CRUEL SUMMER

Chaos Is Coming for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour European Summer

We’re in year two of headline-dominating Eras Tour coverage. Unfortunately, those headlines haven’t always been so nice.

After a months-long break from the stage—during which she took every opportunity to cheer on her Super Bowl-winning boyfriend from the stands—Taylor Swift is back on the road. The pop star’s Eras Tour swept the Americas last year, and now it’s Europe’s turn. Swift will spend the next four months hitting major hubs like London and Stockholm before returning stateside for one more North American leg this fall.

So, yes, we’re now heading into year two of headline-dominating Eras Tour discourse. Since debuting the three-hour victory lap of her greatest hits last March in Arizona, Swift’s show has already managed to gross over $1 billion, making the Eras Tour the first tour in history to cross that milestone. It’s projected that by the time the tour concludes, a $2 billion gross could be within Swift’s reach.

Thus far, fan reviews of their experiences at the Eras Tour have been overwhelmingly positive. But the sheer size of the stadiums Swift is packing have necessitated infrastructural sophistication from its organizers on a level that’s rarely, if ever, been seen in pop music. As such, there have been a few hiccups.

PANIC IN PARIS

Taylor Swift Is Making Drastic Changes to Her Eras Tour

Helen Holmes

This past weekend, for example, Swift kicked off the European leg of her tour with four performances in Paris, during which she debuted the new section of the show devoted to her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department. One of the biggest stories to come out of the Paris concerts, though, were the viral images posted by one attendee of what appears to be an infant lying on the floor during a show, with adults hovering nearby.

After concertgoers and commentators reacted with shock online, La Défense Arena, the venue that hosted the Paris shows, told Page Six in a statement that the “general terms and conditions of sale stipulate that all minors (without any age limit) holding a ticket for a concert at Paris La Défense arena must be accompanied by an adult.”

“Under 18 children remain under their legal guardian responsibility, it’s venue policy,” the statement continues. “For spectators with a young child in the floor, an alternative seating arrangement has been proposed but refused by ticket holders.” In other words, the venue appears to be saying, it can only do so much to temper the unpredictability of human behavior.

It wasn’t the first time the Eras Tour generated negative headlines. Last November, Nilton Santos Stadium in Rio de Janeiro became the site of an Eras Tour tragedy when a young fan, 23-year-old Ana Clara Benevides, died at a nearby hospital after feeling unwell at the concert. A forensics report obtained by the Associated Press later found that Benevides passed away from heat exposure that led to cardio-respiratory arrest.

According to The Sun, Nilos Santos had banned fans from bringing their own water bottles into the stadium. That weekend, the heat index in Rio reached 139 degrees Fahrenheit, a record for the city. Footage from the Eras shows captured Swift tossing water bottles into the crowd and pausing her songs to ask for help from venue staffers. “There’s people who need water right here,” Swift said into her mic at one point during the Friday show in Rio. “They’re holding up phones that say we need water, so whoever is in charge of giving them that, can we make sure that that happens? Can I get a signal that you know where they are?”

Swift’s camp surely came away from the tragic weekend in Rio determined to never let such acute fan distress take place at an Eras night ever again. But with upcoming shows this month in Stockholm, Lisbon, and Madrid, her team will have to prepare for the uncertainty that comes with putting on a show in international venues, which come with their own unique protocols, safety standards, cultural quirks, and weather-related curveballs.

Swift herself, too, will likely be on the lookout for more aggressive behavior from security guards. Last year, in Philadelphia, she paused the song “Bad Blood” to shout “She wasn’t doing anything!” at a particularly overzealous security guard who was seen pushing fans in the audience.

But it may not all be doom and gloom; there’s also a high likelihood that chaos of the cute kind will unfold at Eras Tour this summer. Travis Kelce already got caught filming his girlfriend’s semi-racy costume change with his phone flashlight on this past weekend while attending her show in Paris. Here’s hoping the couple give us more dramatic displays of public affection—like the one from last November in Argentina that sent fans into a tizzy—to make this summer one that Swifties will remember for all the right reasons.

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Helen HolmesCulture Reporter

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