after years of fan anticipation.

It debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100, becoming the longest song ever to hold the chart's top position.

"Enchanted"

"Enchanted" is the only song from Swift's third album, "Speak Now," that she currently performs during The Eras Tour.

For a brief time, following the release of " Speak Now (Taylor's Version) ," Swift added the fan-favorite deep cut "Long Live" to the set list. It has since been removed.

"…Ready for It?"

"…Ready for It?" was originally teased during ABC's "Saturday Night Football" broadcast in 2017. It was later used by ESPN in college football commercials.

"Delicate"

Swift's performance of "Delicate" during The Eras Tour features a stage animation that cracks beneath her feet .

"Don't Blame Me"

"Don't Blame Me" is the sole non-single that Swift performs during the tour's "Reputation" segment. The fan-favorite track is often cited as a highlight of the show .

"Look What You Made Me Do"

"Look What You Made Me Do," which interpolates Right Said Fred's '90s hit "I'm Too Sexy," was released as the lead single from "Reputation" and debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100.

"Cardigan"

The No. 1 single "Cardigan" was released alongside Swift's beloved album " Folklore ." The song references Peter Pan and introduces the album's "teenage love triangle."

"Betty"

"Betty" is told from the perspective of a high schooler named James , who broke the heart of the titular heroine.

"Champagne Problems"

The heart-wrenching piano ballad "Champagne Problems" often inspires a minutes-long standing ovation during The Eras Tour.

"August"

Swift's debut performance of "August" took place at the 2021 Grammy Awards. Later that night, she won album of the year for "Folklore," her record-tying third trophy in that category.

"Illicit Affairs"

"Illicit Affairs" is widely interpreted as a song about marital infidelity, though its descriptions of forbidden love and "clandestine meetings" adopt new meanings through a queer lens .

"My Tears Ricochet"

In Swift's own words , "My Tears Ricochet" was inspired by the image of an "embittered tormentor showing up at the funeral of his fallen object of obsession."

"Marjorie"

"Marjorie" is named after Swift's late grandmother, Marjorie Finlay , an opera singer who died in 2003. Finlay is credited with background vocals in the song.

"Willow"

"Willow" was promoted as the lead single from " Evermore ." Like "Cardigan," it was released simultaneously with its parent album and debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100.

"Style"

Swift briefly dated Harry Styles before releasing her fifth studio album, "1989."

When Rolling Stone asked about the inspiration behind the album's third track, "Style," she replied, "We should have just called it 'I'm Not Even Sorry.'"

"Blank Space"

"Blank Space" is a widely celebrated satire about Swift's reputation as a "serial dater."

"'She only writes songs to get emotional revenge on guys. She's a man-hater. Don't let her near your boyfriend,'" Swift explained at the time. "It was just kind of excessive and, you know, at first it was hurtful and then I kind of found a little comedy in it."

The song dethroned "Shake It Off" at No. 1 on the Hot 100, making Swift the first and only woman in history to replace herself in the chart's top spot. (She has since done it twice.)

"Shake It Off"

"Shake It Off" was released as the lead single from "1989," Swift's official pivot from country to pop music .

The song became her first to debut at No. 1 on the Hot 100 and remained there for four weeks. It also inspired a sketch on "Saturday Night Live"  about adults realizing they love Swift's music.

"Wildest Dreams"

"Wildest Dreams" was released as the first rerecorded song from "1989 (Taylor's Version)."

"Bad Blood"

"Bad Blood" was famously inspired by Swift's then-feud with Katy Perry , whom Swift accused of trying to "sabotage" her "Red" tour. (The two pop stars have long since buried the hatchet .)

The remix includes a feature from Kendrick Lamar , who returned to rerecord his verse for "1989 (Taylor's Version)."

"But Daddy I Love Him"

Following the release of her massive double album , "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology," Swift added seven brand-new songs to The Eras Tour setlist.

The first is "But Daddy I Love Him," a sharp rebuke of Swift's own fans , many of whom criticized her dating life last year.

"So High School"

"So High School" is widely presumed to be about Swift's current boyfriend, NFL star Travis Kelce . The song's lyrics seem to reference their different professions: "You know how to ball, I know Aristotle."

"Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?"

Swift is the only songwriter credited for "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?"

The song title is likely inspired by "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" — a celebrated play written by Edward Albee that tackles themes of truth versus illusion, fate versus choice, and feeling trapped.

"Down Bad"

"Down Bad" is a heartsick serenade that compares falling in love to being abducted by aliens.

"Fortnight"

"Fortnight" was promoted as the lead single from "The Tortured Poets Department," alongside a music video that costars Post Malone and references "Dead Poets Society."

"The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived"

"The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" is a scathing breakup song that may have been inspired by Matty Healy , whom Swift dated while writing "The Tortured Poets Department." According to reports, their relationship lasted about one month .

"I Can Do It With a Broken Heart"

In a meta twist, "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart" was apparently inspired by The Eras Tour itself. The lyrics seem to reference a string of concerts last year, when Swift felt "miserable" but continued to perform as usual ("They said, 'Babe, you gotta fake it 'til you make it,' and I did").

Surprise Song No. 1

During each show on The Eras Tour, Swift performs a two-song acoustic set that changes every night . The first song is always played on acoustic guitar. 

The first-ever surprise song Swift played in Arizona was "Mirrorball." For the first stop on the European leg, she chose the "Midnights" bonus cut "Paris."

Surprise Song No. 2

The second surprise song of the evening is always played on the piano.

In Arizona, Swift's first-ever surprise song on piano was "Tim McGraw," the lead single from her 2006 debut album. For night one in France, Swift played the "Tortured Poets" heartbreaker "Loml."

"Lavender Haze"

"Lavender Haze" is the opening track on Swift's 10th studio album " Midnights ."

"Anti-Hero"

"Anti-Hero" was promoted as the lead single from "Midnights." It debuted at No. 1 and became Swift's biggest hit to date, reigning atop the chart for eight weeks.

The same week that "Anti-Hero" arrived in the top spot, Swift became the first and only artist in history to  occupy the entire top 10 on the Hot 100 .

"Midnight Rain"

"Midnight Rain" doubles as a breakup song and an ode to Swift's own ambitions: "He wanted it comfortable, I wanted that pain / He wanted a bride, I was making my own name," she sings, calling back to the rejection of '50s gender roles in "Lavender Haze."

"Vigilante Shit"

Put simply, "Vigilante Shit" is about getting revenge. Many fans believe the song was inspired by Scooter Braun , who purchased Swift's back catalog in 2019. Less than two years later, he sold Swift's master recordings to a private equity company .

"Bejeweled"

The music video for "Bejeweled"  includes a variety of celebrity cameos, including Laura Dern, the Haim sisters, and Dita Von Teese.

"Mastermind"

In the chorus of "Mastermind," Swift seems to serenade her longtime fans: "What if I told you I'm a mastermind? / And now you're mine." 

The song also references Swift's penchant for Easter eggs and her keen business acumen, which has allowed her to build a billion-dollar empire .

"I'm sick of women not being able to say that they have strategic business minds — because male artists are allowed to," Swift told Rolling Stone in 2019. "And so I'm sick and tired of having to pretend like I don't mastermind my own business."

"Karma"

Swift closes the elaborate show with "Karma," a song that mocks her enemies and salutes her own longevity: "Ask me what I learned from all those years / Ask me what I earned from all those tears / Ask me why so many fade, but I'm still here."

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The Secret Art of Turning a Concert Into a Film (Taylor’s Version)

Movies like “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” rely on savvy tricks and sophisticated techniques to capture a semblance of the live experience.

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By Calum Marsh

Taylor Swift’s globe-spanning Eras Tour is one of the musical events of the year, drawing record-breaking crowds and making headlines the world over since it kicked off in Glendale, Ariz., in March. Rabid demand has made procuring a ticket notoriously difficult, if not practically impossible . But starting Friday, Swifties will have a more accessible opportunity to catch a glimpse of the live phenomenon, when the concert film “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” is released by AMC Theaters — a moviegoing event that is widely expected to be a box office smash.

Filmed over three nights in August at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., and directed by Sam Wrench, “The Eras Tour,” like most concert films, aims to capture some of the magic of seeing the artist perform live. “The main thing we’re trying to do is provide the theatrical audience with the best seat in the house,” John Ross, the rerecording mixer on “The Eras Tour” and a veteran of many other hit concert films, including Jonathan Demme’s “Justin Timberlake + The Tennessee Kids,” said by phone. “If you were to attend a concert and get the premium seat, that’s my job, to convey that image sonically and situationally.”

