Swifties had this big, wide city all to themselves Friday as singer/songwriter Taylor Swift took over Pittsburgh for the first night of her highly anticipated tour, drawing 72,000 fans to Acrisure Stadium eager to hear her famous lyrical bridges in a city of bridges.
Approaching 11 p.m., popular Swift tunes continued to be heard throughout the North Shore as she performed hit after hit at the packed stadium. Her sound system was so efficient that people blocks away could hear the concert clearly.
And she’ll do it all over again Saturday night.
The concert followed a day in which her hits also could be heard playing from speakers at businesses across the city, many of which offered specials with themes related to the pop star.
Hotels throughout Allegheny County were sold out, with room rates reaching all-time highs ahead of the two-night Eras Tour at Acrisure Stadium. And people walked the streets draped in glitter, feathers, pastels and other outfits representing different eras throughout Ms. Swift’s career.
Mayor Ed Gainey, in a special proclamation Friday, even renamed the City of Pittsburgh “Swiftsburgh” in honor of the visiting star who has proven an economic force with this tour crisscrossing the U.S. and filling up stadiums.
As the buzz reached a fever pitch, Post-Gazette reporters took the pulse of the city and fans before the show started. Here’s what we found.
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6:59 p.m.
On the outside hearing in
On the concrete steps outside of Acrisure Stadium, fans gathered to listen to the music — and still held out hope they might get some tickets.
Cari Reidmiller, 35, of Greensburg and Ashley Colledge, 35, of Harrisburg were patiently waiting.
They said they were unable to get tickets during the presale, but they are checking StubHub as they listen to opener, Gracie Abrams, for possible last-minute ticket drops.
Even if they do not end up getting tickets, they plan on sticking around and enjoying their night.
“We plan on staying in the North Shore just to see the concert, get in the merch line, maybe go to one of the bars to see if they have any specials or anything like that,” Reidmiller said.
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6:37 p.m.
Listening from outside? Maybe not all it’s cracked up to be, one boater says
Ryan Cruk of the South Side, 36, and Elizabeth Egan of Mt. Lebanon, 30, were waiting patiently outside of Cruk’s docked boat along the riverwalk, still hoping to get tickets.
Egan already has tickets to Saturday’s show, but she has been trying to get tickets to Friday’s show all day.
Egan said that at 6 p.m, Ticketmaster had still been doing ticket drops to tonight’s show, which began with the openers at 6:30 p.m.
Egan got up to 296 in this afternoon’s ticket queue but was kicked out, leaving her still ticketless. Ticketmaster has started dropping tickets to seats with obstructed views, which Egan believes to be going for between $50 and $100.
Both she and Cruk are still holding out hope that they will get into tonight’s show, especially because from the riverwalk, shows at Acrisure Stadium can barely be heard, she said.
While you can hear concerts at Stage AE and PNC Park perfectly both along the riverwalk and on the river, there is too much noise from the crowd to even be able to hear what songs are being sung at Acrisure Stadium, Cruk said.
The potential thousands of ticketless Swifties hoping to hear the show along the river walk tonight, “will be disappointed,” Cruk thinks.
Sophia Boma, 12, of Monroeville and Layla Cooley, 12, of Mt. Holly, N.J. were also holding out hope to get in tonight.
Although Sophia is going to the concert tomorrow, her mom, Erika Boma, 40, of Monroeville has been trying to get tickets through Ticketmaster’s ticket drops since yesterday afternoon.
“We got in the queue yesterday and got kicked out. And then we were in the queue earlier this afternoon and went from like the 500s, and she [pointing to her friend] was in the 500s, and then we got down to eight and one, and we got kicked out,” Ms. Boma said.
Tomorrow will be Sophia’s third time seeing Swift on tour, and Layla is still hoping Friday will be her first.
“I’m praying to get in because this would be my first concert,” Layla said.
— Allie Miller
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5:54 p.m.
The Swifties go marching in
As 6 p.m. approached, with the first act coming on at 6:30 p.m., scores of people began heading down General Robinson Street and North Shore Drive from the parking lots, garages and restaurants toward Acrisure Stadium.
