After 21 months, 21 countries, and probably seven billion friendship bracelets, Taylor Swift closed out her record-breaking Eras Tour Sunday night at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, Canada. There were 60,000 people in attendance, but that doesn't include the at least 200 Swifties who watched a glitchy livestream of the entire concert from Stout Bryant Park in NYC. Or the three other bars in Midtown Manhattan that streamed the show, or any of the other bars across the country that held watch parties.
I would not say I tricked my boyfriend into going to a Bryant Park bar on a Sunday night, but I would say the universe conspired to ensure that we were in the correct area, should we feel like wandering into a bar for a final Swifitie singalong. Technically, he suggested we take the subway up to Rockefeller Center to see the tree, and instead of rolling my eyes at the thought of shuffling through tourist-filled crowds on 6th Avenue on a Sunday night, I said, “sure!” So we saw the big dumb tree and then I suggested we take a little stroll and walk by Stout Bryant Park just “to see.” And he said, “sure.”
As we approached the bar at 10:45 p.m., a woman outside actually screamed at us, “It’s the final Eras Tour!” and I, personally, was sold. We walked into a sea of screaming, sparkling Swifties who were singing along to “Lover.” Nearly everyone was dressed up in either sequins or tour merch, and I think the only moment the bartender wasn’t pouring shots or vats of espresso martinis was when I ordered a glass of rosé. I called the bar this morning to ask how many people they thought were there, and they said between 100 and 250 — so I’ll say 200, it was literally packed.
We squeezed ourselves into a spot at the very back of the bar and agreed we’d only stay until the folklore/evermore era. Instead, we stayed for the entire concert, watching a vertical, blurry TikTok livestream that was displayed on every single TV. Everyone sang along to every song, and many of the women at the bar sang to the bartenders, who danced along and seemed very happy to be making probably hundreds in tips on what would otherwise be a slow Sunday night. When we got to the seventh verse of "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)," I felt the floor shake and my boyfriend briefly looked a little nervous.
We also made friends with a couple who just got married in Italy — and the guy shares an exact birthday with Taylor. (He even showed us his license to prove it). While his wife loved that fact, he didn’t seem as excited about that as he should be. I sang so loud that I knew I'd wake up with a scratchy throat and a wobbly voice. The entire bar erupted in cheers and applause when she took her final bow. And then we all groaned over the fact that, no, the concert wasn't going for an extra hour as rumored, and, no, she didn't announce a release date for reputation or Debut. But that's OK! We finally grabbed a cab at 2:30 in the morning and I sang “Cruel Summer” on the ride home since we unfortunately walked in after that performance. It was the best Sunday night of my entire life.
@lime.greeen Long live the you belong with me clap and god bless all the tiktok Eras Tour streamers #erastour #taylorswift ♬ original sound - Limegreen
On Monday morning, the New York Times officially reported that Swift’s 149-show Eras Tour sold $2,077,618,725 in tickets — double the sales of any other tour in history. And that number doesn’t even include merch sales or album sales. It also obviously doesn’t account for how much online ticket sellers made in resales, a vampiric issue that will hopefully be fixed before Taylor goes on tour again. Swift’s touring company also told the Times that 10,168,008 people, in total, attended the shows. Though, it's not clear how many people went to multiple shows...I was at four of them! =X
Here are some other fun facts: The tour’s biggest night was February 16 in Melbourne, Australia, with an audience of 96,006; her eight shows at Wembley Stadium in London drew 753,112 Swifties; People reported on Monday that Swift, over the past two years, gave her performers and crew a total of $197 million in bonuses; and the friendship bracelet industry will likely never be the same again.
Some people like to joke that Swifties are crazy or ask "Are Swifties OK?" or pretend like every Taylor Swift fan is permanently and perpetually a 12-year-old lovesick preteen. And that's fine. If you don't get it, you don't get it. I'm biased, but I don't know of another fandom that could pack a midtown pub at 11 p.m. on a Sunday night and fill it with so much energy and noise that you nearly feel like you're at the actual concert. I will sincerely miss the Eras Tour and the corner of joy and community it created for millions of people. That said, Taylor, of course, deserves a break, but if we don't get a reputation announcement soon, I will take a blowtorch to Cornelia Street.
