In a little over a week Taylor Swift will finally be touring again for The Era’s Tour and, whilst we’re still patiently (or not so patiently!) waiting for international dates to be announced, I have found myself reminiscing a lot about her last tour back in 2018. That of course being the iconic, the legendary Reputation Stadium Tour. I realised I never created a blog post on it at the time so I thought now would be the perfect time!
This was the first concert I’d been to since around 2002 (when I saw S Club 7!), pre chronic illnesses and pre needing to attend using a wheelchair. In hindsight I wish I’d been able to go to ALL of Taylor previous tours but unfortunately I just wasn’t well enough to. So I remember being quite apprehensive not really knowing what to expect and how I was going to manage the whole thing. I will say it was quite intimidating with all the crowds and I always feel vulnerable in my wheelchair being at handbag swinging and elbowing height! People just don’t really seem to look down and notice you either so you get people walking into you a lot. Wembley Stadium were incredible though and made the whole experience so much easier than I expected. I went with my sister, Emily and cousin, Becky and I still say it was one of the greatest nights of my WHOLE LIFE!
It was a gorgeous ;) warm day in June 2018. We travelled by car as I can’t manage public transport and I need the car seat reclined in order to manage anything after a journey. There was blue badge parking close to the entrance and we were so impressed with how much help we got as soon as we arrived. We had someone take us through a separate security area without the turnstile and then somebody took us up in the lift and directed us to the disabled seating area. My wheelchair has a spot with two fixed seats next to it for Em and Becky. The area was elevated and in front of a barricade so that when people in front of me stood I could still see from my seated position. I knew it was a great spot to view the stage from as before the show started people kept coming over and getting pictures of themselves there with the stage behind them! There was always someone around to ask for assistance whenever we needed them and I really couldn't fault them on their set up for accessibility.
*All pictures are my own*
Our Seats
I got a tour book and a reputation tour glow stick on the way in as well as the wristbands we all got given which lit up to the beats of the songs and in different colours throughout the show. I remember there being a lot of pre show food options including pizza, chips and the most enormous stand of pick n mix I’d ever seen, literally barrels full of sweets, so not only was I full of adrenalin for seeing Taylor but I was also on a sugar high too.
Here are my Instagram posts from tour both featuring photos and video clips -
Now onto my stand out moments of the tour!
Stand Out Rep Tour Moments:
- The opening - When Taylor first appeared on stage I was so insanely overwhelmed I don’t know what happened to me! It was a pure fangirl moment. You just see her hooded silhouette, she raises the microphone and starts with “are you ready for it?”
- I Did Something Bad - this was such an extremely iconic moment on the rep tour that if you’ve seen it it really needs no further explanation! It’s the slowed down part at the beginning, the violin, the sass, the hips, the part where she screams “they tell me three!”, the breathy “now all he thinks about is…me”, “when a man talks shot then I owe him nothing!” and of course the extended “they’re burning all the witches” bridge “Go ahead and LIGHT ME UP!” Honestly I could not believe what I was witnessing.
- The giant snake (Karyn, I believe she was named!) slowing rising during Look What You Made Me Do was amazing and at the same time kind of shocking to be honest - I wasn’t expecting it! Just the amount of snakes in general was insane. The fact that she can take an insult, something traumatic and turn it into something amazing and so powerful I will never get over that. The tilted stage was also a fabulous piece of set.
- The now infamous 1,2,3 let’s go bitch” that everyone screams in Delicate also came as a surprise to me at the time! If you don’t know someone screamed this in the audience early on on the tour in the music interlude right before “dive bar on the east side where you at?” and from then on everyone continued doing it. As our night wasn’t too far into tour I hadn’t heard about it yet though so I’m really hoping we get Delicate on The Era’s tour so I can scream that with everyone! It’s also the point where Taylor flies across from the main stage to one of the little stages.
- Shake It Off - The support acts were Charli XCX and Camila Cabello who were both fantastic and I loved how Taylor brought them back out on stage with her during Shake It Off.
- Acoustic moment - I was so excited for the acoustic portion of the show. Just a Taylor and her guitar is a magical combo. She performed Dancing With Our Hands Tied (which is so superior acoustic!) and then a different surprise song each nice from her discography.
- Our surprise song of the night was Fifteen as it her 15th show of the tour. This was such a special moment as I first became a fan of Taylor back in 2008 when Love Story was released and the Fearless album means so much to me. I have a lot of memories attached to all those songs.
- Long Live on the piano - just as I was excited for the guitar moment I was also excited for the piano moment! Long Live is one of my all time favourite Taylor songs and hearing her sing it on the piano was beautiful.
- Our surprise guest was Robbie Williams and the two of them sung Angels together which was amazing! Between that and the surprise song I felt like I’d journeyed back to being a teenager again.
- The tour closer was This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things. Taylor and all the dancer were around this massive fountain, fireworks were going off and just the soaring nature of the song made it the perfect closer for the show.