Pedestrian traffic flow appeared relatively smooth, although scores of cars remained lined up on both streets around the North Shore as they waited to get into lots.
Seivers’ Concessions, along with other stands, were stationed outside Acrisure Stadium for Swifites to grab a bite for those people heading into the show.
“It has been very busy,” said Elizabeth Alexander, a worker at one of the stands.
While she believes they have enough people and supply for the event, she said they had already run out of water.
“People need a reason to party, and they got one this weekend,” Alexander said.
— Emma Kim
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5:27 p.m.
Getting tickets to tonight’s show was a ‘nightmare’
“Obsession” is what brought Desiree Schaffner, 33, of Allison Park, and Kaitlyn Volker, 33, to Swift’s Pittsburgh show tonight.
But the process to get tickets was “a nightmare,” they said.
Volker, who is also going to Saturday’s show, said her friend got lower-bowl tickets for her through a second-chance email opportunity, and her sister was able to get floor seat tickets to tonight’s show through Ticketmaster’s Tuesday night ticket drop last week.
But tonight’s show is special because today is Volker’s birthday.
“I’m blessed to be here because I know how many people didn’t get to come, and how many people didn’t get tickets, and we’re very, very lucky,” Volker said.
Schaffner is also ecstatic to be a Swiftie tonight.
“I’m not gonna lie, whenever she dropped the ‘Midnights’ album, I joked and i said, ‘I don’t care what concert I go to this year, I just wanna go to Taylor Swift,’” Schaffner said.
— Allie Miller
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5:03 p.m.
The T is crowded — and more sparkly than normal
If you’re taking the light rail to the North Shore, you may notice it looks a little different today — a lot more colorful, definitely more sparkly, and far more crowded.
Rachael Maidan, 27 , of Trafford, Westmoreland County, and her sister, Sarah Maidan, 31, of Orange County, Calif., were among the sea of Swifties taking the T dressed in colorful, bejeweled ensembles.
The sisters are from Pittsburgh originally and are using “The Eras Tour” as a reunion.
Although the show starts at 6:30 p.m., they were heading to the North Shore around 2 p.m. to grab Taylor Swift-themed “Terrible Towels” from radio host Mikey and Big Bob.
“We want to get one of those (Terrible Towels) to commemorate the mash up between Pittsburgh and Taylor Swift,” said Rachael. “Two fandoms.”
— Kristen Mohammadi
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4:26 p.m.
One if by land … 400 if by river on the Gateway Clipper
Taylor Swift fans taking the Gateway Clipper shuttles from Station Square to Acrisure Stadium may encounter a Swiftie-inspired surprise.
The Princess, one of the four shuttle boats operating today, will be the “bejeweled shuttle” for the night.
With a capacity of 400 people, the decorated shuttle will be playing Taylor Swift tunes for the duration of the ride and selling “Swift-Made” cocktails.
“It doesn’t cost any extra to be on that,” said Christian Wriginis, vice president of the Gateway Clipper Fleet. “It’s kind of just like the luck of the draw.”
Because the Gateway Clipper fleet does not presell tickets for the shuttle, Mr. Wriginis said he cannot predict how many people will be using their service, but he expects it to be a busy night.
He said Steelers playoff games caused the biggest surge of people taking the Gateway Clipper in the past, so he thinks they are prepared for the crowds.
Gateway Clipper Fleet shuttles will be outside Acrisure Stadium during the concert, selling drinks and offering access to restrooms.
— Kristen Axtman
4:04 p.m.
A bracelet for every era
Swifties Sarah More, 19, and Emma More, 17, are from West Alexander, Washington County. On a Gateway Clipper fleet shuttle to Acrisure Stadium, they were sorting about 30 friendship bracelets by Swift era.
“We’re gonna trade them with people in the crowd around us,” Emma Moore said. “There’s a [Taylor Swift] lyric ‘make the friendship bracelets,’ and it took off from there.”
Emma Moore said some of her friends attending the concert have made over 100 bracelets to trade.
They have researched theories on social media about tonight’s two surprise songs.
