After a 1+ year wait, tonight the girls finally got to see The Eras Tour. And we did too, with 74,000 of our closest friends.
Since the concert was the main activity of the day, and we knew we would be walking there and back, plus standing during the concert, we took it easy earlier in the day. We pretty much just went out for lunch and tried to stay close to the rental apartment.
Paramore, the opening band, was coming on at 6:00 pm and Taylor at 7:30 pm, so we agreed to leave the house at 5:00 pm. Since this is something the girls really wanted to do, they were ready right on time.
As we got close to the park around the stadium it started to get really crowded. Thousands of people who didn’t have tickets were already getting settled on the hill facing the stadium - and all around it. And all the people who did have tickets were walking around trying to enter the stadium.
As we were walking around, a young girl approached Bella to exchange friendship bracelets - a tradition the fans started for this tour. She didn’t speak English, but Bella understood what she wanted. Bella had made friendship bracelets for all of us, and since she worked so hard on it I proudly wore mine. Lionel also agreed to wear one - just to make her happy.
Trying to find the entrance to the stadium was stressful to say the least. They didn’t have enough or the proper signs all around, so we had to stop and ask the security people where to go 3 separate times. It was also sunny, hot, and muggy, so we were all sweating profusely before even entering the stadium. When we finally found the entrance it was really crowded, and the line was moving slowly. It seemed like everyone was crammed in the same entrance. So much for the German organization and efficiency. At least for this part, they definitely didn’t live up to it. And I am sure that we ended up cutting in line. Otherwise God only knows how much longer we would have been stuck in that mess.
After getting past the first entrance we went through security and made it to the point of scanning our tickets. However, only 2 of the tickets were loading. Nowadays they don’t allow you to download tickets ahead of time, or print them - you have to download them in the app right as you are about to enter. But, of course, when you have thousands of people doing that at the same time things can get tricky. We had to move aside until our tickets loaded, which was also stressful. Luckily some lady shared with Lionel some of the things she did in her phone to try to get them to load and that finally worked!
Once we finally made it in, we went to get some of the free water they were offering and tried to find the best possible place to stand. The girls were not 100% satisfied with our spot, and moved around a couple of times, but we actually had a decent view all things considered. And luckily there were no trash cans around and I kept the plastic cups they gave us, because during the concert people walked around with backpacks full of water and we were able to get refills.
Once the girls were ok with our spot, and the concert started, it was smooth sailing from then, except for the ~4.5 hours of standing, which was really tough on the backs and legs. Before the concert started, the girls took a couple of sitting breaks. It did help that once the sun went down the weather was much more pleasant. And they had machines spreading a light mist now and then.
The concert was everything the girls had hoped for and Lionel took it like a champ. The atmosphere was great, she sang many of the songs we love, and - given that she sang for 3.5 hours - we clearly got our money’s worth and it was worth the long wait. This is definitely a core memory for the girls.
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