MEXICO CITY – When Taylor Swift finally brought The Eras Tour to Mexico, I was lucky to be there with thousands of other Swifties to welcome her.
I’ve waited in long lines, a long time, just for the chance of entering somewhere or meeting someone. I’ve sat on sidewalks for hours and stayed under the sun in temperatures reaching 37°C. Sometimes it was without my phone or even other people to talk to.
Still, I would say the line I had to wait in to see the Eras tour was a once in lifetime experience on its own.
It’s fair to say I’m a big Taylor Swift fan. I was eight years old when I heard for the first time the song “You Belong With Me.” After that I was sold.
Although I’m a journalist, I have to say that I’m too lazy to follow every Swift drama and headline, but I always anxiously wait for her new music.
After her huge reputation Stadium Tour in 2018, she hadn’t gone on tour for years. Even in her previous concerts, she hadn’t come to Mexico before.
When she announced The Eras Tour I was incredibly excited, but I didn’t have any hope that she would come near Mexico.
Then a miracle happened. One morning she posted on Instagram that she would be playing four dates in Mexico City at the end of August.
Luckily I have other Swiftie friends, all of us registered to receive the verified fan code. We even asked our families and other friends to register. In total we got 12 people to register, but just one person got the coveted verified fan code.
My friend’s mom went into the Ticketmaster Hunger Games. She waited four hours in the online queue to get four tickets. It didn’t matter where or when, my friends and I just wanted the chance to be in the same place as Taylor Swift.
Finally, she made it. She had our four tickets for The Eras Tour for the August 24th show.
There is some work that has to be done before you go to The Eras Tour.
We had to prepare our outfits, make friendship bracelets, memorize the concert’s setlist and prepare all the logistics to get to the venue, all in less than two months.
August slipped away into a moment in time, but the day finally came and we were somewhat ready-ish.
We had tickets for the General B section on the floor so we wanted to get to the venue as early as possible. We got to the line at 10 a.m., but 200 people were already there.
An Eras Tour tradition is to exchange friendship bracelets with the other concert goers, so we wasted no time and began asking people if they wanted to exchange bracelets with us.
I utterly suck at handcrafts. I spent hours and days trying my best tying some beads on a string and my efforts resulted in just 13 bracelets.
At the show, there were people who made more than 50 bracelets, but they were as happy as me to choose and either exchange or give away our bracelets.
I had never seen a more colorful group of people than in the venue line for The Eras Tour. Everyone made the whole place shimmer with their outfits. I found so many people who liked the same music, shows and books as me.
I found a community on the floor of the Foro Sol stadium.
Nine and a half hours, 27 new bracelets and three Cokes later, Sabrina Carpenter took the stage.
I went to see Taylor, but Sabrina Carpenter gave one of the best performances I’ve ever witnessed. I also got to see her iconic outro of her song “Nonsense.”
Photos and videos could never make justice of the spectacle I got to be part of. There was fire, fireworks and the lights were creating figures in the clouds.
This was more than a pop concert. This was a cultural event that will go on to be part of history.
Mexican crowds are uniquely different from the rest of the world. We have our own chants, we scream for literally anything and it is safe to say we are way louder than the singer’s speakers.
It was also the first time that Swift stepped into Mexico. I hope she got a good enough impression so she will come back again.
When my friends ask me, “Why do you love her so much? What is so special about her music? She’s a normal woman.”
That’s it. She made a normal woman’s life worthy of a song. She showed the world how spectacular our own lives are to us women.
In an indirect way, her music accompanied the best and worst times of my life. It was a dream for me to hear it live.
Regina López is a Senior Correspondent with Youth Journalism International.
More 2023 summer concert reviews from YJI:
Soaking up The National’s indie sounds
Springsteen’s bittersweet songs of freedom are a call to arms