Sarah Moore said she suspects one of the songs will be the “folklore” song “Seven.” The song mentions Pennsylvania, and Swift did not sing this song when she was in Philadelphia.
“It’s been 13 years since ‘The Story of Us’ was written, and her favorite number is 13,” Emma Moore said.
Pittsburgh is Swift’s 13th city on the “Eras Tour,” which could mean there are even more surprises tonight.
Sarah Moore said she hopes there will be a guest performance or a special announcement, like a music video or the release date of “1989.”
They believe Swift will sing ‘Never Grow Up’ in honor of Father’s Day during the Saturday show.
— Kristen Axtman
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3:17 p.m.
Swift concert veterans journey down from Michigan
Sloan Gaines, 25, and Lizzy Sanders, 28, made a four-and-a-half-hour drive from Ann Arbor, Mich., to see Swift’s Pittsburgh show tonight after Gaines’ boyfriend’s mom scored tickets for them during the Nov. 15 verified presale.
They both know their anticipated excitement is worth it — they’ve seen Swift more than once.
This will be Ms. Gaines fourth time seeing Swift on tour, with her most recent show being the Eras Tour in Detroit last week. She said it was “absolutely phenomenal.”
“There’s nobody else like her for sure,” she said.
Sanders has seen even more of Swift.
She has been to five Swift concerts — one from each tour — and Eras will be her sixth.
She already knows what her favorite of the six shows is.
“It’s gonna be Eras. It’s gotta be Eras,” she said.
Gaines is also handing out Swift-themed stickers to fellow Swifties she passes on the street.
— Allie Miller
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2:48 p.m.
She came to Pittsburgh without a ticket. For a premium, she’ll get in tonight.
A Pittsburgh native but now Davidson, N.C., resident Emily Nageotte, 27, made the trek from North Carolina to Pittsburgh Thursday without a ticket to the show. But last night, she got lucky.
“We just bought them resale because we were like, ‘We’re already here. Might as well do it,’” Ms. Nageotte said.
But the prices, she said, were ridiculous.
“It was about $1,200 each, which is crazy because they are originally like $49 each for the place we got them for, but you only live once,” she said.
She is sitting in the bowl with an obstructed view but is anticipating having a good view of the show.
Nageotte said she’s been a fan since her dad brought home a Taylor Swift CD when she was 10 years old — about 17 years ago.
“It means everything to be here,” she said.
— Allie Miller
2:32 p.m.
A Christmas gift like no other
While getting tickets to Taylor Swift’s sold-out Eras Tour wasn’t easy, Beth Kagarise, 39, of Charlottesville, Va. wanted to make it happen for her three young daughters.
And she did.
On Christmas morning, Leah, 10, Audrey, 7, and Taylor, 12, woke up to a big surprise: tickets to Swift’s Pittsburgh show.
Many family members signed up to try to get verified presale Ticketmaster codes, and once one of them was successful, they passed it off to Kagarise, Leah said.
After sitting through the online presale for six hours, she finally got tickets.
The Kagarise family of five made the trip from Charlottesville to see the show tonight, and they’re all hoping to hear “Paper Rings.” They’re all excited, but Swift has been a special inspiration for Leah.
“She’s an awesome artist, and I actually got inspired to play guitar by her,” Leah said.
Her favorites to play are “Mean” and “White Horse.”
— Allie Miller
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2:22 p.m.
‘We got so lucky’: The floor is theirs
While many Swifties got lucky to get “Eras Tour” tickets — at all — during the Ticketmaster presale Nov. 15, some were luckier than others.
Long-time fans from Sandusky and Athens, Ohio, Mariah Plummer, 23, and Ethan Tingler, 23, got floor seats for Swift’s Friday night show at Acrisure Stadium.
Tingler purchased the tickets, which, before Ticketmaster fees, were about $200 each, he said. But the process “was very stressful.”
“I was at work. I was opening. I was getting all the prep stuff,” he said. “I had my phone open on Ticketmaster, and thankfully we got through. I managed to get us floor seat tickets. We got so lucky.”
As a fan of Swift since her first single, “Tim McGraw,” was released in 2006, Tingler said attending her concert “means a lot.”
