You’ve heard of 2023’s record-breaking Era’s Tour, singer Taylor Swift’s tour to celebrate each of her ‘eras’ of music. News of the tour was plastered over every website, bracelet-making supplies were out of stock everywhere, her songs had a 61% increase in streams – there was really no way to miss it. This article will take a look back on all the most memorable moments, from earthquakes to post-concert amnesia and more.
So far, this tour has broken countless records, some old and some new. 69,000 concert-goers on opening night took the record for most attended concert for a female artist in the US, exceeding Madonna’s 63,000 in 1987. Ticketmaster, the website used to purchase tour tickets, confirmed that Swift broke two of their records – on the first day of Era’s Tour ticket sales, 2 million were sold, which is more than any artist ever has in a single day on Ticketmaster. Overall, more than 3.5 million people registered for tickets, again breaking a Ticketmaster record.
Swift is predicted to make at least $1.4 billion in ticket sales alone by the end of her world tour, far above the current record, held by Elton John with 939 million. Her economic impact in each city she visited on her tour was so large that numerous financial analysts coined the phrase “TSwift Lift” to describe it. Between hotels, flights, food, and outfit expenses, the tour boosted the US economy by about $4.6 billion.
On night two of the shows at Lumen Field, Seattle, seismologist Jackie Caplan-Auerbach recorded unusual seismic activity. She quickly linked it to Swift’s tour and found that it was intense enough to qualify as a small earthquake of 2.3 magnitude.
Although not every stadium caused an earthquake, fans across the world received noise complaints from nearby neighbors for their cheering, singing, and screaming that reached over 120 decibels. For reference, the CDC says that any noise above 120 decibels is dangerous and can cause immediate, lasting harm to human ears.
Outside of the numbers and records, thousands of concert-goers reported ‘post-concert amnesia’ – the concert feeling like a blur, or forgetting many aspects of it. Numerous psychiatrists and neurologists quickly jumped on the opportunity to look into this, and the results were surprising. For one thing, the huge crowds, loud sounds, and effects like fireworks and strobe lights impact the human brain’s ability to store memories. Board-certified neurologist Dr. Leah Croll told ABC News, “Your brain can only process so much information at one time. It’s kind of like a computer in that sense. So, you’re being hit with all of these stimuli, and something has to give, and a lot of the time that something is memory storage.”
As the North American leg of the tour ended, just when it seemed the craze was over, Swift announced The Era’s Tour movie, and fans were just as ecstatic as they had been for the original tour announcement. The film has already grossed over $200 million worldwide and is the highest-grossing domestic and global concert film of all time – and it is still showing in theaters. AMC, where most of the film’s showings are, is estimated to make at least $1 million through Swift’s production. It was filmed over the three nights of performances at SoFi Stadium, located in Inglewood, California.
Whether you call the Eras Tour emotional and life-changing or overhyped and unexciting, it’s certainly a tour we won’t forget anytime soon. Our society has experienced plenty of popular concerts with large crowds before, but this tour became more than just that for fans and anti-swifties alike.
