Taylor Swift’s Era’s Tour has swept the nation with twelve stops so far across the US. Pittsburgh was a very special stop on the tour though, specifically the thirteenth stop, which is a very important number to Taylor and all of her Swifties. Taylor took the stage on June 16 and 17, breaking the record for the largest gathering of people for any event in the city of Pittsburgh… EVER. 

Taylor took us on a journey through the last seventeen years of her music career, reliving each “era” through a specific collection of songs. The set list included songs from Lover, Fearless, Evermore, Reputation, Speak Now, Red, Folklore, 1989, and Midnights. Each stop on the tour has also gotten two unique surprise songs that are special to each city and night. I was lucky enough to attend night two, where Taylor sang Seven and The Story of Us as the surprise songs. She explained that Seven mentioned Pennsylvania, Taylor’s home state, so she wanted to sing it at a Pennsylvania show. Additionally, The Story of Us is from her album Speak Now, which will be rereleased as Taylor’s Version in the very near future. 

Attending the show was an experience in itself. People started lining up for merch starting at 5 am last Thursday, and the lines did not decrease in size at all. I opted to get my merch on Friday during the show since my ticket was for Saturday, in hopes that the line would be a little smaller, but I still ended up waiting over an hour. Since the tour was sold out, about 20,000 people were gathered outside the stadium both nights, despite city officials urging people to do otherwise. There was also several thousand people listening from Point State Park, and on the river in boats outside the stadium. 

Taylor has featured several openers on her tour as well, but for Pittsburgh night 2, I got to see Girl in Red and Owenn, one of Taylor’s previous background dancers who is now a recording artist. After the openers, the show started at 8:05, with a countdown clock leading up to the show. Taylor started the show with her Lover era before going into the rest of her 17 year career, using it as an opportunity to announce that “Cruel Summer” will be rereleased as a single due to all of the new streams it has been getting in the midst of the tour. 

The show was filled with color, extraordinary dancing and performances, emotion, and even friendship as I got to trade bracelets amongst the other 70 thousand people there. Seeing Taylor Swift on the Eras Tour was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity and was by far the best show I’ve seen to date. Taylor Swift is a Mastermind when it comes to her Bejeweled outfits and Enchanted voice, and definitely made sure her crowd was not having a Cruel Summer. It is safe to say the crowd was definitely not Ready For it as the entire night felt like one of the Wildest Dreams. 

All photos from @TaylorSwift on Instagram.

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