“As I grew up, I kind of resonated with her lyrics,” he said. “Each album I found I could relate to. Like just growing up, changing, stuff like that. Going through heartbreak.”
And for Plummer, her attendance at tonight’s show has been a long time coming.
“I didn’t think I would ever go to a Taylor Swift concert, so it means everything honestly,” she said. “I’m so excited.”
Although they chose to attend the Pittsburgh show because of proximity to their hometowns, they were also excited to explore Pittsburgh for the first time.
— Allie Miller
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2:11 p.m.
A spot of tea for the occasion
Adda Coffee and Tea House on the North Side greeted customers with Taylor Swift music, and baristas were clad in “Eras Tour” shirts.
The “Eras Menu” featured Swift-inspired drinks from the Feeling 22 Strawberry Matcha to the Back to December Mint Matcha Tonic.
In addition to Swift-themed coffee, Adda’s also offered “Taylorble” towels for customers.
Sierra Young, an employee, explained that their manager, Kelly Shriane, is a big Swift fan and came up with the idea.
“Yeah, she wants to meet Taylor Swift. Taylor if you’re out there. You heard her name. You read it. Please, come here. She really wants to meet you,” Young said.
The store had a steady stream of Swift fans, who ordered the different concoctions.
Beth Goodlet, Abigail Goodlet and Julianne Yacovone came from West Virginia for the concert.
Yacovone said their goal was to find as many Taylor-themed popups in Pittsburgh as possible.
“We’re really thankful to the small businesses in Pittsburgh for doing this,” Yacovone said.
— Emma Kim
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1:50 p.m.
Welcome to Swiftsburgh
It looks like the city had a blank space and decided to write Taylor Swift’s name.
By a special proclamation, Mayor Ed Gainey has officially renamed the City of Pittsburgh to Swiftsburgh in honor of the visiting pop star.
The city cited her numerous awards and philanthropic spirit in the announcement.
This weekend, it really is Swift’s city, and we’re all just living in it.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Welcome to Switftsburgh!@MayorEdGainey has officially renamed the City of Pittsburgh for the international superstar @taylorswift13 in honor of her sold-out weekend of shows in our great City. pic.twitter.com/sDYmhNy4vs
— City of Pittsburgh (@Pittsburgh) June 16, 2023
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1:42 p.m.
A ‘record-breaking’ weekend for hotels, plus a Taylor Swift cardboard cutout
The Wyndham Grand Hotel in Downtown, along with virtually every hotel in Allegheny County, is completely sold out this weekend, with room rates at an all-time high as Swifties touchdown in Pittsburgh.
"It's record-breaking," general manager Dustin Kovats said. "If you read about the Swift economics and the impact on other cities, it's real. You wouldn't believe how much of an impact this has."
Kovats has been preparing for this weekend for a few months. Among the overstaffing to meet the needs of guests, Kovats has incorporated Taylor Swift-themed details into many of their services, including Taylor Swift-themed cocktails.
Walking through the door of the Downtown hotel, people are immediately welcomed with Taylor Swift music. Some of the staff members are wearing Taylor Swift T-shirts and colorful sunglasses. In the lobby, fans can pose for photos on a "red carpet" with a Swift cardboard cutout.
"It's kind of a once-in-a-lifetime experience for some of these people, so we're trying to make it fun," Kovats said.
— Kristen Mohammadi
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1:11 p.m.
With last-minute tickets, this mother-daughter duo plans to have ‘the best day’
Alex Cartwright, of Connellsville, is not only attending her first Taylor Swift concert today, but also her first concert ever.
Cartwright, 27, said she bought two tickets to the Eras Tour last week. She said she has been waiting to see Swift live for a long time, and purchasing tickets was exciting.
“I might have even cried,” Ms. Cartwright said. “I was just super excited to come and spend it with my mom.”
She and her mom are wearing matching shirts that say “I had the best day with you,” referencing a song lyric Taylor Swift wrote about her mom.
