The biggest music event of 2024 is heading back to the UK later this month.
After impressing fans with her first run of UK shows earlier in the summer, Taylor Swift is bringing her mammoth Eras Tour to London’s iconic Wembley Stadium next week, with a string of performances that will round off the jaunt’s European leg.
After scouring TikTok for clips and devotedly streaming her Disney+ special, plenty of Swifties will have been waiting almost a year to see the Grammy winner live (not to mention the money they’ve spent in the process), so the Eras Tour’s stint at Wembley is going to be a seriously big deal.
And if that sounds like a familiar scenario, perhaps you’re keen for tips to maximise the experience.
Here’s our full list of Eras Tour dos and don’ts before you head off to Wembley, after we were lucky enough to catch the show when it was here back in June…
Even if you’ve been going to gigs for decades, the Eras Tour is such a specific experience (namely because it’s such a long show!) that it’s genuinely more comparable with a day out to somewhere like Thorpe Park than it is your typical concert.
Because it will take up so much of your time (and, let’s face it, Wembley Stadium isn’t the most convenient of locations for everyone), everything from travel, weather, meals and toilet breaks are all things worth considering when you’re putting your plans together. And on that note, if you’re of a certain age, perhaps accompanying someone younger for the night, it might be worth doing a few cheeky stretches before the fun gets underway, too.
Planning is important, and it’s probably an idea to take a quick peek at the setlist so you have a rough idea of when you might want to nip to the loo, grab a snack or even leave early if Midnights deep cuts are less important to you than bagging a spot on the tube before the rest of Wembley.
There are also a few call-and-response moments in the show that have grown bigger through word of mouth as the tour has gone on, so depending on how much you want to prove your muster to the Swifties around you, it could be worth swotting up on those, too.
However, Taylor has also packed the Eras Tour with loads of fun details and unexpected moments, so even though plenty of fans in the audience will have already memorised every detail of the show before ever clapping eyes on it in person, we still think there’s something to be said for keeping a few things as a surprise.
Oh, and as for the setlist, while she does give almost all of her “eras” its moment to shine, it’s jam-packed with hits, so don’t worry too much about spending your time cramming on Taylor’s back catalogue (in fact, some of the show’s best moments for us came during songs we weren’t too familiar with).
As if Paramore wasn’t already enticing enough, Taylor has recruited a host of impressive support acts for each of her remaining London shows.
Her previous UK supports included the likes of Benson Boone, Gracie Abrams and Mette, and the I Knew You Were Trouble singer has kept the momentum going with the opening acts on this next leg.
They include chart-toppers Raye and Maisie Peters, Brit Award winner Holly Humberstone, singer-songwriter Suki Waterhouse and rising star Sofia Isella.
Getting there early to see the support acts also means you’re in with a better chance of beating the queues at the merch and food stands, too.
No, it’s not just a TikTok thing, friendship bracelets really are everywhere on the Eras Tour, not just among fans inside the gigs but also outside Wembley Stadium, where plenty of people also set up makeshift stalls to create new ones for their fellow Swifties on their way into the event.
The extremely wholesome trading was inspired by a line from Folklore cut You’re On Your Own Kid (which, strangely enough, isn’t actually on the Eras Tour setlist!), and while it may be easy for cynics to roll their eyes at, it’s worth pointing out that it’s a great way for fans to come away from the show with a souvenir they didn’t actually have to spend a fortune on (particularly when you consider some of those eye-watering ticket prices).
Something else that’s definitely not just confined to a few fans on TikTok is dressing up – the Swifties are going all out with their concert outfits, and to be perfectly honest with you, in 25 years of going to gigs, we’ve never seen so many pop fans dressed up in one venue.
If you’re a little worried about whether the outfit you’ve got planned is too much – trust us, whatever it is, it’s not.
On the other hand, if you were planning to attend in your civvies, we’d at least suggest throwing in a pop of colour and calling it a “Lover era” homage, or opting for pastels or monochrome in the spirit of the “Midnights” and “Tortured Poets Department” eras (on our way out the door we grabbed something snakeskin in the hopes that it could pass for a “Reputation era” tribute, and judging from the few knowing nods we got, we think we can call it a win).
Now, Wembley Stadium is a big old place, so when you first take your seats before the show, you might suddenly be hit with a wave of worry about just how much of the show you’re going to be able to see.
Well, don’t fret.
Not only is the Eras Tour enough of a visual spectacle that there’s almost always something to hold your attention no matter where you’re sitting, it’s also equipped with enormous screens so those with seats further away from the action won’t feel like they’re missing out on anything.
We get it, Taylor Swift isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and between the clips of fans having full-scale meltdowns about the show on TikTok and the blanket media coverage about the singer’s every move, it’s easy to be cynical about the Eras Tour. We were, too, in all honesty.
But if you’re fortunate enough to have a ticket, we guarantee that if you let your guard down and drop that scepticism, it’s hard not to be swept up in the atmosphere at a show like the Eras Tour.
So while a gig that seemingly requires so much planning and research might seem like a big of a slog, the most important thing of all is to enjoy it, and if you go into it all with a positive attitude, you definitely will.