But capturing a live performance is not as straightforward as simply setting up some cameras and microphones and recording what transpires onstage. The demands of a film are incredibly complicated, and faithfully reproducing the look and sound of a concert for the screen is an arduous and painstaking process for the filmmakers and their crews. It’s a delicate proposition — a proposition some filmmakers believe is inherently doomed.

“The idea itself, to film a concert, is a bad idea,” said Jonas Akerlund, a film and music video director who made the concert movies “On the Run Tour: Beyoncé and Jay-Z Live” and “Taylor Swift: The 1989 World Tour Live.”

He explained, “It will never, ever be as good as the live experience. It’s basically like trying to film fireworks — everybody knows that seeing it live is not the same as seeing it on a TV screen.” But, Akerlund added, the concert film can have value, if looked at in a different way. “You can make it an equally good experience, but it has to be a filmic or cinematic experience rather than trying to compete with the live experience.”

The secret to cinematic merit, he said, is having the time and means to shoot it like a proper movie. That means hiring upward of 40 camera operators; shooting over multiple nights; deploying drones, Spidercams and GoPros; and setting aside a separate dress rehearsal day, when the artist plays without a crowd to shoot extra footage, like close-ups that might not have been possible during the live show. All of the footage is assembled in the editing room “with the precision of a four-minute music video” to create the illusion that what you’re seeing was unfolding in real time. “I guess it’s cheating a little bit,” Akerlund said.

These kinds of cheats are common and, to hear filmmakers tell it, necessary. When the “Crazy Rich Asians” director Jon M. Chu made “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never,” he shot the performance and the audience on separate nights, then edited them together because that, paradoxically, made the audience’s reaction feel more authentic. “I always love concert films where it feels like the audience is really there,” he said. But because of the cameras, the sound recording equipment and the lighting, “audiences don’t react as big” as they would on an ordinary night. “You try to emulate what it feels like,” he said.

One of the most surprising things about the making of concert films is just how much tends to be emulated, even simulated, rather than merely captured as is. The actual sound of music being played live in an arena can’t merely be taped: “just a recording of the room would be useless,” Ross said. Instead, dozens of microphones — sometimes more than 100 for larger sites — record the vocals, instruments and crowd on separate tracks, and a rerecording mixer carefully blends them together, adding reverb and echo to simulate the sound of the space.

In other words, the tone of the room is essentially applied like a filter to the raw sounds recorded from the artist onstage. This filter, known as impulse response, takes readings from actual physical places, then “synthetically reproduces the sound of a real space like a club or stadium,” said Jake Davis, the lead mix engineer at SeisMic Sound, an audio facility in Nashville that specializes in concert films.

Mixers like Jake and his father, Tom Davis, the SeisMic founder, have a lot of control over the sound in a concert film, and making adjustments is a large part of their job. Some are minor refinements. Others are more like corrections: They make the concert film sound more like what the artist wanted than what necessarily occurred on the night it was filmed. “When you lock something down for a DVD or for streaming or whatever it is, once it’s done, it lives forever,” Tom Davis said. “It never goes away. So you kind of want it to be as good as it can be.”

Mixers can blend parts of a song recorded on one night with parts from another night to create the best combined version. They can fix an errant flat note in a guitar solo by manipulating it in postproduction, or they can ask an artist to rerecord a weak vocal in a studio, layering it into the mix so that it sounds as if it had been delivered live. “We copy, cut and paste, like you do on a word processor,” Davis said. “If there was a little clam in the first chorus, but he did it fine in the second chorus in the same part, we can cut and paste that. We can do vocal maintenance. We can fix a little pitch issue, or bend a note a little bit.”

Although sound mixers record the crowd with a bevy of microphones hidden around the arena, it’s possible — and indeed, common — to exaggerate the sound of that audience, to artificially give the cheering fans some extra kick. “It’s kind of a dirty secret,” Davis said. “But the sound of the real audience is weak. It’s not enough. You end up adding to it, pumping it up. There’s something psychological to hearing other humans having a good time and reacting — it’s like a sitcom and a laugh track.” Jake Davis said that the ideal balance is to “start with the real reaction” and then simply “make it bigger and more obvious.”

Of course, part of the appeal of a live show, even on film, is the impression of reality, and a sense of truth is critical. “The goal of the mix is to enhance the energy of the performance that exists as it went down in the best way possible,” Jake Davis said. “You maintain some element of rawness while taking out things that are distracting, the nuances of a wrong note or a background singer being a little bit off.”

While the film version strives to be “as good as it can be for the rest of history,” he said, “there’s a fine line between correcting something a little bit and making it perfect, because it’s not going to be perfect live.” It’s a bit like touching up a portrait in Photoshop: it’s tempting to clear blemishes, but too much airbrushing can make you look fake.

Paul Dugdale, the director of “Shawn Mendes: Live in Concert” and “Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour,” said that while some live shows might lend themselves to “maximum authenticity” as an approach, other huge pop concerts don’t emphasize the authentic in the same way. “For shows that are quite theatrical, there’s a level of artifice — they’ve got screens, they’ve got pyrotechnics, they’ve got costumes, all that kind of stuff,” he said. “For someone like Taylor, I think that allows you to explore further in terms of camera angles and putting the audience in different positions.”

A Swift concert, Dugdale pointed out, can last more than three hours, which affords the director more latitude in how to approach the film formally. “You can create texture just like the live show has texture,” he said. “Sometimes you can go heavy-handed with the director’s hand, and sometimes you can completely let go of the steering wheel and let the artist take over.”

Despite the high level of difficulty, the job for filmmakers and sound engineers is quite thankless. The best concert films will, to the unwitting viewer, seem like nothing more than filmed concerts — the filmmaking itself remains invisible.

“The goal is that you don’t want people thinking about the fact that this was worked on or changed at all from what it was live,” Jake Davis told me. “You just want the audience to be immersed in the experience and to accept that it’s happening in front of them — to feel like they’re there.”

But Dugdale noted that however much he tries to plan out a concert shoot, the live aspect will always prove unpredictable. “Making these films, you can be as prepared as you can possibly be, but in the end you have to hold on for dear life and see how it turns out.”

Inside the World of Taylor Swift

A Triumph at the Grammys: Taylor Swift made history  by winning her fourth album of the year at the 2024 edition of the awards, an event that saw women take many of the top awards .

‘The T ortured Poets Department’: Poets reacted to Swift’s new album name , weighing in on the pertinent question: What do the tortured poets think ?  

In the Public Eye: The budding romance between Swift and the football player Travis Kelce created a monocultural vortex that reached its apex  at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. Ahead of kickoff, we revisited some key moments in their relationship .

Politics (Taylor’s Version): After months of anticipation, Swift made her first foray into the 2024 election for Super Tuesday with a bipartisan message on Instagram . The singer, who some believe has enough influence  to affect the result of the election , has yet to endorse a presidential candidate.

Conspiracy Theories: In recent months, conspiracy theories about Swift and her relationship with Kelce have proliferated , largely driven by supporters of former President Donald Trump . The pop star's fans are shaking them off .

Taylor Swift's Eras Tour: All the U.S. and international dates and opening acts

Taylor Swift opened the Eras Tour at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona — which rebranded itself as "Swift Cit y" for the March 17 and 18 concerts — with a triumphant return to live performance as the first act in the history of that venue to sell out two nights on the same tour.

By that point, she'd already broken the all-time record for most concert tickets sold by an artist in a single day and passed Madonna's Sticky & Sweet Tour as the highest-grossing tour in history by a female artist.

And Swift rose to the occasion , leading her band through a marathon 44-song set that lasted more than three hours while delivering on her promise of "a journey through all of my musical eras."

So what does she do for an encore? Here's where the Eras Tour is headed next, adding two surprise songs to the set at each show. Here's a look at what she's played so far .

Taylor Swift Eras Tour: 5 magic moments at State Farm Stadium that Arizonans saw first

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Taylor Swift Eras Tour dates in the US

• Friday-Saturday, March 17-18: State Farm Stadium, Glendale, Arizona.
• Friday-Saturday, March 24-25: Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada.
• Friday-Sunday, March 31-April 2: AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas.
• Thursday-Saturday, April 13-15: Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Florida.
• Friday-Sunday, April 21-23 : NRG Stadium, Houston, Texas.
• Friday-Sunday, April 28-30: Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia.
• Friday-Sunday, May 5-7: Nissan Stadium, Nashville, Tennessee.
• Friday-Sunday, May 12-14: Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• Friday-Sunday, May 19-21: Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts.
• Friday-Sunday, May 26-28: MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey.
• Friday-Sunday, June 2-4: Soldier Field, Chicago, Illinois.
• Friday-Saturday, June 9-10: Ford Field, Detroit, Michigan.
• Friday-Saturday, June 16-17: Acrisure Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• Friday-Saturday, June 23-24: U.S. Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• Friday-Saturday, June 30-July 1: Paycor Stadium, Cincinnati, Ohio.
• Friday-Saturday, July 7-8: GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri.
• Friday-Saturday, July 14-15: Empower Field at Mile High, Denver.
• Saturday-Sunday, July 22-23: Lumen Field, Seattle.
• Friday-Saturday, July 28-29 : Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara, California.
• Thursday-Saturday, Aug. 3-5 : Sofi Stadium, Los Angeles.
• Tuesday-Wednesday, Aug. 8-9: Sofi Stadium, Los Angeles.