The pair also lined up at 6 a.m. Thursday to purchase Swift merchandise. Cartwright said she has been watching TikTok videos and Instagram Reels in anticipation for the show and is most excited for Swift’s album “folklore.”
“I’ve been a fan since the debut came out,” she said. “I’ve kind of grown up with her along the way.”
— Kristen Axtman
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12:58 p.m.
North Carolina teacher makes the trek
Cassie Belt traveled all the way from Wilmington, N.C., for the Eras Tour.
“I’m a big Steelers fan,” she said. “It was just kind of the perfect combination of getting to go to Acrisure and getting to see Taylor, so two birds with one stone.”
Belt’s outfit is Lover-era inspired, and as a teacher, she is able to use Swift’s lyrics to relate with her students.
“I always say to my students ‘my friend Taylor is calling. ‘She says you need to calm down’ and then they say back to me, ‘you're being too loud’. So it just kind of seemed fitting for the event,” said Belt, referencing Swift’s 2019 song “You Need to Calm Down” from her “Lover” album.
Belt plans to explore Pittsburgh on Friday afternoon and then exchange friendship bracelets later at the stadium before enjoying the show.
— Emma Kim
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12:45 p.m.
These New Yorkers were drawn to Pittsburgh by the openers
Lilly Dreydroppel and Julia Madonna, both 14, came from Long Island, N.Y. for the Taylor Swift concert tonight. But the reason they decided to come to a Pittsburgh show instead of one in New York is the opening acts — Gracie Abrams and Girl in Red.
Lilly decided to dedicate her concert outfit to Swift’s “Lover” album, with a pink sparkly dress, a hot pink cowgirl hat, complete with her dark purple hair color.
Julia decided on a Reputation themed outfit, wearing a black and white newspaper shirt and a black cowgirl hat with fringe.
“no body, no crime” is what Julia is hoping Swift will sing as one of her surprise songs, but Lilly said, “I feel like I’d be happy with anything. I love every song.”
— Allie Miller
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12:31 p.m.
Raising money — through parking
Humane Animal Rescue’s North Side location is closing early on June 16 and 17 for the Taylor Swift’s concerts.
It’s not first time the shelter has done this, explained Michele Frennier, director or marketing. In the past, the shelter has closed early for Steeler games and other big concerts to offer parking.
People can pay to park in the lot, and the money goes towards Humane Animal Rescue.
“It is a win-win situation,” said Ms. Frennier. People are able to utilize the space, usually during off-hours, and it is a great way to raise money, she explained.
Currently, the parking prices are not yet determined, but they will be posted as customers enter the lot.
— Emma Kim
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11:14 a.m.
No ticket? No problem. This Swiftie will try to stream Friday’s show
Bella Termini, 22, of Scranton is attending “The Eras Tour” on Saturday. But that doesn’t mean she won’t be tuning in Friday.
Termini plans to watch tonight’s show virtually with friends, scanning TikTok and Instagram to hopefully catch people streaming Taylor Swift’s “surprise songs,” which she plays during her mini acoustic set.
“There's a certain time of the night during the concert — usually it's about 10:30 p.m.— where she starts her surprise song setlist, which is two songs, and people just jump onto the live stream,” Termini said.
On Saturday, Termini is hoping Swift’s surprise songs will be “Death by a Thousand Cuts” from the “Lover” album and “Call it What You Want” from “reputation.”
“Taylor, if you're reading the Post-Gazette please, please play those tomorrow night,” Termini said.
— Kristen Mohammadi
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10:38 a.m.
Swift-themed drinks and tunes abound in the Strip
The streets in the Strip District were mostly quiet Friday morning, but momentum is building for “The Eras Tour” tonight.
While the streets were relatively empty, with gray skies hovering above and rain sprinkling down, stores like My Sweet Lily and Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop blasted Taylor Swift's music.
An employee at My Sweet Lily said the store planned to play Taylor Swift’s music all weekend to show support for the two days of performances at Acrisure Stadium.
Other businesses were joining in on the Swiftie spectacle by offering Taylor Swift-themed specials.
At Allegheny Coffee & Tea Exchange, they’re offering three: “Lavender Haze,” a spiced chai with lavender flavoring, “Bad Blood,” a blood orange and vanilla soda, and “Karma Macchiato,” a vanilla and caramel latte.
