by Chloe DeFrancesco
No other performance I’ll ever see will compare to what I was able to experience the night of May 26th, 2023. I went to the opening night of the Eras Tour at MetLife Stadium and was gifted with surprises and treats from Taylor herself. When I tell you this was a religious experience, I’m not lying. My parents were kind enough to pay for tickets which were way more money than they should have been.
For three weeks before the concert, I was hard at work making Taylor Swift-inspired friendship bracelets to trade with other Swifties at the concert. It was a success, but I arrived at the show too late in the day and had to give a lot of them away without getting any back. I even gave my bracelets to the lady that gave me the food during the concert – it was her birthday too! I went with 80 bracelets (I’m not even lying) and came back with 30 before Taylor went onstage. It’s been almost two weeks and I am literally STILL wearing 5 on each arm.
When Taylor came onstage after the countdown and intro, I burst into tears, as did 72,000 other people there. My phone was on twenty percent the entire time. Some of the time it was charging, then I immediately unplugged the chord to film Taylor singing one distinct note I was waiting for, then I charged the phone again. The concert was an emotional rollercoaster ride, and I was so “..Ready for it”. I think that was the loudest I’ve ever screamed in my life – for three and a half hours I was constantly jumping, I swear the people in-front of me were so mad. Don’t ask my cousins next to me what happened during “I Knew You Were Trouble” – it was traumatic. I cried at least four times during “Folklore” and the intro combined – THE INTRO.
For opening night, Taylor surprised us with a huge fan-favorite song, “Getaway Car”, and she brought out one of her best friends to play it with her, Jack Antonoff. She also sang “Maroon” which was highly requested. Taylor also made the stadium into a world wide premiere of her new music video, “Karma” ft. Ice Spice, and at the end she brought out Ice Spice to sing the last song, “Karma”, with her. She also sold an exclusive new special edition “Midnights” CD only at the NJ concerts and wore 3 new outfits for a few of her “eras”. It was a lot.
Lastly, let’s talk about the merch. Everyone knows about a specific merch item that was originally $75 and is now going for $450 on the internet. It’s a lot like the Taylor Swift cardigan – after it sold out, it’s now being sold for ridiculous prices. If you are unaware, it’s the blue crewneck, the tour exclusive one! My cousin that came with me offered to go stand in line for the merch during the concert – we thought that the lines would be better and they partially were. She stood in line for two hours and got me the blue crewneck, a white shirt, and a beige shirt for my other cousin. They ended up selling out of almost everything and my cousin went to the other side of the stadium for the additional boxes of merch being brought out. She’s amazing. All the sizes were SO BIG, oversized like crazy. I got smalls in both and I can’t even imagine how big the medium would be. Most of the merch is on her website, and I was able to get the beige hoodie online since I couldn’t get it at the concert. The merch trucks outside opened at 12:30pm and the stadium with the merch store opened at 4:30 when doors opened. I am forever grateful that I was able to get some merchandise to commemorate the experience I just had.
At 11:37, the concert concluded, and it was CHAOS. For normal people parked in the MetLife stadium parking lot, the wait time to leave the stadium due to traffic was 2-3 hours. Luckily, the American Dream mall was right across the street from the stadium where my mom and aunt were. They parked there and we were able to get out in 30 minutes. The tunnel leading to the parking lot was PACKED with people and everyone was pushing or smushing together. One girl even started singing “Our Song” and everyone sang along which was sweet – it’s a Taylor Swift thing. My three cousins, their two friends, and I all held hands while leaving so we wouldn’t get separated. If you can’t picture it in your head, imagine 72,000 people trying to leave at the same exact time as you when trying to get out of a huge stadium in a tiny tunnel. Luckily, we were able to find the adults. We drove back to the hotel which was 30 minutes away and we finally fell asleep at 2am.
The concert was worth it – expensive but worth it! I had the most amazing experience and there really weren’t any negative aspects to the concert. It was one of the best nights I’ll ever have.