Taylor Swift adds new US dates in 2024 for the Eras Tour

In early August, Swift announced these new U.S. dates for the Eras Tour in 2024:

• Friday-Sunday, Oct. 18-20: Hard Rock Stadium, Miami.
• Friday-Sunday, Oct. 25-27: Caesars Superdome, New Orleans.
• Friday-Sunday, Nov. 1-3: Lucas Oil Arena, Indianapolis.
• Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 14-16: Rogers Centre, Toronto.
• Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 21-23: Rogers Centre, Toronto.

Taylor Swift Eras Tour opening acts on US dates

Glendale was the only city on the Eras Tour to see Paramore as Taylor Swift's direct support. And that was a glorious stroke of good fortune. We also got Gayle, who crushed it in her own way and is playing several stops along the way. Here's a look at all the Eras Tour openers and where they're playing.

The era of surprises: All the surprise songs Taylor Swift has played on the Eras Tour so far in 2023

• March 17-18 at State Farm Stadium: Paramore and Gayle.
• March 24-25 at Allegiant Stadium: Beabadoobee and Gayle.
• March 31 at AT&T Stadium: Muna and Gayle.
• April 1-2 at AT&T Stadium: Beabadoobee and Gracie Abrams.
• April 13 at Raymond James Stadium: Beabadoobee and Gayle.
• April 14-15 at Raymond James Stadium: Beabadoobee and Gracie Abrams.
• April 21-23 at NRG Stadium: Beabadoobee and Gracie Abrams.
• April 28-29 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium: Beabadoobee and Gracie Abrams.
• April 30 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium: Muna and Gayle.
• May 5 at Nissan Stadium: Phoebe Bridgers and Gracie Abrams.
• May 6 at Nissan Stadium: Phoebe Bridgers and Gayle.
• May 7 at Nissan Stadium: Phoebe Bridgers and Gracie Abrams.
• May 12-13 at Lincoln Financial Field: Phoebe Bridgers and Gayle.
• May 14 at Lincoln Financial Field: Phoebe Bridgers and Gracie Abrams.
• May 19-20 at Gillette Stadium : Phoebe Bridgers and Gayle.
• May 21 at Gillette Stadium : Phoebe Bridgers and Gracie Abrams.
• May 26 at MetLife Stadium: Phoebe Bridgers and Gayle.
• May 27-28 at MetLife Stadium: Phoebe Bridgers and Owenn.
• June 2-3 at Soldier Field: Girl in Red and Owenn.
• June 4 at Soldier Field: Muna and Gracie Abrams.
• June 9 at Ford Field: Girl in Red and Gracie Abrams.
• June 10 at Ford Field: Girl in Red and Owenn.
• June 16 at Acrisure Stadium: Girl in Red and Gracie Abrams.
• June 17 at Acrisure Stadium: Girl in Red and Owenn.
• June 23 at U.S. Bank Stadium: Girl in Red and Gracie Abrams.
• June 24 at U.S. Bank Stadium: Girl in Red and Owenn.
• June 30-July 1 at Paycor Stadium: Muna and Gracie Abrams.
• July 7-8 at Geha Field at Arrowhead Stadium: Muna and Gracie Abrams.
• July 14-15 at Empower Field at Mile High: Muna and Gracie Abrams.
• July 22-23 at Lumen Field: Haim and Gracie Abrams.
• July 28-29 at Levi's Stadium: Haim and Gracie Abrams.
• Aug. 3 at Sofi Stadium: Haim and Gracie Abrams.
• Aug. 4 at Sofi Stadium: Haim and Owenn.
• Aug. 5 at Sofi Stadium: Haim and Gayle.
• Aug. 8 at Sofi Stadium: Haim and Gracie Abrams.
• Aug. 9 at Sofi Stadium: Haim and Gayle.
• Oct. 18-20 at Hard Rock Stadium: Gracie Abrams.
• Oct. 25-27 at Caesars Superdome : Gracie Abrams.
• Nov. 1-3 at Lucas Oil Arena : Gracie Abrams.
• Nov. 14-16 at Rogers Centre: Gracie Abrams.
• Nov. 21-23 at Rogers Centre : Gracie Abrams.

Taylor Swift Eras Tour international dates and opening acts

In June 2023, Swift announced international dates for The Era Tour. Here's where she's headed next at the conclusion of the U.S. tour:

• Thursday-Sunday, Aug. 24-27, 2023: Foro Sol, Mexico City, Mexico, with Sabrina Carpenter.
• Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 9-11, 2023: Estadio River Plate, Buenos Aires, Argentina, with Sabrina Carpenter.
• Saturday-Sunday, Nov. 18-19, 2023: Estadio Nilton Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with Sabrina Carpenter.
• Friday-Sunday, Nov. 24-26, 2023: Allianz Parque, Sao Paulo, Brazil, with Sabrina Carpenter.
• Wednesday-Saturday, Feb. 7-10, 2024: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan.
• Friday-Saturday, Feb. 16-17, 2024: Melbourne Cricket Grounds, Melbourne, Australia, with Sabrina Carpenter.
• Friday-Sunday, Feb. 23-25, 2024: Accor Stadium, Sydney, Australia, with Sabrina Carpenter.
• Saturday-Monday, March 2-4, 2024: National Stadium, Singapore, SG, with Sabrina Carpenter.
• Thursday-Friday, May 9-10, 2024: Paris La Defense Arena, Paris, France.
• Friday, May 17, 2024: Friends Arena, Stockholm, Sweden.
• Friday, May 24, 2024: Estadio da Luz, Lisbon, Portugal.
• Thursday, May 30, 2024: Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid, Spain.
• Sunday, June 2, 2024: Groupama Stadium, Lyon, France.
• Friday-Saturday, June 7-8, 2024 : BT Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, UK.
• Friday-Saturday, June 14-15, 2024 : Anfield Stadium, Liverpool, UK.
• Tuesday, June 18, 2024 : Principality Stadium, Cardiff, UK.
• Friday-Saturday, June 21-22, 2024 : Wembley Stadium, London.
• Friday-Saturday, June 28-29, 2024 : Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland.
• Friday-Saturday, July 5-6, 2024 : Johan Cruijff Arena, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
• Tuesday, July 9, 2024 : Stadion Letzigrund Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
• Saturday, July 13, 2024 : San Siro Stadium, Milan, Italy.
• Thursday, July 18, 2024 : Veltins-Arena, Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
• Tuesday, July 23, 2024 : Volksparkstadion, Hamburg, Germany.
• Saturday, July 27, 202 4: Olympiastadion, Munich, Germany.
• Friday, Aug. 2, 2024: PGE Narodowy, Warsaw, Poland.
• Friday, Aug. 9, 2024: Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna, Austria.
• Friday-Saturday, Aug. 16-17, 2024: Wembley Stadium, London.

Taylor Swift song list for Eras Tour

Taylor Swift told us on the opening night of The Eras Tour at State Farm Stadium that she planned to make the two-song acoustic mini-set near the end of her performance different at each concert. Other than that, this setlist from opening night is what you can expect to hear.

“Lover” album:

• “Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince.”
• “Cruel Summer.”
• “You Need To Calm Down.”
• “The Archer.”

“Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” album:

• “Fearless.”
• “You Belong With Me.”
• “Love Story.”

“Evermore” album:

• “’Tis The Damn Season.”
• “Marjorie.”
• “Champagne Problems.”
• “Tolerate It.”

“Reputation” album:

• “… Ready For It?”
• “Delicate.”
• “Don’t Blame Me.”
• “Look What You Made Me Do.”

“Speak Now” album:

• “Enchanted.”

“Red (Taylor’s Version)” album:

• “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”
• “I Knew You Were Trouble.”
• “All Too Well (10 Minute Version).”

“Folklore” album:

• “Invisible String.”
• “The Last Great American Dynasty.”
• “Illicit Affairs.”
• “My Tears Ricochet.”
• “Cardigan.”

“1989” album:

• “Blank Space.”
• “Shake It Off.”
• “Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version).”
• “Bad Blood.”

Wild card — a different acoustic song each show

• “Mirrorball.”

“Taylor Swift” album:

• “Tim McGraw.”

