For better or worse, I spent this summer having my travel plans dictated by the itinerary of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. In mid-July, Swift played Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, and I flew from Philadelphia to join her and about 70,000 other fans. I’m a lifelong Swiftie, and I’ve met friends from all over the country through a shared love of Swift. My friends and I decided to convene in Colorado because of the opening act; Swift’s openers vary city to city, and Denver was the final of a mere handful of shows MUNA, one of our favorite bands, joined Swift for.
Headlines have been dropping about Swift near-singlehandedly reviving the struggling travel-related industries of hotels and airlines still suffering from the pandemic. I am among the many who can say the reason I traveled this summer was the pop star.
Traveling for Swift was what it took to remind me of the autonomy I now have as a young adult. A lot of my development feels like it got arrested by the pandemic, with study abroad essentially cancelled for my graduating class, and travel of all kinds continuing to feel high-risk. The Eras Tour renewed my interest in going places, in seeing more of the world and in having story-worthy experiences.
As I emerged from Denver International Airport into the non-oppressive air of a summer morning in Colorado, it was like the world was widening before me, the mountains taking shape on the horizon telling me I was somewhere completely new. It had been a while since I had been on a plane — the last time I had traveled far enough from home to need one was well before the pandemic, when I flew to Toronto to visit a friend.
Flying to Denver to see MUNA and Taylor Swift at The Eras Tour reminded me the rest of the world is more accessible than I give it credit for, that leaving the East Coast is possible, and that the country (and the world) is wide. I never would have flown to Denver alone if I hadn’t known I was going to have the comforting and familiar presence of Swifties (and Taylor herself) on the other side, but having now planned a trip with friends once, doing it again (maybe not for a Swift concert) can only get easier.
The Mile High City was incredibly welcoming to Swift and her legions; I spotted signs in more than one storefront welcoming Swifties to Denver. My friends and I stayed at The Art, a gorgeous hotel that we got an amazing deal on through a stroke of luck, and though we did not have as much time to explore the city as we would have wanted, we still had a day to walk around — we got brunch, found cafés and shops, and soaked up the city.
It seemed that lurking around every corner was someone wearing Swift’s merchandise or a blindingly sparkly dress, clearly in Denver for the show. I struck up a conversation about the concert with my seatmate on the plane ride home who was sporting her Eras Tour sweatshirt as a badge of honor the same way I was. Every time I travel, I am taken aback by how many other people are going to the same location at the exact same time I am. The reason both me and the woman next to me went all the way to Denver to see a Taylor Swift show when she had played in Philadelphia a few months prior may seem inscrutable to a lot of people, but the power of Taylor Swift is like that — she works in mysterious ways.
— Hannah Gruen, administrative coordinator
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