It truly was a night I’ll never forget! *Core memory unlocked.*
To think that someone I became a fan of back in 2008, somebody who I have grown up with, has gone through so much and is even stronger, more talented and just generally an iconic human and someone I idolise even more to this day, is truly special!
If you haven’t already I definitely recommend watching The Reputation Stadium Tour on Netflix!
Predictions for The Era’s Tour:
Looking ahead to Era’s Tour here are some of my predications and wishes. I’m going to guess that she will open the tour with “Meet me at midnight…” and then go into Lavender Haze. I’m so excited to see how she’s going to divide up the Eras and what kind of staging & sets she’s going to do for each! I’m imagining Midnights songs will begin the setlist and then maybe more will be mixed between all the other Eras. I’m hoping Long Live will be the tour closer - iconic!!!
I have hopes that she will be reusing some of her old tour costumes and staging from previous eras. I think that would be incredible and so great for all the fans who missed her earlier tours.
I think she’ll make a big moment of Cruel Summer during the Lover era part of the tour. As a fandom I think we all feel Cruel Summer was going to be a single and have a music video, in the lead up to Loverfest (that of course never happened because of Covid), there were so many hints and clues and she never performed that song live so it seems like she was saving it.
I feel like she will most definitely bring out special guests like she has on her last few tours. I would absolutely LOVE it if Jack Antonoff and/or Aaron Dessner joined her on some nights of the tours (London please!!) but that’s more of a wish than an actual prediction. Imagine though!!
Whilst I know some people will be unsure whether they want to see any spoilers for the tour before they go and see it, set list, outfit photos, performance clips etc. It is almost unavoidable if you’re on social media so I’d say, unless maybe you’re going in the first week, just embrace it! When Taylor is on tour it’s such a wonderful time to be a Swifie!! I absolutely love the whole experience of seeing how she performs everything, switches things up each night and hearing what she says on stage, because we all know she loves to chat! We don’t have tour dates yet for the UK (I’m assuming it’s going to be end of August, early September this year but who even knows at this point!) so I know I for one will be lapping up every single video, photo and bit of information I can get from each night of the US leg of the tour. I’m SO excited!
Dream Era’s Tour Setlist:
(This is not necessarily in setlist order!)
DEBUT
Tim McGraw
Picture To Burn/Should’ve Said No
Our Song
FEARLESS
Love Story/You Belong With Me/Fearless
Forever & Always/Mr Perfectly Fine
SPEAK NOW
Sparks Fly/Enchanted
Haunted
Long Live
RED
All Too Well 10 Minute
I Bet You Think About Me
Better Man/Babe
1989
Wildest Dreams
Blank Space
Out of The Woods/Question…?
Wonderland/Style
REPUTATION
I Did Something Bad
Delicate
Getaway Car
LOVER
Cruel Summer!
(one day she is finally going to sing this superior song live and I can die happy)
Cornelia Street*
Death by a Thousand Cuts*
Lover
(*I feel like it’s more likely she’ll perform singles like ME! The Man and You Need To Calm Down instead of these but a girl can dream!)
FOLKLORE
Cardigan
The Last Great American Dynasty
My Tears Ricochet
August
Invisible String
EVERMORE
Willow
Champagne Problems
Ivy
Cowboy Like Me
Long Story Short
(like she’s going to perform this many from darling forgotten child evermore but again, a girl can dream!!)
MIDNIGHTS
Lavender Haze
Anti Hero
Midnight Rain
Bejewelled
Karma
Maroon
You’re On Your Own Kid
Hits Different
(I feel like she's less likely to perform the 3am tracks sadly but we'll see!)
Now, I highly doubt she will do all of these songs because, let’s face it, it would make each night about 5 hours long which as much as we all would enjoy that I don’t think it’s very practical for Taylor and everyone else on stage! But maybe she will mix up the set lists a little each night? Assuming she will be releasing Speak Now (at the very least) during tour then maybe some new vault songs might get added into the set list at some point too.
Mash Up's
Realistically, I do feel like there will be quite a few mashups just to fit a lot of the songs in and to move between eras, which I’m okay with. Obviously there are a few songs I would rather just hear in full, Cruel Summer and August spring to mind and also Wildest Dreams as that only been played as part of a mash up on tour before (1989 tour mashed with Enchanted).
I do think a mash up of Out Of The Woods/Question…? would be really cool especially as Question…? already samples Out Of The Woods!
Daylight and Red would also be a great combo for tour or even Maroon/Red/Daylight?!
The options are endless but others I thought of could be -
Lavender Haze/I Think He Knows
Bejewelled/Mirrorball/Shake It Off
Picture To Burn/Should’ve Said No
Love Story/You Belong With Me/Fearless
Forever & Always/Mr Perfectly Fine
Sparks Fly/Enchanted
Wonderland/Style/New Romantics
Maroon/King Of My Heart
Vigilante Shit/Mad Woman/I Did Something Bad
Long Story Short/Invisible String/Daylight
If you have any other good mash up ideas though pop them in the comments below.
Did you go to the Reputation Stadium Tour, if so what are your lasting memories from it? Also what are your predictions & wishes for The Eras Tour?
