Is “The Eras Tour” hype valid?

Some of the hottest commodities right now have been tickets to Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” and for good reason.

I was lucky enough to have a friend who was smiled down upon by the powers at Ticketmaster to get a presale code, so I was able to attend the concert in Indy on Nov. 1 (night one of the Indy stretch of shows). This was my second time seeing “The Eras Tour,” but that did not make it any less special.

First of all, the entirety of Indianapolis was literally turned into “Swift City” thanks to an official proclamation from Mayor Joe Hogsett. The energy in the city and in Lucas Oil Stadium was amazing. Say what you want about Swifties, but they sure know how to dress for an occasion — not to mention they have some incredible friendship bracelet-making skills.

Someone does not get as popular as Taylor Swift by mistake. If you don’t understand the hype around her, go to her concert and then get back to me. “The Eras Tour” is not just a concert, it is a full-fledged production. I am lucky enough for this to be my second time seeing the concert and it did not get any less impressive this past performance. You can tell immediately how dedicated Swift is to her craft.

With Gracie Abrams as the opener, the show was off to an amazing start. She puts on a whole concert by herself,and definitely gets the energy going for Taylor’s set (even though she definitely does not need the help).

I cannot recall a time I heard anything louder than the crowd when Taylor made her entrance to the stage. When you have over 69,000 people in an enclosed stadium collectively losing their minds at seeing their favorite musician in person, you might want ear plugs.Or not. I think part of the concert experience is temporarily losing your hearing ability.

According to Swift herself, we broke the all-time record for attendance at Lucas Oil Stadium, surpassing 69,000 people. That is a lot of Swifties. Due to the fact that a majority of the concert-goers were female, most of the mens’ bathrooms were converted to womens’ bathrooms for the weekend (to the surprise of several very confused boyfriends) – a valiant effort at shortening the wait times for the bathroom. When you take into consideration how elaborate some people’s outfits were, it makes sense why lines took a little longer.

Swift’s performance truly has to be seen to fully understand how impressive it is. Even with an equipment malfunction that left her unable to hear herself or the music properly, she was still able to go on and barely miss a beat. Her level of professionalism and talent is insane.

For the surprise songs, which is officially known as the acoustic set of the concert, Swift performed a mashup of “The Albatross,” which is one of my personal favorites off of The Tortured Poets Department, and “Holy Ground” from Red, and a mashup of “Cold as You,” the original track five, and “Exile” from Folklore, which is another one of my personal favorites.

While many people did await the announcement of Reputation (Taylor’s Version), this fan theory did not come to fruition. Nor did the theory that she would be releasing the re-recording of her self-titled debut album, “Taylor Swift.”

This will go down as one of the best nights of my life, as I am sure it will for most of the other concert goers in attendance. Swift has a magnetic aura around her I cannot fully describe, but I would, without a doubt, recommend doing your best to see her live once in your life if you have the chance.