By Delanie Sundmaker
Photo by Delanie Sundmaker
October 25th through 27th was deemed “Taylor Swift” weekend in New Orleans. As the city buzzed with glitter and music, NOLA took The Eras Tour to a whole new level.
Local shops like Fleurty Girl, The Bead Shop, and Stoney Clover Lane decorated the outside of their shops adding Taylor Swift-inspired streamers, disco balls, and more. In addition to stores glamming up, many restaurants or bakeries would add different names for their food/drinks to create a Taylor Swift reference. Phrases like “So, Long, London Scone” and “Don’t Blame Me Danish” were used by local bakery La Boulangerie.
The Skeleton House on St. Charles also used Taylor Swift references in its decorations. Each skeleton represented an era and included details only “Swifties” would notice. After the Eras weekend was over, fans put friendship bracelets on the skeletons to include them in the fun.
The Skeleton House wasn’t the only major decoration in NOLA. The Superdome hung a 140-foot inflatable friendship bracelet on the edge of the dome. The friendship bracelet was definitely designed by a Swifty with details like each letter is a different era, in chronological order. The Superdome has even traded the bracelet with Indianapolis and Toronto. These cities have also hung up the bracelet around their stadium.
The symbol of friendship bracelets has been a staple of The Eras Tour that the fans created. A short line from “You’re On Your Own, Kid,” from Midnights, released right before The Eras Tour began. “So make the friendship bracelets, take the moment, and taste it,” was all it took for Swifties to make hundreds of bracelets for their own show and trade them with others.
For the actual show, night 3 was the anniversary of Swift’s fourth album, 1989. The surprise songs (each show has 2-4 “surprise songs” that switch up every time) from night 3 were a tribute to 1989. “How You Get The Girl” and “Clean” from 1989 were played.
Night 3 wasn’t the only special night. On night 2, Swift brought out a special guest during her “surprise song/acoustic set.” Sabrina Carpenter made an appearance and sang a mashup of songs from 1989 and Carpenter’s own album with Swift. Carpenter used to open The Eras Tour last year, so this was a good full-circle moment nearing the end of the tour.
Overall, The Eras Tour has been a world sensation with 152 three-hour performances across 14 countries. On social media, Swifties who aren’t at the shows are still in the loop using live streams and update accounts. Streams on TikTok have reached 100k viewers, and this was only one stream out of the many that stream her shows in person. The last three shows take place in Vancouver, where Swifties are hoping Swift will announce a special surprise or even another re-recorded album. After The Eras Tour ends, there has been speculation that Taylor will disappear for a while, but she’s not completely off the grid since she will probably keep up her appearances at the Chiefs football games. Plus, the Grammys are coming up, and Swift has six nominations, so she will definitely be attending.
While The Eras Tour is ending, New Orleans made its mark on the tour and will not be forgotten.
