Swift greets the crowd and begins the show with songs from 2019's Lover. Photo Credit: TAS Rights Management

“Two Tickets to Paradise”–the 1977 hit song by rockstar Eddie Money–is perfectly analogous to our experience last Friday, on what should have been a regular weekday. Last weekend, Taylor Swift wrapped up her U.S. leg of The Eras Tour, a world-famous spectacle that has been selling out stadiums since March 2023. After finding out on Thursday that we had received permission to cover this last US stop, we traveled to Swift’s closing city of choice: Indianapolis, Indiana.

Backpacks packed and last-minute travel arrangements secured, we boarded the Greyhound bus in downtown Chicago on Friday morning for the 4-and-a-half hour ride to Indy, a city initially unfamiliar to us both but one that now holds quite a unique significance in our hearts. By late afternoon, we found ourselves in Indiana’s capital, or as the city renamed itself for the weekend, Swift City.  

And Swift City it was. The energy within and outside Lucas Oil Stadium was palpable. Each fan greeted us with a beaming smile and an infectious eagerness to share their excitement. Fans dressed as various versions of Swift and lyrical puns flooded the gates when they opened at 4:30 p.m.

Longtime Swiftie Megan Hoffman booked her tickets to paradise from a Ticketmaster drop at 6 p.m. on Oct. 31, the night before the show. “The kids went trick-or-treating, and I stayed in to get tickets,” she said. Waiting in line to get her floor ticket wristband, she said she felt thrilled to attend the end of the tour, though dismayed that it was coming to a close in just a few weeks. “It’s sad…but exciting because we’re here for the end of it, so it’ll be interesting to see what they might come up with,” she said.

Concert-goer Taylor Brake felt equally grateful to attend. On Aug. 11, 2023, Brake waited anxiously by her phone to see if she had been granted a Ticketmaster presale code for the Indianapolis tour stop, which are randomly sent to fans registered in their Verified Fan program. She was one of over 14 million fans to cast her hat in the ring for a presale code for the now sold-out tour.

“I was stressing out all day,” she said. “All of my co-workers who were Swifties got their email.” At midnight, she finally got her own email with a treasured presale code and quickly booked floor tickets for night one in Indy.

Stories like these reflect the experiences of the majority of fans in attendance. Many had put in a great deal of effort to be there; missing work, driving for 3+ hours and flying in from Louisiana were among some of the tales we heard. Some fans who did not successfully snag passes over a year in advance worked to secure theirs all the way until the evening of the show itself. Tickets to this final U.S. stop were the holy grail of the last two years for music fans–they were coveted, to say the least.

The show began with a fiery set from Swift's friend singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams, who told the crowd that Swift could hear their passionate screams from her dressing room.

The (literal) countdown to Swift’s set began around 8:00 p.m. Each fan’s light-up wristband blinked furiously as the woman of the hour made her way to the stage to an exhilarating mashup of soundbites from her past albums. The mania from the fans was unlike anything we’ve seen before. Swift acknowledged this energy, telling fans that they had just broken the attendance record at the stadium with 69,000, according to Swift herself. This was the second time Swift had broken the record at Lucas Oil Stadium, outperforming the total attendance at her sold-out Reputation Stadium Tour in 2018.

Swift kicked off the show with the fan-favorite era, Lover. Entering the stage under a halo of larger-than-life pastel flower petals, she proceeded to sing a cut from
“Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince,” pointing at the crowd and segueing seamlessly into “Cruel Summer,” the most streamed track in her discography on Spotify and first to hit 2 billion streams on the streaming app.

As the night unfolded, Swift played a wide selection of hits and deep-cuts from all eleven of her albums. It was immediately clear that Swift is truly a musical giant at the top of her game and is nothing if not a professional. Somehow, she managed to maintain the energy in her characteristic strut for the entire three-and-a-half-hour set. Swift kept fans of all ages locked onto her every move despite the typical discomfort and dehydration that comes with a long concert night.

Mid-way through the Lover set, Swift performed “You Need to Calm Down,” a political anthem written in response to attacks on the queer community. In a state where local governments have launched repeated legislative attacks on queer people, Swift’s performance here was uniquely powerful and now resonates even more post-election. This was predated by “The Man,” a song where Swift grapples with barriers to success across gender lines. “I’m so sick of running as fast as I can / wondering if I’d get there quicker if I was a man,” she sang to the crowd. The Lover era was the concert’s most political segment, which highlighted Swift’s recent political transparency following her high-profile endorsement of Kamala Harris this September.  

