The first night of the 3-show Eras Tour brings Swifties to Chicago

Thousands of visitors descended on the city for the weekend with a shared cause for celebration: Taylor Swift’s three-night stop in Chicago as part of her much-anticipated Eras Tour.

Hours before Swift was set to take the stage at Soldier Field on Friday, fans — or “Swifties” — milled about the Museum Campus in sparkly skirts and cowboy boots, carrying bags of merchandise. Many waited in hourslong lines under the bright sun to score the coveted tour merchandise, including T-shirts, posters and crew necks. One fan maneuvered a weightier haul in the front basket of an electric Divvy bike.

Carson Wilkins and Sam Stous, friends from Des Moines, Iowa, rested on the grass outside Soldier Field early in the afternoon. They said they hoped Swift would perform her song “the lakes” during her acoustic set Friday night. Fans have speculated online that Swift, who plays two surprise acoustic songs at each concert, might choose to perform the song at one of her shows by Lake Michigan.

“That is one of the fun and unfun things about being a Taylor Swift fan is there’s so much speculation,” said Wilkins, 19.

And the level of conjecture surrounding Swift and her music is certainly not insignificant. Besides trying to guess what surprise songs Swift will sing at each show, this speculation includes scouring her songs, music videos and social media posts for subtle clues — or “Easter eggs” — that hint at big announcements such as album re-recordings, additional tour dates and more.

While the speculation may require a lot of mental effort, it might not come close to the blood, sweat and tears fans have shed to secure tickets to the U.S. leg of the Eras Tour. Most Swifties can offer grueling stories of how they battled long online Ticketmaster queues that left many empty-handed — a fiasco that eventually led U.S. senators to question the company’s dominance in the ticketing industry.

Outside the stadium Friday, fans shared stories of their triumphs over Ticketmaster, taking on the tone of stories from a great war: They’d spent six hours, eight hours, all day in queues to finally emerge victorious.

“My work laptop, my personal laptop, seven hours of wrangling,” said Anuka Dimcherla, who came in from the suburbs to see the show with a friend, Sweta Patel, and their 15-year-old children. “I had to make sure my lunch was beside me, my breakfast was beside me.”

Though crowds are expected to be over 55,000 for every show at Soldier Field, as in other cities, the supply of tickets did not meet the overwhelming demand from fans. But, across the country, fans who were unable to secure tickets have shown that they remain undeterred.

In Philadelphia, thousands gathered outside Lincoln Financial Field the nights of May 12-14 to hear Swift perform and join in the music and special camaraderie her shows have inspired. But whereas the acoustics at that stadium were reportedly excellent, Soldier Field has repeatedly discouraged fans from doing the same this weekend.

“Fans without tickets to the concert are strongly discouraged from gathering outside the stadium this weekend,” a tweet from Soldier Field’s account reads. “The stadium and surrounding areas will be at maximum capacity.”

“While the acoustics are really good inside the stadium, they’re not very good outside the stadium,” said Luca Serra, Soldier Field’s director of sponsorship and media. “So people expecting to come here and be able to hear the show might be disappointed. The acoustics are just such inside the stadium that they don’t bleed outside the building.”

[ What to know ahead of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour shows in Chicago ]

In the weeks ahead of Swift’s Chicago stop, hopeful fans also gathered over 1,300 signatures in a petition to livestream the shows in Grant Park, which might have been a better alternative had it been more realistic. As it was, it would have likely required city permits and participation from Swift’s team.

But some fans are still planning on heading to Soldier Field regardless of the acoustics — more than for the music itself, they want to experience what the Eras Tour has meant for so many: loving community and bold self-expression.

“Artists like this and events like this don’t happen often. This is historic,” said Natalie Maggiore, 31, of Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. She called Swift a “generational talent.”

Swifties exchanged friendship bracelets, inspired by a lyric from a song on her “Midnights” album, dressed in creative outfits that gave nods to Swift’s musical eras, and — in typical Midwest fashion — even organized a potluck ahead of Saturday’s show, an informal gathering open to ticketed and ticketless Swifties alike.

For weeks, Ricci McDonald, 40, a Chicagoan, has been organizing the potluck for fans to meet outside the stadium and share a meal. Despite stadium officials asking ticketless fans to stay away, she said people will likely go anyway. She just hopes everyone stays hydrated and fed, as well as respectful if they’re asked to leave.

“When there’s an open-air stadium, this is kind of becoming a thing where people bond and stand outside. And part of that is just viewing everyone’s outfits and boosting them up for people that are going, and trading friendship bracelets — it’s become such a part of this tour,” she said. “It’s just a beautiful thing and it’s kind of an experience that you don’t get to have very often, with this sense of community. I think it’s almost become even bigger than Taylor Swift.”

Outfits for Friday’s show ranged from the vaguely sparkly to imitations of specific outfits Swift has worn on tour. Also present outside Soldier Field on Friday were numerous iterations of the “Junior Jewels” T-shirt that Swift wore in her 2009 music video for “You Belong With Me,” as well as a recognizable replica of the disco ball-inspired outfit the singer wore to the 2018 American Music Awards.

Fans took creative liberties with T-shirts, sporting tees that read “Auntie Hero” — a play on words based on the 2022 single “Anti-Hero” — and “Where’s the scarf Jake?” — a dig at Swift’s former boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal, the rumored subject of “All Too Well.” The song has a line about Swift leaving her scarf at the house of an ex-boyfriend’s sister.

Hours before the show Friday, fans found refuge in the shade outside Soldier Field, fueling up with chips and hot dogs, making TikToks and trading friendship bracelets.

A fan named Jill estimated she’d made almost 50 bracelets, which she was finishing in the shade as she waited for the doors to open. One of her bracelets spelled out “marjorie” — the name of Swift’s grandmother and the subject of a song from her 2020 album “evermore” — next to the name of her own late grandmother, Carol.

“During that song, I just think about her a lot,” she said.

Brett and Kelly Kramer of Elburn said they were looking forward to hearing Swift perform “Lover,” the song that played during their first dance at their wedding.

“And we’re pregnant, so it’s extra fun,” said Kelly Kramer. The baby, who is already listening to Taylor Swift, is due “any day,” she said. But “hopefully not tonight.”

Brett Kramer said he was also hoping Swift will perform “Long Live” as a surprise song Friday night.

“He wants ‘Long Live.’ I want ‘Long Live’ because he wants ‘Long Live.’ Otherwise I won’t hear the end of it,” Kelly Kramer said.

As doors opened at 4:30 p.m., fans began filing into the stadium in their high heels and sneakers.

The show is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. with openers Owenn and Girl in Red, who will also open Saturday night. (Gracie Abrams and Muna open Sunday.) Swift is scheduled to take the stage around 8 p.m. Her set is expected to last about three hours.

And as the first Chicago night of the Eras Tour draws to a close, the Willis Tower antenna lights — green and teal in honor of Swift’s debut album — will point in an arrowhead, leading fans home.

Saturday lights will be purple and gold — likely references to albums “Speak Now” and “Fearless” — and Sunday lights will be red and pink — a nod to albums “Red” and “Lover.”

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