“Midnights” album:

• “Lavender Haze.”
• “Anti-Hero.”
• “Midnight Rain.”
• “Vigilante (expletive).”
• “Bejeweled.”
• "Mastermind."

Eras Tour Night 2 setlist: Here's how Taylor Swift second song list differed from Night 1

Reach the reporter at  [email protected]  or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter  @ EdMasley .

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ on Disney+, “Taylor’s Version” Of The Superstar’s Hit Concert Film

Where to stream:.

• Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour
• Taylor Swift

Where to Watch The 2024 Met Gala: Start Time, Theme, Live Stream Info

‘live’ pokes fun at ‘love is blind’ contestant who compared herself to megan fox: “people say i look like megan fox’s aunt from ‘hope & faith'”, ‘vanderpump rules’ star ally lewber puts taylor swift knowledge to the test and assigns a zodiac to each album, john early reveals he has taylor swift’s phone number on ‘wwhl’: “i will get sued for saying that”.

When Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour hit theaters this past October, it became the highest-grossing concert film of all time with the quickness, and had hardcore Swifties and just the generally curious literally dancing in the aisles for hours. Now available to stream on Disney+ , as well as rent on numerous VOD platforms like Prime Video and Apple TV , Eras also sweetens the pot with additional live performances of “Wildest Dreams,” “The Archer,” and “Long Live.” And while some folks are gripey about the on-demand cover charge, it isn’t really possible to diminish the glow of this grandly imagined, career-spanning concert film, which was filmed last August during a three-night sold-out stand at LA’s SoFi Stadium. Swift, her songs, and her work of nearly 20 years across distinct career eras polishes up real, real nice. 

TAYLOR SWIFT – THE ERAS TOUR : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?  

The Gist: Ten “eras,” over 40 songs sung, and just about three hours of runtime when it’s all said and done, which includes three additional songs not included in the theatrical version: in both sound and vision, The Eras Tour is a statement-making film and performance from Taylor Swift. “Oh, hi!” she greets the amassed thousands from atop an attitude box that either rises or descends from the stage, the bulk of which thrusts like a bolt through the stadium’s center. “Oh LA, you’re making me feel excellent right now…so powerful ,” and a mixture of dynamic close-ups and swirling aerials capture the constant action on stage, from Lover highlights like “The Man” and “You Need to Calm Down,” through Fearless with its rousing nods to early hits “Love Story” and “You Belong to Me” (“Are you ready to go back to high school with me?”), and onward through the eras that mark Swift’s hugely successful career.

What Time Will ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ Be on Disney+? How to Stream the Taylor Swift Movie

As energetic of a centerpiece as Swift is – but for a few piano bench moments, she’s always standing, running, strutting, sashaying, and generally holding the venue in rapt attention – the evolving stage setups for Eras are outsized and eye-catching. For the forest-themed Evermore , Swift dons a cloak while her dancers hold fae lights aloft amid what looks to be live pine trees. For Reputation , effects create the illusion of an enormous snake coiling across the stage thrust. And for 1989 , the singer and her dancers beat the hell out of an animated car with glow–in-the-dark golf clubs. There’s also at least one other time when she isn’t in constant motion, as when the cabin from Folklore emerges on stage and Swift sings “The 1” while lying on its moss-covered roof. “I’m not a lonely millennial woman covered in cat hair,” she tells her audience, explaining the motivations behind the bucolic, COVID-recorded record from 2020. “I’m like a woodsy Victorian lady who is wandering through the forest.”

Whether she’s drunk on pain, drunk on jealousy, or making no promises to the guy who makes her drink, Taylor Swift moves steadily through her career eras with verve, resolve, and a continuing ability to make even her most well-known, most-streamed jams feel alive in new ways. “22” becomes a boisterous gathering on stage, with she and her dancers emulating the feeling of rolling deep with one’s crew. “Look What You Made Me Do” is sultry in scarlet tendrils and gauzy black. And ultimately, towards the end of the set, “Anti-Hero” and “Karma” zing with the confessional self-awareness that she’s built into her enduring brand of songwriting and performance.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? For BTS: Yet to Come , the seven-member Korean boy band realized their own version of a career highlight list, complete with themed set pieces and staging. And if you need more Taylor content after three hours of Eras , Disney+ features the intimate Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions , while Netflix has Swifties up in arms about its pending removal of The Reputation Stadium Tour .

Performance Worth Watching: At nearly twenty strong, Swift’s crew of dancers are a constant multi-format presence in Eras , configuring themselves in large and small groups, providing theatrical cues that link and lend personality to the epochal proceedings, and swirling around the star as she explores the entire breadth of the stage. Riding bicycles lit with neon tubes on an odd-shaped platform, in the dark, and in front of 70,000 people? It doesn’t look easy!   

Memorable Dialogue: Any concert with room to stretch out deserves an acoustic set. Swift slots hers right before the big finish, performing “Our Song” on a gorgeous guitar with “Taylor” inlaid into its neck and “You’re on Your Own, Kid” on a flower-adorned upright piano. “When I dreamed up the idea of the Eras Tour,” Swift tells the audience, “I thought it would be really fun to sort of go back through all these different phases I’ve had musically. Because it’s been, I mean, it’s been a little bit of everything. You’ve been so kind to me in letting me explore genres, and step outside boxes that are created for us in the music industry. And that’s only because of you that I get to do that. So, thank you.” 

Sex and Skin: Nothing real racy here. Instead, Swift’s numerous costume changes are a wonder of proprietary stage wear that includes glittery leotards, lavish lavender ball gowns, sparkly shorts, faux fur, and even a cloak. Notably, each design integrates an unobtrusive back-mounted pocket to support Swift’s in-ear monitor system.

Our Take: Taylor Swift writes most of her songs in a furiously first-person present tense, and for her fans, that’s immersive. Everyone can know it’s their love that should be celebrated. Everyone can be the actress starring in someone’s bad dreams. If it’s everyone’s reputation that’s never been worse, then it’s everyone who can be proud of being liked for who they are. “These are the words I held back as I was leaving too soon” – to see some of the fan cutaways in The Eras Tour , where people of all ages and walks shout along with her lyrics, their eyes squeezed shut, is continued proof of this saturating, symbiotic effect. But they’re in the room to experience Taylor’s perspective on these songs, too. Because of the reach of her ongoing, multiple continent-spanning tour, and because Eras was such a big hit in theaters, part of the fun of watching it at home is catching its most talked about moments. When Swift throws up her first hand heart early on, during the Fearless era, it’s returned by a kaleidoscope of the faithful. When the stage superstructure effortlessly transforms from bucolic Folklore cabin into the lit up, hard eighties angles of 1989 , people are drinking in all of that magic, madness, heaven and sin. And when Swift seems to dive headfirst into clear blue water before reappearing for Midnights at the opposite end of the lengthy thrust, it’s a feat that feels as fresh as live theater on a stage hundreds of times smaller. As a star whose fans are legion, Taylor Swift has already provided them with loads of lore in songcraft form. Eras Tour is best at bringing visuals into that blank space, where everyone can write their name.   

Our Call: STREAM IT. It’s like, how could you not? Whether you’re a newly-minted Swiftie, a head from way back, or someone wondering about all of the fuss – and in today’s culture, Taylor Swift remains a dominant force of aspirational, spiritual, and economic fuss – The Eras Tour is both concert film and clearing house, a spectacle that places viewers at the very center of what has made the singer and songwriter a true phenomenon.    

Johnny Loftus ( @glennganges ) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.

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Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras’ Trek Leads List of Top 2023 Concert Tours

• By: FOH Staff
• Featured , International News , News
• January 2, 2024

Poster photo: TAS

WORLD – Revenues from the global concert touring business, reduced to a trickle due to the Covid pandemic in 2020 and 2021, came roaring back in 2022, with an even bigger surge in 2023. Total ticket sales from the top 100 tours, which reached a high of $5.6 billion in 2019, sank to $1.2 billion in 2020 and $1.7 billion in 2021, according to Pollstar , before chalking up a new record — $6.3 billion — in 2022. Then came 2023’s surge, to a total $9.2 billion. There were big gains in 2023 for the number of total tickets sold — from 59 to 70 million — and the average price per ticket rose as well, from $106 in 2022 to more than $130 in 2023, according to Pollstar’s stats.

The top 10 tours of 2023 played an outsized role in boosting those aggregate results for the top 100 tours, especially Taylor Swift’s 2023/2024 Eras tour, which continues to break all kinds of records for the artist named Time magazine’s Person of the Year. Average ticket sales for each of the 60 stadium shows performed so far topped $17 million, according to Pollstar’s estimates. That makes sales for the Eras trek not just the highest-grossing concert tour for 2023, but for all time, topping the $1 billion mark in total revenues within its first year. (And there are even more Eras shows planned for 2024 than there were in 2023).

