Some love stories are romantic, but this one is about two friends and their love of music.
I’ve just returned from 3 days in Sydney working the Australian Rowing Olympic trials.
I last saw Phil, the team physio, on Friday, and when I saw him Sunday morning, he said, I know it’s not been long since I last saw you, but has anything exciting happened? I said actually, I went to Taylor Swift last night. (Shock face followed by, you didn’t mention that on Friday).
My friend Emma managed to get tickets the old-school way. She waited in line at Songland Records in the hope of securing tickets. I tried my luck online at home. Tickets went on sale at 4 pm. At 4.25, Emma texted me, “Okay, I got 2 x restricted view tickets. Would you like to come?” Of course, I said yes!
As luck would have it, I was heading up to Sydney on Saturday anyway in preparation for 3 days of work from Sunday, so we didn’t need to worry about booking last-minute accommodation. It was already sorted in Penrith.
With no time to find sequined outfits (although I did try in the little time I had) and make friendship bracelets, I picked an outfit from my closet and headed up to Sydney to meet Emma, whom I hadn’t seen in a while so I was looking forward to seeing Emma just as much as Taylor Swift.
When we got to our seats, we couldn’t believe our luck in the seats we managed to get. The front row of the stadium seating is the only 2 seats in the row, with a view from the side, which is better than being in the nosebleeds, we thought!
A fan nearby noticed that we didn’t have any friendship bracelets; we told her that we didn’t have time to get supplies and make them, and she kindly offered for us to choose one of hers as she had plenty, having already been to a show in Melbourne then landing last minute tickets to Sydney.
I chose one with the lyrics Shake it off. I'd been talking to a friend that morning about the grade I received for my final assessment for my counselling unit, which I passed, but I was disappointed in the mark, and my friend said, you passed, and it’s great. Shake it off and enjoy the concert, which is exactly what I did.
I loved looking at everyone in their planned sparkly outfits and swapping bracelets with other fans, and that was all before Taylor came on stage.
Taylor Swift performed for 3.5 hours, and it was incredible! The concept of the Eras tour worked well in that I was familiar with some of her songs, but there were a couple of her eras, like Folklore, that I missed.
Taylor did a great job connecting with her audience and showed genuine gratitude for everyone who “chose to spend their Saturday night with her”. It was great to see her enjoying herself as much as we were enjoying watching her, with noticeable moments of her taking it all in, soaking up the atmosphere.
We had the flashing wristbands when I saw her show in 2018 (even more last minute than this one, where Emma asked me the day before as her husband decided he didn’t want to go anymore). Taylor explained that she has them so that she can see every fan in the stadium. The bracelets also add to the spectacle of the show.
Emma and I got the whole experience from our restricted view seats; we had no one in front of us, had a railing to lean on and strap our handbags to, and watched the backstage team roll props and costumes in and out and had a couple of sightings of Papa Swift, where he was handing out something (too small for us to see) to the fans screaming for him.
I will remember this experience forever; it was my 2018 experience that made me wish I was going after seeing all the exciting Swifty posts on social media.
What was your first concert? (mine was Blink 182 in 2004 at the AIS Canberra, who were playing in Olympic Park the same night as Taylor)
What is the best concert you’ve ever been to?
First concert was Queen in 1984 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre (showing my age…Freddie Mercury died in 1991 and the entertainment centre was only 2 years old).
Best ever concert was Taylor Swift in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago. An amazingly flawless performance!!
Incubus, 2001, National Comvention Centre.
Fun fact, Taylor Swift ran in Z2 while singing her set to get fit enough for the tour.