After Lover, Swift skipped out in a gold and black shimmering dress to the first chords of her hit song “Fearless.” A highlight for us, the Fearless era portion of the show brought with it a striking nostalgia that resonated throughout the stadium. Fans now well in their adult years who grew up with Swift’s country style gave this era their all; some even brought their young children with them. We could feel the poignant sense of community among Swifties that has now become intergenerational.

Allie Rounds, who also got floor tickets in the presale, has been a Swiftie for fourteen years. “The first song I downloaded on my iPod touch was ‘You Belong With Me,’” she said, referencing the chart-topping single from Swift’s 2008 album Fearless. Rounds was thrilled to attend the show, explaining that she was most looking forward to the set featuring newer hits from The Tortured Poets Department.

The show then moved between the Red, Speak Now, Reputation, folklore and evermore (a combined set), 1989, The Tortured Poets Department and Midnights albums, with elaborate set changes, album-centric colorful lights and musical transitions to match. The crowd roared for hits like “Shake it Off” and “...Ready for It?” and swayed in reverent sing-along for slower performances of “champagne problems” or a surprise song mashup of 2006’s “Cold As You” and 2020’s “exile.”

Swift performs "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)" at Lucas Oil Stadium. Photo Credit: TAS Rights Management

The most touching moment of Swift’s performance happened at the culmination of her Red era set. Elevated on a platform, she sang “All Too Well (10 Minute Version),” a song chronicling heartbreak she experienced over a decade ago after a high-profile breakup. In these ten minutes, Swift demonstrated her uncanny ability to make a stadium show feel intimate.

During The Tortured Poets Department set, the newest segment of the show, fans gained perspective into Swift’s mind while on tour when she appeared at the end of the catwalk singing the lead up to the explosive chorus of “But Daddy I Love Him.” Swift took a jab at her constant coverage and the public’s involvement in her personal life and sang passionately to the crowd “I’ll tell you something about my good name / It’s mine alone to disgrace.” Swift produced another somewhat meta high point for fans a few songs later with the playful yet introspective “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.” Here, she cheekily acknowledged her own (obvious) professionalism and ability to deliver this show even while navigating personal challenges like heartbreak. Lines like “All the pieces of me shattered as the crowd was chanting, ‘More!’” and “I was grinning like I’m winning / I was hitting my marks” highlight her Swiftian strength.

During the folklore and evermore set, Swift seemed to look at the crowd through the lens of her 149 total shows and give herself a moment of pause to bask in the crowd’s fervor for her, removing her earpiece and staring out in disbelief. After this suspension in time, the passionate dancing during the pining lyrics and fast-paced strumming of “august,” a fan-favorite from folklore, illustrated just how far The Eras Tour had come.

The Eras Tour is a once-in-a-lifetime cultural phenomenon. Shattering records for all-time concert attendance, the tour has traversed five continents with 149 shows across 22 countries, making it the highest-grossing concert tour in history and first to cross $1 billion. According to TIME, after the first U.S. leg in 2023 alone, Swift’s total economic impact in terms of consumer behavior was estimated to surpass $10 billion. The records broken with each additional city lost their shock factor pretty early on. After all, Swift fans and doubters alike cannot dispute the indelible mark Eras has made on our current pop-cultural landscape.

But the tour’s mammoth proportions are not the most remarkable impression we took home with us on our respective bus back to Evanston and flight to Atlanta as we left the Eras experience bright and early the next morning. It was the singer’s ability to reach nearly every single person in Indianapolis, whether they were a concert attendee or not.

We sensed a buzzing anticipation at Swift’s mere presence from the moment we entered Indy’s limits–a buzz that quickly became a roar when we heard about the fanfare prepared for the singer, including a 34-story decal of Swift playing her guitar on the side of the downtown JW Marriott. With each person on the street and Lyft driver we spoke to, we were asked about surprise songs, our favorite albums and if we had been fortunate enough to enjoy the over 40 Swift-related downtown celebrations, photo opps and “Welcome Swifties” banners that Indianapolis had been preparing for days.

Cities have shown up for Swift since the very first stop of the tour in Glendale, Ariz., the city that started the pattern of temporarily renaming the city in the singer’s honor. In return, Swift showed up for them, giving them the highlights of her career so far and boosting spirits and local economies along the way.

Swift’s ability to bring a city together cannot be understated– ]as our Lyft driver told us on the ride home, “You know, this is a big deal for Indianapolis.” And truly, it’s as simple as that: Eras is a big deal and a cultural milestone. Swift made touring more than just about what happens during those three-and-a-half hours inside the stadium; she created a two-year movement that fills each night with infectious, sparkling, memorable positivity for her fans.