Other tours did spectacularly well in 2023. Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour raked in $580 million, according to Pollstar , a sum well above what it would normally take to earn the top slot on the year-end charts — and even topping the record announced by Pollstar last year for Bad Bunny’s $435 million “World’s Hottest Tour” in 2022. With 56 shows in 39 cities, Pollstar also calculated Beyoncé’s average price per ticket at $209 — a per-ticket average exceeded only by Taylor Swift ($239) and Drake ($260) for their 2023 tours.

2023 treks for Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band and Coldplay both topped Beyoncé’s tour results in terms of the number of tickets sold, according to Pollstar , but with ticket prices a little below the industry average, those tours came in at number three and four, respectively. Rounding out our top 10 list, based on 2023 data published by both Pollstar and Billboard , were tours by Harry Styles, Morgan Wallen, Ed Sheeran, P!nk, Elton John and The Weeknd.

Top Tours of 2023: Crew and Gear*

*The Top Tours of 2023 List order and grosses were sourced from Pollstar and Billboard . Data is from Nov. 17, 2022 to Nov. 15, 2023 ( Pollstar ) and Nov. 1, 2022 to Sept. 30, 2023 ( Billboard ).

Taylor Swift’s ongoing Eras tour was portrayed in a concert film that was filmed in August and released in October. Titled, simply, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour , it earned $250 million worldwide.

1 Taylor Swift Eras Tour

Sound Company: Eighth Day Sound

• FOH Engineer: David Payne
• Systems Engineer: Ville Kauhanen
• Assistant System Engineer:  Sean Tingle
• Monitor Engineers: Jordan Kolenc (artist/guests), Scott Wasilk (band)
• Monitor Tech:  Eoin Collins
• RF Tech:  Sam Balk
• Comms: Ron Sharpless
• P.A. Techs:   Andy Dudash, Charlie Southward, Jay Butler, Nathan TSE, Natalie Algozino
• Production Manager: Dewey Shepherd
• Console: DiGiCo SD7 Quantum
• Speakers: d&b audiotechnik KSL speaker system

Tour Details

With 60 shows performed so far in 24 cities (each of which gained a measurable boost in economic activity credited to the artist’s presence), Taylor Swift’s 2023/2024 Eras trek has already emerged as the highest-grossing concert tour in history, topping the $1 billion mark in total revenues within its first year, according to Pollstar .

The first tour since Swift’s Reputation trek in 2018, the three-hour Eras extravaganza visited stadiums across the U.S., starting with a two-show stop that began March 17 in Glendale, AZ and continuing on to a six-show run at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium that ended Aug. 9. The tour then concluded its 2023 itinerary with a series of concerts in Mexico and Brazil.

Starting in February 2024, the Eras tour heads overseas, with shows in Japan, Australia and Singapore followed by a run through Europe and the UK. The 2024 itinerary is set to conclude with multiple shows planned for five North American stadiums in late 2024.

In addition to surpassing the revenue set by Elton John’s $939 million 2018-2023 Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour in its first year, Taylor Swift’s Eras tour was captured for a concert film during its visit to SoFi Stadium in the Los Angeles area in August. Titled simply Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour , it has already garnered more than $250 million worldwide since its mid-October premiere, making it — you guessed it — the highest-grossing concert film of all time.

Beyoncé performs at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, FL on Aug. 18, 2023. Photo by Julian Dakdouk

2 Beyoncé Renaissance Tour

• FOH Engineer: Bill Sheppell
• Monitor Engineers: James Berry, Jim Corbin, Chris Bellamy (Band)
• System Engineer/Crew Chief: Mark Brnich
• System Engineer/Tech: Krysten Dean
• Monitor Techs: John Switzer, Lee Fox-Furnell
• RF Techs: Erick Ruiz, Clinton Reynolds
• Comms: Elmar Dizon, Patrick Taghavi
• P.A. Techs: Chris Jacobs, Ashley Lowe, Jess Scott, Malcom Secright, Dan Buckley
• Sound FX: Tanner Kinny
• Playback Engineer: Demetrius Henry
• Production Manager: Jason Danter
• Consoles: (2) DiGiCo SD7 Quantum
• Outboard: Waves, UAD LiveRack, API 2500, Empirical Labs Distressors/Fatso, Bricasti M7’s, M.A.S. Overstayer and Stereo Field Effect
• Speakers: d&b GSL system, including (96) GSL, (32) KSL, (64) J8, (20) Y10P, (66) SL-SUB. Configuration: (24) GSL Main Array, (24) GSL Side Array, (12) SL-SUB flown behind mains, (16) KSL 270 Array, (42) SL-SUB ground stacked, (20) Y10P front fills, (4) delay arrays w/(16) J8 each
• Consoles: (3) DiGiCo SD7 Quantum
• Outboard: Waves, Bricasti, API, Vertigo, Rupert Neve Designs, Universal Audio UAD, (2) KLANG:konductor, directout
• Wireless: Wisycom IEM transmitters and packs & RF over fiber; Sennheiser RF mics and beltpacks
• Mics: Beyoncé Vocal : Sennheiser MD945 on SKM9000 stick; Hardwire mics: DPA (2017 & 4017 Shotgun, 5100, 4099, 4011, 4055 Kick Drum), Earthworks, Mojave, Shure, Audio Technica, Telefunken, Rupert Neve DI’s

Beyoncé’s 2023 tour in support of her seventh album, Renaissance , was a 56-show run in 39 cities from May 10 through Oct. 1, 2023. Grossing $580 million, according to Pollstar , it was her biggest-selling tour to date. The trek began in Sweden and traveled through Europe and the UK through late June, then picked up again with more stadium shows in the U.S., starting July 15 in Nashville and wrapping up with a final show in Kansas City, MO. Averaging more than $10 million in ticket sales per show, it ranks as the eighth biggest moneymaker of all time in terms of total (non-inflation-adjusted) dollar sales. Also notable: the $39 million garnered by the tour’s concert film, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé , since its Dec. 1, 2023 release, and the singer’s reported $24+ million paycheck for an invitation-only concert in Dubai on Jan. 21, 2023.

The Springsteen and E Street Band 2023 Tour was the first trek for the Boss and his band since 2017. Photo by Rob DeMartin

3 Springsteen and E Street Band 2023 Tour

Sound Company: Clair Global

• Tour Director: George Travis
• Production Manager: Sean Macgovern
• FOH Engineer: John Cooper
• Monitor Engineers: Monty Carlo (SL), Troy Milner (SR), Matt Fitzgerald (SL2)
• System Engineer/Crew Chief: Brandon Schuette
• Stage/RF Engineer: Brad Galvin
• Stage Engineer: Calvin Welshans
• P.A. Techs: Bobby Taylor, Abigail Chilton, Telvin Armour, David Garwood, Dylan Gray, Brieuc Labiouse, Lukasz Szatarow
• Consoles: (2) Avid S6L; Waves & Sonnox plugins
• Speaker System: Cohesion

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band kicked off their 2023 tour on Feb. 1, their first big road trip together since 2017. Although the tour’s 2023 schedule was ambitious, with a U.S. leg that ran from Feb. 1 through April 14, a European leg that followed from April 28 through July 25, and a North American leg that was to run from late summer through the fall, some of the band members had to bow out on different dates due to positive Covid-19 test results, and a peptic ulcer forced the Boss himself to postpone a total of 22 shows from late 2023 to early 2024. Despite all that, the tour managed to sell 3.5 million tickets, grossing $380 million in 2023, according to Pollstar .

Photo by Steve Jennings

4 Coldplay Music of the Spheres Tour

Sound Companies: Firehouse Productions (U.S.); Solotech (UK/Europe)

• FOH Engineer: Dan Green
• Monitor Engineer: Chris Wood
• System Designer/FOH Tech: Tony Smith
• System Tech: Dominic Thorne
• Crew Chief: Nick Mooney
• Audio Techs: Alex Hadjigeorgiou, Nick “Mystic” Davis, Suzy Mucciarone, James Smallwood
• RF Tech: Ali Viles
• Production Manager: Chris Kansy
• Production Coordinator: Eme Boucher
• Speakers: Mains/Side Hangs: d&b GSL, 270 Hangs/Delays: d&b KSL, Subwoofers: d&b SL-SUBs (flown & ground), Fills: d&b XSL
• Processing: Waves, ArrayProcessing; DirectOut Prodigy.MC, Prodigy.MP, Optocore DD2FR; Rupert Neve Designs
• Wireless/Mics: Shure Axient AD2 handhelds for vocals; Sennheiser 6000 Series for wireless
• Instruments; Wisycom MTK952 and MPR50 IEMs
• Comms: Riedel Artist 1024 Matrix

Coldplay’s production team continued in their mission to make the band sound good while also striving to meet the goal of a 50% reduction in carbon emissions compared to their previous Head Full of Dreams tour in 2016-2017. Along efforts to reduce carbon emissions with bicycle power and the first mobile rechargeable show battery in the world, the crew sought to minimize the need to recycle single-use alkaline batteries for radio mics and IEMs by choosing rechargeable batteries instead — and opting for Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) rechargeable batteries as an even more eco-friendly alternative than lithium rechargeable batteries. The band sold 6.5 million tickets in 2023, earning $326 million, according to Pollstar, and the ongoing tour is set to visit Asia, Europe and Australia/New Zealand in 2024.