At Mon Aimee, they’re serving Chocolate (Taylor’s Version).
— Kristen Mohammadi
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9 a.m.
Why these concerts are like the ‘Met Gala for normal people’
Just as Taylor Swift’s music has evolved throughout her career, so has her style.
Each of her 10 studio albums contains a signature look — a physical representation that helps distinguish them. In her early days, the curly-haired teenager donned country boots, bohemian dress and blue shimmering eyeshadow. Later she flaunted princess-style gowns — illustrating the fairy-tale lyricism in hit songs “Love Story” and “Enchanted.”
Swift continued to experiment with different genres, and her aesthetic grew even more stark. She embraced edginess during "reputation,” was pretty in pastel during “Lover” and channeled cottagecore in her "folklore" and "evermore" album era.
During “The Eras Tour,” her costumes track each version of herself as she performs 44 songs spanning 10 albums in the three-hour set.
There are so many songs, in part because this is the first time Swift has gone on tour since her “reputation” album in 2018. Since then, she’s released four new albums: “Lover,”’ “folklore,” “evermore,” and most recently, “Midnights.” In addition, she’s released two re-recordings of past albums — “Red (Taylor’s Version)” and “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” — as part of her quest to own her discography.
Fans across the country are going all out to represent their favorite Swift moment with their outfits.
“People dressing in the era is obvious,” said Kayla Green, a 26-year-old fan from Buffalo, New York. “You can tell — they're ‘Lover’ or they're ‘Fearless’ or they're whatever — because the style is so distinct.”
When Swift brings the phenomenon to Acrisure Stadium on Friday and Saturday, it will be Pittsburgh’s turn to flash some style — and fans have put a lot of thought into what they will be wearing.
“This is kind of like the Met Gala for normal people,” said 19-year-old Nicole Tougher from North Huntingdon.
Here’s what some people attending the weekend shows will be wearing.
— Kristen Mohammadi
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8:30 a.m.
‘All of Allegheny County is sold out’ ahead of the shows
If you want to stay in Pittsburgh this weekend, you might have to sleep outside.
That’s because Taylor Swift — pop megastar and global economic force — is set to storm the 68,000-seat Acrisure Stadium for two concerts, Friday and Saturday, bringing with her an onslaught of fans eager to catch a glimpse of one of the best-selling musicians of all time.
With the incoming deluge of Swifties, virtually every hotel in the city is sold out, and local restaurants are gearing up for an unprecedented uptick in diners.
“It took about a day of scouring Tripadvisor to find something reasonable,” said Vikki Ginsley, who’s driving more than 300 miles from Toronto to see the concert.
When Ms. Ginsley, a doctoral candidate at Ontario Tech University, checked hotel prices, she said everything in Downtown cost around $800, about four times more expensive than the average cost of a room when Ms. Swift isn't playing Pittsburgh. She was eventually able to find a room for two nights for $450, but it was near the airport, at least a 25-minute drive to the North Shore — and perhaps exponentially longer given the expected traffic congestion.
From the beginning, the pop star’s Eras tour — which includes songs from all 10 of her albums, all of which went platinum, and nine of which went multi-platinum — promised to be a spectacle.
The presale alone pumped out 2 million tickets, crashing Ticketmaster and triggering a congressional hearing. Ms. Swift also hasn’t visited Pittsburgh since 2018.
And fans from the city and beyond are demonstrably hungry for more of her.
“All of Allegheny County is sold out,” said Mandie Slavinsky, a sales coordinator at Drury Plaza Hotel, Downtown.
Currently, there isn’t one hotel room open in Pittsburgh on Friday, the night of Ms. Swift’s first concert, and rooms snatched up in the past week went for more than $1,000 on average, five times the price of a room the previous weekend, a Post-Gazette analysis of Booking.com data found.
Six other hotels in surrounding suburban areas, such as Robinson, Cranberry, Monroeville and South Hills, confirmed they were all sold out during the concert weekend. Even Hotel in Downtown ran out of rooms way back in December and experienced a similar crash as Ticketmaster did because of the extreme influx of reservations.
