Just by standing on stage and smiling, a crowd will go insane for Taylor Swift especially at her two hometown shows in Philadelphia, PA.
For her two sold-out shows at Lincoln Financial Field last weekend, the Wyomissing native performed for over 100,000 swifties on Friday and Saturday night.
Fans dressed in extravagant costumes, official t-shirts and home-made shirts with popular lyrics like “Darling I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream,” “Are we out of the woods yet?” and “We never go out of style” poured into the concourse and visited various booths from tour sponsors Xfinity, Keds and Diet Coke. Taylor Nation, the official community of Taylor Swift fans featured a booth with a photo booth, four costumes on display and a phone charging station. Dedicated fans stood in line for over an hour for the chance to take a photo and meet Taylor Nation staff members who previously upgraded fans to meet and greet and pit passes.
Once 7 p.m. struck, the first opener, Shawn Mendes, a 16-year-old singer from Canada took the stage with “I Don’t Even Know Your Name” and played a handful of his songs plus a cover of Taylor’s past opener, Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud.” By the end of Shawn’s set, the stadium was filling up as Australian singer-song writer, Vance Joy walked on stage. Joy’s voice carried though the stadium as he serenaded everyone with songs from his first studio album Dream Your Life Away including his new single “Mess is Mine,” “Wasted Time” and “Georgia.” Between songs, Vance smiled in amazement of the massive crowd in front of him and thanked the audience for listening to his songs. Joy closed out his set with his 2x platinum song, “Riptide” as the whole stadium danced and sang along, a mini-warm-up before Taylor came out.
Right after “Feel So Close” by Calvin Harris played, the stadium went dark and the starting notes of “Welcome to New York” filled the air, and the wristbands handed out to each attendee at the gate lit up and illuminated the stadium as they changed colors with every note. Swift appeared from under the stage in a sparkly jacket, black crop top and purple flowy skirt. She strutted down the stage and catwalk into the middle of the audience to her B-stage area and held the long notes in her signature position.
After the screams died down a little, Swift welcomed everyone to The 1989 World Tour and said, “We may be in the great state of Pennsylvania, but we began our story in New York.” Then proceeded to sing every song off her fifth album.
Between songs Taylor connected with the audience and talked about how she wishes “in relationships you only had two options. The two options in a relationship you either leave or stay” before she sang “All You Had to Do Was Stay.” Before “Clean” she told the audience that even when you go though “endless rainy days that are never going to get better first of all they will and second of all to be very clear and realizing what you are and what you are not. You are not someone else’s opinion of you that doesn’t know you.”
Fans went crazy when Taylor brought night one special guest Echosmith who sang “Cool Kids” with her at the end of the stage. The surprises weren’t over as model Cara Delevingne and actress Mariska Hargitay, who plays Olivia Benson on Law & Order SVU appeared from under the stage and strutted down the catwalk during “Style.” Night two, Swift announced singer Rachel Platten and sang “Fight Song” and Hargitay returned to the stage for another appearance during “Style.”
Taylor performed a total of 19 songs. As fireworks shot into the air, Taylor took her bows with her dancers, back-up singers and band members and promised to always come back to Philly and never forget her hometown.