The Covid-extended tour wrapped up July 22, 2023. Photo courtesy PRG

5 Harry Styles Love on Tour

Sound Company: Britannia Row Productions

• FOH Engineer: Karl “Snake” Newton
• MON Engineer: Charles “Chopper” Bradley
• Audio Lead: Rod Clarkson
• System Engineer: Michael “Monk” Shear
• Audio Crew Chief: David “Dribble” Poynter
• Audio Crew: Anthony Toneatti, Daniel Ibanez, Jony Santonja, Owen Nagel, Christian Zuniga Zevallos, Isaac Cawte, Charles “Chuck” Wells, Daniel Fathers, Josh Graham, Adam Smith
• Production Managers: Andrew Thornton, Eric “Ski” Piontkowski
• Console: Avid S6L
• Speakers: L-Acoustics K1, K1SB, K2, K3, Kara II, A15, A10
• Amps: LA12X
• IEMs: Wisycom, L-Acoustics Contour XO
• RF: Sennheiser

One of the first concert tours to overcome Covid hurdles and pack arenas again in 2021, Harry Styles’ Love on Tour traveled through Europe, the U.S. and Latin America in June 2022, with more shows in the U.S., Asia, Australia, the UK and Europe in 2023. FOH engineer Snake Newton mixes from a remote location, not just as a Covid precaution but to escape crowd noise, which has been measured at 118 dB. Along with Styles’ second album, Fine Line , released in 2019, the tour supported the release of his third album, Harry’s House , released in 2022, and the tour proved successful enough to make the top tour lists in 2022 and 2023, with 2023’s $291 million boosting revenues for the two-year tour as a whole past the $600 million mark.

The tour, which had $285 million from ticket sales in 2023, continues with more shows in 2024. Photo by Danielle Marshall courtesy Elation

6 Morgan Wallen One Night at a Time Tour

• FOH Engineer: Aaron Lain
• Monitor Engineer: Beau Alexander
• Systems Engineer/Crew Chief: Thomas Morris
• Systems Engineer: Sean Baca
• Monitor Systems Engineer: Vinnie Aceto
• P.A. Fly Techs: Joel Law, Christian Alfaro, Jordan Mills
• Production Manager: Chad Guy
• Assistant Production Manager: Patrick Murphy
• Stage Manager: Donnie Floyd
• Production Coordinator: Lindsey Edwards, Duncan Johnson
• Backline Techs: Connor McGregory, Matt Kennedy, Cal Long, Sam Jacobs
• Console: Yamaha PM7, Yamaha RIO622 Stage Rack
• Speakers: Cohesion CO12 (mains, sides, rear, delay hangs), Cohesion CP218 II+ (flown subs), Cohesion CP218 (ground subs), Cohesion CO8 (front fills)
• Monitor Console: DiGiCo SD10, DiGiCo 32 Bit SD racks
• IEMs: Shure PSM1000
• RF: Shure Axient Digital
• Radios: Motorola XPR3500e
• Comms: Riedel Bolero Wireless Intercom System
• Production IT: Clair Series III Production IT Rack

Morgan Wallen’s One Night at a Time tour, in support of his March 2023 album release One Thing at a Time, also began in March 2023 with shows in Australia and New Zealand, followed by a series of big shows in U.S. and Canadian stadiums and arenas that ran from April through October. In 2024, the One Night at a Time continues with 10 additional stadium dates, starting April 4 in Indianapolis and ending Aug. 8 in Las Vegas. The roster of rotating opening acts has included Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson, Bailey Zimmerman, Jon Pardi, Nate Smith, Bryan Martin, Lauren Watkins and Ella Langley.

With an additional $268 million in 2023 revenues, the multi-year tour ranks as the third biggest moneymaker of all time. Photo by Ralph Larmann

7 Ed Sheeran + — = ÷ x ( Mathematics ) Tour

Sound Company: Major Tom Ltd

• Production Director: Chris Marsh
• FOH Sound Engineer: Simon Kemp
• Monitor Engineer: Brian Thorene
• Audio Systems Engineer and System Designer: Adam Wells
• Loop Pedal Tech/RF Engineer: Dave White
• Guitar Tech: Trevor Dawkins
• Band Backline Techs: Dan Knight, Cam Atkinson
• Console: DiGiCo Quantum7 w/KLANG:kontroller
• Speakers: (212) Meyer Sound Panther L, M and W loudspeakers, in two rings (six hangs of 14 elements for the “inner” ring; eight hangs of 14 enclosures for the “outer” ring); (60) Meyer Sound 1100-LFC configured as six hangs of 10 elements each; (18) Meyer Sound 1100-LFC ground-stacked in six stacks of three; (20) Meyer Sound Leopard elements around the circular center stage for front-fill
• Networking: Meyer Sound Galaxy (1 x 816 platform; 3 x 408 platforms)
• In-the-Round Sheeran Looper Setup: (1) main pedal-board (center stage), (4) remote pedal-board controllers.
• 5-piece band setup on 4 remote stages (drums, bass, 2 guitarists, keys)
• Wireless: Sennheiser 6000 Digital Wireless w/Wireless System Manager (16ch); Sennheiser 2050 (16ch) for IEMs
• Vocal Mics: Ed Sheeran Vocals: Digital 6000 Series transmitter w/ Sennheiser MM 435 capsule; Loop Vocal Mic: Sennheiser 945 capsule; Band Vocals: Sennheiser 945.
• Instrument Mics: Drums: Sennheiser, Shure, DPA; Guitars (via Fractals) and Keys (direct from Roland keys outputs): all AES into the DiGiCo Q7

Ed Sheeran’s ongoing + — = ÷ x (Mathematics) tour has drawn huge crowds from three continents since it launched in Dublin on April 23, 2022, with 2023 tour legs focused on Australia/New Zealand and North America. Currently pegged at #3 of the top tours of all time with total revenues of $776 million (in non-inflation-adjusted dollars) behind Taylor Swift’s Eras tour and Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road, this multi-year mega-trek continues into 2024 with shows planned from January through September in Asia and Europe. The tour has been a valuable proving ground for advanced sound reinforcement technologies — the first to carry Milan AVB networked signals from FOH mix through to the individual loudspeaker boxes, according to Meyer Sound. The tour also incorporates Meyer Sound’s Nebra software platform for network configuration and system monitoring along with MAPP 3D prediction software to streamline the task of realigning coverage for varying stadium shapes and sizes.

The tours had 2023 revenues of $232 million, according to Pollstar . Photo by Odai Afuni

8 P!nk Summer Carnival and Trustfall Tours

Sound Companies: Britannia Row Productions

• FOH Engineer: Stephen Curtin
• System Engineer: Arno Voortman
• Monitor Engineers: Jon Lewis (P!nk), Horst Hartman (band)
• Monitor Tech/Audio Valet: Jack Murphy
• Crew Chief: Guillaume Burguez
• RF Tech: Sarah Blakey
• Stage/P.A. Tech: Alison “Ali” Alvarez
• Delays/Comms Tech: Jon Reynolds
• P.A. Techs: Malcolm Secright, Jess Scott
• Production Manager: Malcolm Weldon
• Speakers: d&b KSL, GSL
• Consoles: DiGiCo SD7 Quantum (P!nk), Yamaha PM10 (Band)
• Handheld Mics: Sennheiser SKM 6000
• IEMs: Sennheiser 2000, Wisycom
• Comms: Riedel Bolero

P!nk’s Summer Carnival tour kicked off with a series of shows in the UK/Europe in June and July, followed by shows throughout North America from July to October 2023. The artist then embarked on her Trustfall tour in October and November, 2023. The Summer Carnival tour continues in 2024 with shows in Australia and New Zealand with an assist from JPJ Audio, followed by another swing through UK/Europe before returning to North America in late summer and fall. More Trustfall tour dates are slated for September 2024 as well.

