Taylor Swift fans flock to Vancouver’s BC Place stadium for the final show of the pop superstar’s blockbuster Eras Tour.
Swift’s procession of black SUVs and police officers headed toward the arena, with video on social media showing fans shouting with joy as they passed.
The tour’s 149th show is the culmination of a scintillating global cultural phenomenon that has spanned five continents, generating an estimated $2 billion in sales over more than 20 months.
Along the way, Swift became the first artist named Time’s Person of the Year.
Among the tens of thousands of fans waiting for Swift to take the stage around 8 p.m. are Jean Batac and Meme Bautista, who say being a Swiftie means belonging to a community.
Bautista says her fandom has only grown since she last saw Swift in the Philippines a decade ago, and she has mixed emotions about the end of the tour.
“A lot of people are expecting something like a surprise announcement or something special,” Bautista said Sunday. “A lot of people described it as a convention of kindness. It’s more than just a tour, it’s like a community coming together to celebrate… while having fun.
“And it’s very sad to see this end.”
While Bautista has been a die-hard Swiftie for years, Batac is a new convert.
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Batac said she can’t wait to see her friend’s reaction, because Swift is Bautista’s “dream artist.”
“I’m looking forward to his emotion,” Batac said.
The Swifties who descended on downtown Vancouver also include rapper Flavor Flav.
The Public Enemy hype man said on social media that he was traveling from Los Angeles to “Taycouver” on a “flight full of Swifties” before Sunday’s show.
British Columbia singer Michael Buble was handing out friendship bracelets on the first night, also with Swift’s parents in attendance, while Canuck Jake DeBrusk was in attendance at Saturday’s show, according to a social media post and a photo of his girlfriend.
Swift reciprocated her fans’ sentiments, telling the audience Friday night that she chose Canada and Vancouver to close out the tour because fans not only know the lyrics, but they “scream” them.
Swifties have something special planned to end the tour, with the Swift forums full of suggestions to surprise her by singing “Happy Birthday” at tonight’s show, ahead of Swift’s 35th birthday on December 13.
Fan projects like this have played an important role in the Eras tour, with structured chants and claps breaking out during various songs.
On Saturday, after the ballad “Champagne Problems,” Swift received a ritual ovation that lasted more than four minutes, accompanied by chants of “thank you.”
“I don’t even know how to thank you for everything you’ve given me to bring me to this place where I can even stay here and have this experience,” Swift told the crowd.
Brian Donovan, a sociology professor at the University of Kansas and a “Swiftologist,” says such moments of joyful social solidarity are known as “collective effervescence.”
“What’s interesting about the Eras Tour is that it also brought unique cultural things like exchanging friendship bracelets,” he said, pointing out that such The practices were fan-driven and not organized by Swift or her team.
Swift performed six shows in Toronto last month.
Canada was announced as a late addition to the tour last year. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had already begged the star on social media to visit Canada, telling him “don’t make it another ‘Cruel Summer'”, a nod to one of his hits.
Trudeau and members of his family were among the Swifties at the Toronto shows, as were former U.S. President Bill Clinton and his wife, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Swiftie Jenny Fox got tickets to Saturday’s show after seeing her daughter Avery’s reaction to the Eras Tour film.
“I texted my husband at the theater and told him if it was like this in a movie theater, I can’t even imagine what it would be like to see and experience this in real life in a huge stadium, and seeing the joy on Avery’s face,” she said.
Fox is the primary caretaker for her own mother, who has advanced Alzheimer’s disease.
“As soon as we put on certain music, mom comes back,” she says.
“Music is therefore very close and very dear to us. We play a lot of music, and a lot of Taylor Swift with her, so there’s that love and that memory and that special bond.
© 2024 The Canadian Press