Taylor Swift’s Toronto era is nearly here.
The hyper-successful ‘The Eras Tour’ is making its way to the city next week for the start of a six-show series, from Nov. 14 to Nov. 23.
While the popstar won’t cap off the near 21-month tour until her three stops in Vancouver next month, many Swifties from far and wide are making their way to Toronto to catch one of her final Eras Tour shows (and perhaps one of the several Swift-themed events popping up throughout the city).
Resale tickets to one of her upcoming concerts compete with the costs of a month’s rent – or more – and hotel prices have skyrocketed, going for 10 times more than the normal rate, begging the question of how much are fans spending to see Taylor Swift perform in Toronto.
The cost of a Toronto Swiftie
Steffani King told CTV News Toronto she estimates that she and the three others joining her will spend about $1,450 each for the whole event — a number that includes the cost of a VIP ticket, hotel stay, transit fares, bracelet-making supplies and getting her make-up done. A long-time Swiftie, King says when she went to see the singer for the Reputation Stadium Tour six years ago in Toronto, she spent just over $250 on a ticket eight rows back from the floor.
Though the Stouffville resident was one of the lucky ones to get her ticket at face value through Ticketmaster, she said securing it was a stressful experience.
“It was a frantic event as we played phone tag between the four of us, trying to confirm comfortable budget amounts to attend the concert of a lifetime. We had waited months to be able to purchase tickets and because this person had made it off the waitlist after thousands had already purchased tickets, we knew our options would be slim,” King said, noting that most of what was left were tickets in the VIP section going for about $600 a pop and nothing with four seats together.
“I’m like, at this point, I don’t care, if it’s under $1,000, buy the tickets. I’ll pick up a second job if I have to pay for me and my friend to be able to go.”
King said she spent $792 for a ticket in the 200 level for her last show in Toronto, which will also come with a box containing collectibles like a memorabilia ticket, postcards, and a tote bag.
Since her group is coming from various parts across the province, King said they decided to book a hotel.
“We knew we had to book early or risk not finding a room at all. Once again, options were slim, with rates being greatly inflated due to the demand. Hotels that are typically $500 a night were now booking for $1,500 a night,” King said, recounting when they were looking at hotels in November last year.
In the end, they settled on a room at the Radisson Blu, which she says cost about $1,450 for one night.
“While we may have been able to save more on certain aspects of the experience, I truly feel like this is on the lower end of the scale for attending the Eras Tour, which I know can be far outside of other fans' budgets,” King said.
Which rings true for fans like Brian Fernandes, who told CTV News Toronto the cost of one resale ticket on StubHub for the Nov. 16 show set him back $2,065 – almost an entire month’s paycheque.
“That’s like crazy high I know but I just impulsively decided at 6 a.m. one fine morning while checking a re-sale website and thinking over it for months,” Fernandes said.
Spending will be tight until the end of November for Fernandes, who said he is considering temporarily taking up a part-time job, like an Uber delivery driver, on days he’s not already working.
“I want to collect some extra bucks now to recover (those costs),” Fernandes said.
Is this spending normal for Swifties?
Music publicist Eric Alper told CTV News Toronto these costs are unsurprising for anyone seeing the “Fortnight” singer perform.
“This is only for the world of Taylor Swift. I have never seen a rise in the things that are surrounding a tour [like this] in my entire life,” Alper said.
“When you consider the sheer demand of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people that were all trying to get tickets specifically for these six days, you’re not just thinking about those people that are in Toronto that are spending their money within the city, you’re thinking about the astonishing amount of people around the world that are willing to travel now to go see once-in-a-lifetime concerts.”
With the hype surrounding the Eras Tour – touted as a three-and-a-half hour glimmering experience showcasing all of the singer’s albums throughout her career – Alper said fans are willing to spend more in order to “be a part of that world.” Especially, as Alper noted, in the era of social media where fans want to show online just how big of a fan they are.
“I mean, on average, each of those people are going to be spending at least $1,000, if not more, for their actual ticket, food, parking, hotel, gas, merchandise, all the rest of this stuff. But, once you start competing with everybody else who wants to go to the show and (are) willing to travel, that’s where you start to see an absolute wild amount of money that is being asked for,” Alper said.
The music publicist pointed to a survey conducted a few months after the Eras Tour began, revealing fans spent an average of US$1,327.74 (roughly $1,840) on tickets, outfits, merchandise, food and drink, and travel. While pricy, 71 per cent of survey respondents called it a worthwhile purchase with 91 per cent saying they’d go see Swift again.
Alper said he’s never seen any musician reach this sort of an impact, adding it will be hard for another modern day artist to compete. After all, the Eras Tour is the first tour to crack US$1 billion in terms of ticket sales.
“You’re going to have to be bigger than Taylor Swift. And I don’t think there’s anybody on the planet that is that,” he said.