The multi-year tour currently stands at #2 on the all-time charts, behind only Taylor Swift’s Eras tour. Photo by Steve Jennings

9 Elton John Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour

• FOH Engineer: Matt Herr
• Systems Engineer: Nick Giameos
• Monitor Engineer: Alan Richardson
• Monitor Tech: Rolf Gerling
• RF/Stage Tech: Simon Matthews
• P.A. Techs: Lucas Kinney, Stephen Tang
• Console: Yamaha Rivage PM10
• Speakers: Mains: (32) Cohesion CO12 (16/side); Side Hangs: (32) Cohesion CO12 (16/side); Rear Hangs: (24) Cohesion CO10 (12/side); Subs: (18) Cohesion CP218 (12/flown, 6 ground-stacked)
• Amps: (54) Lab Gruppen PLM 20000Q, PLM 20K44
• Console: Custom monitor console for Elton John
• Speakers: Clair 12AM, 212AM wedges
• Mics: Audio-Technica AE6100 (band vocals), Sennheiser E825 (Nigel vox); AKG 414s, AKG 460s; Sennheiser 609s, E604s, MD421s; Shure SM56s, SM57s, SM58s, Beta 52

Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, which began back in September 2018 as a final three-year trek, continued with Covid-postponed shows into 2023. According to Billboard , the tour has grossed $939.1 million from 328 shows, making it the second highest-grossing tour of all time, behind Taylor Swift’s 2023 Eras tour, which has already topped $1 billion.

The Weeknd made the top 10 charts for both Billboard and Pollstar in 2023. Photo by Todd Kaplan

10 The Weeknd After Hours til Dawn Tour

• FOH Engineer: Derek Brener
• System Tech: Randy Weinholtz
• Monitor Engineer: Lewis Lowder
• RF Tech: Diego Correa
• Monitor Systems Tech: Brian Slevin
• Sound System Crew: Adam Collins, Kas Solomon, Manuel Sperber, Manus Mueller, Toby Boothroyd, Mateusz Strauchman
• Production Manager: Rob DeCeglio
• Consoles: Yamaha Rivage PM10 w/CS-R10 control surface, DSP-R10 engine rack; Yamaha PM3; DiGiCo SD11
• Speakers: Mains: (32) Cohesion CO12; Side Hangs: (32) CO12; Subs: (36) CP218 (ground subs); Front Fill: (16) CO10; Delays: (48) CO10
• Amps: (6) Lab Gruppen PLM 20K44 SP
• Outboard: Waves Extreme Server with SuperRack, UAD-2 Live Rack, Rupert Neve Designs 5045 Primary Source Enhancer, Empirical Labs EL-8X Distressors; Empirical Labs EL7 FATSO, Overstayer SFE 3706 compressor
• Processing: Lake LM44s
• Monitor Console: DiGiCo SD5 Quantum
• Outboard: DiGiGrid MGBs; Waves SGS Extreme SoundGrid with SuperRack; Bricasti M7 reverb;
• RF & IEMs: Shure Axient, Shure PSM1000, Sennheiser EM 6000; JH Audio Angie
• RF Test: Owon HSA015-TG spectrum analyzer
• Mics: Sennheiser EM 3732-II receivers, SKM 5200-II handheld with MD 5235 capsule, Shure Beta91A, Telefunken M82, Shure SM57, Telefunken M81-SH, KSM137, Sennheiser e604, Shure VP88, Royer 122, Sennheiser 421
• Direct Boxes: Radial Engineering J48s

The tour, which launched in mid 2022, continued into 2023 with shows running from June through October in Europe and Latin America. A run of shows set for November and December 2023 in Australia and New Zealand were postponed due to unforeseen circumstances, with plans for new dates Down Under to be announced in 2024.

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With Eras Tour changes, these songs landed on Taylor Swift's chopping block

PARIS, France — Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye to six songs on the Eras Tour .

Taylor Swift made some changes to her mammoth Eras Tour show in La Défense Arena to usher in her 11th studio album "The Tortured Poets Department."

The new era introduced seven additional songs as well as the track "loml" during the surprise portion of the show. With the introductions meant the downfall for six songs from last year's set list.

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The "Fearless," "Red," "Reputation," "1989" and "Midnights" sets remained intact throughout the performance. Swift gave a preview of the songs cut from her show in the first release of her Eras Tour movie but unlike in the film "Cardigan" and "Wildest Dreams" survived the chopping block.

The following tracks were cut in the new set list:

• Lover: "The Archer"
• Speak Now: "Long Live"
• Folklore: "The Last Great American Dynasty" and "The 1"
• Evermore: "Tolerate It" 'Tis the Damn Season"

Don't miss any Taylor Swift news; sign up for the  free, weekly newsletter "This Swift Beat."

Follow Taylor Swift reporter Bryan West on  Instagram ,  TikTok  and  X as @BryanWestTV .

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: With Eras Tour changes, these songs landed on Taylor Swift's chopping block

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• Services & Software

Taylor Swift's Eras Tour Is Back: How to Watch the Original Concert Film

For all the non-European Swifties, we can relive the Eras Tour (sans Tortured Poets) at home now.

Taylor Swift's Eras Tour is back, kicking off the European leg of the tour with three nights in Paris. These shows are the first public performances Swift has done since the release of her newest album The Tortured Poets Department. And fans' prayers have been answered: There will be a TTPD era added into Swift's live performances. No spoilers, but you can see which songs made the cut in our official TTPD guide here .

For Swifties like us who can't hop on a plane to see Swift, we can celebrate the return of the Eras Tour by streaming the original  Eras Tour concert film  on Disney Plus. The Disney Plus version of the concert film includes several new performances, including  Cardigan , and says goodbye to a few favorites, too. The first version of the Eras Tour movie hit theaters late last year and became the  highest-grossing concert film  ever, as reported by Variety. Then it was available to rent on demand.

So, are you ready for it ? If not, we've got you covered. Here's everything we know about the new concert film, how to watch Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor's Version), and why a VPN might be a useful tool for streaming.

Read more:   Watch Taylor Swift's Exclusive Eras Tour Clip a Day Early on Apple's App Store

What's new in the Disney Plus version of the film?

Disney Plus' version of the flick will feature Swift's performance of Cardigan, which was previously cut from the theatrical release of the movie, and four additional acoustic songs. You can check out a preview of the Cardigan performance here , in an exclusive early clip on Apple's App Store. Swift had also released the names of the four new acoustic performances leading up to Thursday's release on ABC's  Good Morning America (also owned by Disney). Now that the film has officially dropped, we know that the four acoustic songs featured in the Disney Plus version of the film are I Can See You, Death By A Thousand Cuts, You Are in Love and Maroon (which is accompanied by another performance of You're On Your Own Kid). It's important to note that these songs are included at the end of the film, after the credits. 

Swift  recorded  six acoustic songs during filming in August, and the performances of Our Song and You're on Your Own, Kid made both the theatrical and on-demand rental versions of the film. Now, all six performances have found their way into the concert flick, which is an extra treat for super fans like ourselves. 

Songs excluded from the Disney Plus cut of the movie include Long Live, The Archer, Wildest Dreams and No Body, No Crime. 

The Eras Tour concert film hits streaming on March 14. 

Disney Plus is already home to another Swift exclusive,  Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions , a series that chronicles the making of her 2020 album Folklore. Swift's other documentaries and concert films have been available sporadically on various streaming services, including  Netflix  and Prime Video. 

Release time for the Eras Tour film in the US and abroad

The film will land on Disney Plus on Thursday, March 14 at 6 p.m. PT (9 p.m. ET)  in all territories except Turkey, where it will be released on April 3. Swift announced that the film would be available earlier on Monday, along with a new trailer. 

Pricing for Disney Plus starts at $8 per month in the US, but if you live in Canada, the platform costs CA$12 a month. UK fans can get the service for either £5 with ads, or £8 a month without ads. You can subscribe for a year and save 16%. In Australia, fans get Disney Plus for AU$14 per month. 

Disney Plus

Carries the eras tour (taylor's version).

Disney Plus is the one-stop streaming location for the company's streaming catalog. Subscribers can stream Disney classics, Marvel Studios movies and TV shows and all new Star Wars content. 

In the US, Disney Plus' Basic plan will set you back $8 a month, and the Premium plan costs $14 a month or $140 a year. 

Disney Plus will serve as the exclusive streaming home for The Eras Tour (Taylor's Version), so if you want to stream the flick, you'll need to sign up for the service. 

How to stream the film using a VPN

Perhaps you're traveling abroad and want to stream The Eras Tour (Taylor's Version) while away from home. With a VPN, you're able to virtually change your location on your phone, tablet or laptop to get access to the movie from anywhere in the world. There are other good reasons to use a VPN for streaming, too.

A VPN is the best way to stop your ISP from throttling your speeds by encrypting your traffic. Using a VPN is also a great idea if you're traveling and find yourself connected to a Wi-Fi network, and you want to add an extra layer of privacy for your devices and logins. Streaming TV can be a bit smoother with a reliable, quality VPN that's passed our tests and security standards. 

