The Eras Tour, which began in March 2023, is already the first to sell more than $1 billion in tickets and is expected to more than double.
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour finally brings the biggest pop culture icon of the century to Europe from Thursday, starting with a four-night run in Paris. Swift has broken almost every record in music, and her sixth tour is no exception. The Eras Tour, which began in March 2023, is already the first to sell more than $1 billion in tickets, and is expected to more than double that by the time it concludes in Vancouver this December.
Some 42,000 people will see Swift in Paris before she heads on for dates in Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Poland and Austria.
Many are travelling a long way — around one in five of the Paris audience is coming from the United States, according to the La Defense Arena where she is performing.
The 34-year-old’s tour remains a money-making machine beyond the wildest dreams of promoters and venues. Research group QuestionPro estimated that last year’s US dates generated $5 billion for the country’s economy. The US Travel Association said the figure may have exceeded $10 billion when hotel rooms, restaurants and other indirect sales were included. The La Defense Arena says it has doubled the previous record of merchandise-sellers across its dates.
There is something in her music that captures the adolescent desire for a poetic existence, charged with passion, danger and love,” said Satu Hämeenaho-Fox, author of “Into the Taylor-Verse”.
Soukeyna, a 16-year-old fan travelling up from southwest France for opening night, said Swift gives her “the feeling of being part of a community”.
“She’s a complete artist who writes her own words, and you really have to listen to the lyrics and understand them, which is something unique,” she added.