— Emma Kim and Neena Hagen
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8 a.m.
‘Eras Tour’ breaks 5-year silence for Taylor Swift in Pittsburgh
It’s been five years, which, in Taylor time, is an eternity.
For context, Taylor Swift started touring in 2006 as a 16-year-old pop-country hopeful from Reading, Pa. — one of her first shows was right near here at Falconi Field (now Wild Things Park) in Washington — and spent the first decade of her career as a road warrior on a very fast track. Within seven years, she was headlining stadiums.
After her “1989 World Tour” in 2015, the breaks got bigger. She spent two-and-a-half years at home before launching the ecstatically received 2018 “Reputation Tour.” The natural rhythm would have put Swift back in stadiums and into the arms of Swifties two years later, in 2020, but you know what happened then.
Turns out, five years without Taylor Swift live was too much — the breaking point — so with “The Eras Tour” the American populace has gone just a little mad. Taylor demand far exceeds Taylor supply.
On Friday, Pittsburgh gets its fix as the superstar returns to Acrisure Stadium for the first time since Aug. 7, 2018.
Like some of the living legends of our time — McCartney, Dylan, Springsteen, maybe it’s better to not name names — Swift has a lot of music in her.
Since 2006, she has released 10 albums, and these are not those ‘60s or ‘70s packages that run 30 minutes with maybe a few covers to fill out side two. These are long-plays that consist of about 150 songs that Swift either wrote on her own or with partners.
By keeping her personal life fluid, shall we say, she has had plenty to write about.
— Scott Mervis
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7:30 a.m.
City officials: Stay home if you don’t have a ticket
From the beginning of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour demand for tickets has far outpaced supply.
Bottom line: Not everyone who wants in will get in.
Which has led to a trend, seen in other cities and now expected on the North Shore, in which thousands or tens of thousands of fans unable to gain entry into the concert venue simply stand outside, soaking up the atmosphere and hoping for a taste of the show.
“I’ve never tried it before, but I thought listening outside the stadium could still be fun since I’m going with a couple friends,” said Lillian Wolfe, a student at the University of Pittsburgh.
Public safety officials said Wednesday they would prefer people like Ms. Wolfe stay home — for safety reasons.
“We anticipate some of the largest crowds we've seen in quite some time, converging in areas throughout the city,” said Lee Schmidt, director of public safety, during a news conference in Downtown with the city’s police, fire and EMS chiefs and Mayor Ed Gainey. “We know that those who are not attending still want to be part of the experience, but we're asking that, if you do not have tickets, that you do not add to the volume of people on the North Shore.”
Public safety personnel are working with local law enforcement partners — including the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Department, county police and state police — to provide safety services this weekend for the megastar’s concerts as well as for Juneteenth celebrations that are planned. Crossing guards will be deployed to help with traffic control in Downtown and key intersections, officials said.
The city’s entire special deployment division will be used over the weekend, and officials said 50 officers will be inside the 68,000-capacity stadium with 25 outside. Two dozen paramedics will be stationed inside, with ambulances and other transport units outside.
— Emma Kim
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7 a.m.
The Taylor Swift spectacle hits its 13th city
“The Eras Tour” crew has spent all week at Acrisure Stadium, setting the stage for Taylor Swift’s show with its 90 trucks.
On Friday, it’s showtime in the 13th city on the tour.
Merchandise stands outside the stadium opening from noon to 8 p.m. on Thursday, and fans started lining up in the morning to grab some merch, which will also be available on both show days inside and outside the stadium.
The show is a mobile-only ticket show, and tickets should be saved in your digital wallet before arriving on show day.
To help alleviate traffic and gridlock around the North Shore, only ticketed guests will be allowed in parking lots, according to stadium officials.
The NFL’s Clear Bag Policy will also be in effect for this show.
Here’s everything else you need to know if you’re heading to the shows.
— Scott Mervis
Obsession
First Published: June 16, 2023, 11:00 a.m.
Updated: June 17, 2023, 12:48 a.m.