You can use a VPN to stream content legally as long as VPNs are legal in your country and you have a valid subscription to the streaming service you're using. The US and Canada are among the countries where VPNs are legal, but we advise against streaming or downloading content on illegal torrent sites. We recommend ExpressVPN, but you may opt for another provider from our best list such as Surfshark or NordVPN . 

Express VPN

Best vpn for streaming.

ExpressVPN is CNET's current best VPN pick . You can sign up for ExpressVPN and save 49% plus get three months of access for free — the equivalent of $6.67 a month — if you get the annual subscription. Note that ExpressVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Follow the VPN provider's instructions for installation and choose a country where The Eras Tour movie is streaming on Disney Plus. Before you open the streaming app, make sure you're connected to your VPN using your selected region. If you want to stream The Eras Tour film on more than one device, you may need to configure each one to ensure you are signed in. Go to settings and check your network connections to verify you're logged in and connected to your VPN account. Now you're ready to open Disney Plus to stream.

If you run into issues with streaming, first make sure your VPN is up and running on its encrypted IP address. Double-check that you've followed installation instructions correctly and you've picked the right geographical area for viewing. If you still encounter connection problems, you may need to reboot your device. Close all apps and windows, restart your device and connect to your VPN first. Note that some streaming services have restrictions on VPN access.

Correction, Feb. 9 : An earlier version of this story misstated the number of Taylor Swift's studio albums. The Tortured Poets Department, set for release in April, will be her 11th studio album.

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Screen Rant

Taylor swift: the eras tour's 4 hour version must surely be coming now, right.

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Eras Tour Performer Guide: Every Taylor Swift Backup Dancer & Vocalist In The Concert Movie

Every taylor swift album, ranked from worst to best, the fall guy's box office reveals a harsh reality of ryan gosling's movie career.

• The latest Eras Tour show in Paris was filmed, hinting at a potential new concert movie release that features songs from The Tortured Poets Department .
• Taylor Swift rearranges her entire setlist to include 7 songs from Tortured Poets .
• Fans anticipate another extended version of The Eras Tour movie that includes the Tortured Poets era.

At her Eras Tour kick-off concert in Paris, France, Taylor Swift added new songs from her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department , to the already extensive setlist . As a result, fans are wondering if yet another version of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour movie is on the horizon. The highest-grossing concert tour of all time, The Eras Tour , which began in 2023 with its North American leg, has made upwards of $1 billion. With a record-breaking opening weekend, the subsequent Eras Tour movie concert garnered over $267.1 million.

The Taylor's Version movie concert was the most complete viewing experience — until now.

For its theatrical release, The Eras Tour Movie cut songs , but Swift has since added tracks back into the mix with each release, from the for-purchase version to the Disney+ streaming-exclusive cut, the 48-song The Eras Tour Movie (Taylor's Version) . Clocking in at over three hours, the Taylor's Version movie concert was the most complete viewing experience. Of course, the seven Tortured Poets Department songs that Swift debuted at her first Paris show has changed that. An impressive review of Taylor Swift's musical "eras," the revamped show would make for an exciting new concert movie .

Taylor Swift's First Eras Tour Show In Paris Is Being Filmed - Is A New Movie Coming?

Signs at swift's paris show indicate a new (& more complete) movie is on the horizon.

Fans who attended Taylor Swift's first Paris show were encouraged to smile — not just because they were about to enjoy an unforgettable concert, but because the performance was going to be captured on camera. According to The Eras Tour update page, Swift's May 9, 2024, show was " officially... filmed and recorded " (via X ). Notably, The Eras Tour movie was filmed across several nights during Swift's Los Angeles residency. It's possible the musician's team captured footage for promotional reasons, but, given the mastermind's past plans, it seems like something bigger will come of the recordings .

The European leg of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour kicked off on May 9 in Paris, France.

After the limited theatrical release of The Eras Tour movie , the film became available to rent for a period of time. Roughly five months after the concert movie hit theaters, it premiered on Disney+, becoming the streamer's biggest 2024 hit so far. As of May 2024, there's no physical version of The Eras Tour Movie available for purchase . Known for her many album variants, it's surprising that the artist hasn't put out a physical Blu-ray of the show. With the more complete version of the show, which boasts songs from Tortured Poets , being filmed, everything could change.

Taylor Swft: The Eras Tour movie features a highly talented roster of backup dancers and backing vocalists who accompany Swift onstage at every show.

How Taylor Swift Changed The Eras Tour Setlist To Include The Tortured Poets Department

Swift rearranged her entire eras tour setlist for ttpd.

In order to accommodate the seven tracks that Swift selected from her 31-song Tortured Poets double album , the 14-time Grammy-winning artist rearranged her entire Eras Tour setlist. Given the concert's staggering length, Swift was also forced to cut some fan-favorite tracks . While The Eras Tour still opens with the Lover era, it now moves around through the artist's discography as follows: Fearless , Red , Speak Now , Reputation , folklore/evermore , 1989 , The Tortured Poets Department , and Midnights . Sandwiched between Tortured Poets and Midnights are Swift's secret songs — two acoustic renditions of random tracks that didn't make the official setlist.

Not only were the sister projects [ folklore and evermore ] combined into one era, but Swift cut several songs from those beloved albums.

Undoubtedly, the folklore and evermore Eras took the biggest hits. Not only were the sister projects combined into one era, but Swift cut several songs from those beloved albums to make way for her latest release, including the emotional — and impressively staged — "tolerate it" from evermore . These cuts made way for the addition of a whopping seven songs from The Tortured Poets Department , including the album's lead single, "Fortnight," and stand-out viral hits like "Down Bad" and "I Can Do It with a Broken Heart."

Taylor Swift has released 11 albums (and re-recorded four) over the course of her 18-year career, some of which are better than others.

Why An Extended Version Of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Movie Makes Sense

Swifties who won't see the tortured poets department era live could experience it in movie form.

Although Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor's Version) seemed like it would be the definitive cut of the concert movie, the addition of The Tortured Poets Department era means that the at-home viewing experience is now incomplete. It's incredibly likely that Taylor Swift 's team to release an updated version with the Tortured Poets setlist wedged into the show — or coming in at the end as a surprise "after credits" feature. It only makes sense for the musician to release another extended version of the movie, as it would allow fans who went to previous tour stops to see the latest and greatest iteration of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour .

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is a film rendition of the colossal worldwide event that sees the legendary pop star hit the stage in a specially curated film event. Performing the hits of her over seventeen-year career in music, The Eras Tour highlights Taylor Swift and her team as they put on a show of a lifetime.

• Taylor Swift

When Is the Taylor Swift Eras Tour Movie Streaming?

The concert film is available to rent now, and will stream on Disney+ very soon.

Every item on this page was chosen by a Town & Country editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

"The Eras Tour has been the most meaningful, electric experience of my life so far and I’m overjoyed to tell you that it’ll be coming to the big screen soon," Swift wrote on Instagram announcing the film. She added, "Eras attire, friendship bracelets, singing and dancing encouraged." ( We have some Eras Tour movie attire suggestions right this way .)

Unlike Swift's previous concert films and documentaries—including the film of her Reputation Tour , her Netflix documentary Miss Americana, and Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions — the Eras Tour was not immediately released on a streaming platform. Instead, the pop star partnered exclusively with AMC theaters to release it.

On November 27, Swift announced on Instagram that the film will be available to rent on demand starting on her birthday, December 13. "Well, so, basically I have a birthday coming up and I was thinking a fun way to celebrate the year we’ve had together would be to make The Eras Tour Concert Film available for you to watch at home!" she wrote. "Very happy to be able to tell you that the extended version of the film including 'Wildest Dreams,' 'The Archer' and 'Long Live' will be available to rent on demand in the US, Canada & additional countries to be announced soon."

Here's where you can rent the film:

The Eras Tour on Apple TV

The Eras Tour concert film is also on Xfinity, Vudu, Google Play, and YouTubeTV.

Next week, starting on March 14, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour will stream exclusively on Disney+, including five songs that weren't available in theaters or in the rental version. "For the first time we’ll be showing the entire concert (including 'cardigan', plus 4 additional songs from the acoustic section!!) and I’m calling it, huge shock, 'Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version),'" Swift posted on social media.

Disney CEO Bob Iger said, " The Eras Tour has been a true phenomenon that has and continues to thrill fans around the world, and we are very excited to bring this electrifying concert to audiences whenever they want, exclusively on Disney+."

The Eras Tour film drops on Disney+ on March 14, 2024 at 6 p.m. pacific/9 p.m. eastern.

Sign up for Disney+

We'll update this as soon as we learn more.

Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma , a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram .

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