In honor of the re-release of Red, we’re looking back at all of our Taylor Swift concert experiences!
The year was 2015 but it felt like it was 1989! I was fresh out of seventh grade, feeling cooler than ever after some of the wildest nights of my life–bar and bat mitzvahs. My cousin Celia, who I attended the concert with, and I had pre-ordered the 1989 concert kit, which included a t-shirt, bracelet, and light-up necklace. We, of course, wore all the swag and paired it with red lipstick and blue eyeliner––Taylor Swift’s favorite color. As we were Tay-gating the concert, two news broadcasters approached us for an interview. Celia and I proudly held our “RHODE ISLAND LOVES TS” sign up for the Boston Local News. When asked why I like her music I said, “I think her music is like…really easy to listen to.” Pure brilliance at 13 years old. I obviously rode the high of being interviewed throughout the remainder of the night. It feels important to mention that Shawn Mendes opened for her which launched me into a major Shawn Mendes phase for the following years.
-Hannah Zevon ‘24
I have had the pleasure of attending not one, but two Taylor Swift concerts! I went to Taylor’s 1989 concert in 7th grade with my two best friends and one of their moms and rocked the classic red lip and Keds combo. I got the concert tickets for Christmas, and from my screams while opening the envelope containing the tickets, you would think that I had won the lottery. Vance Joy was one of the openers, right at the peak popularity of “Riptide.” Remember when every person would play the song on the ukulele? I vividly remember yelling the lyrics and crying to “Mean,” because what middle schooler couldn’t relate to that song? In high school, I went to Taylor’s Reputation concert with my mom, little sister, and my little sister’s best friend. We had nosebleed seats, but that didn’t stop us from singing along to every song. Reputation was such a switch from the well-crafted “nice girl” image that Taylor had portrayed in her previous albums, it was cool to experience both dimensions of Taylor in concert.
– Kendall Foley ‘24
By some crazy stroke of luck (or maybe just poor planning), my friend’s family was going on vacation so they wouldn’t be able to use their tickets to go see Taylor Swift’s Reputation tour. Because of this, I was able to take her ticket and go see Queen Taylor with one of our other friends. Before we even got into the stadium, I knew that this was one of the biggest events I had been to. It felt like I was in a sea of people all with the same excited energy. My friend and I took our seats just about as far from the stage as possible and still squealed “We are going to be so close to Taylor Swift!!” even though we could barely see her. It was this concert that I think I really became a Swiftie. Sure, I had listened to 1989 and the big songs off Reputation, but it was after seeing her perform live that I realized I loved more than just her big hits. I think there is also something about interacting with an artist at a concert that makes them feel like a real person. Seeing live music, especially such a beautifully crafted show like the Reputation tour, makes connecting with the music that much better. Though I mourned losing my Loverfest tickets last year, you can bet I will be fighting to see Taylor live again when she is touring next.
– Caitlin Boyd ‘24
I have had the greatest honor of going to three Taylor concerts in my lifetime: Fearless, Red, and 1989. I was eight years old when I attended my first Taylor concert with my sister, mom and dad. My sister and I wrote the number thirteen on our hands and immediately changed into the shirts we bought at the merch station in the stadium—we were ready. We took turns taking pictures of ourselves with our iPod Touches, totally embracing our main character moment. I may only have been eight, but I sang like I understood every heartbreaking lyric—-my parents get serious props for sitting through that one. The next concert I attended was Red, which has always been my all time favorite album of Taylor’s. Towards the end of July my parents picked my sister and I up from sleepaway camp, and we immediately drove to Gillette Stadium. Again, props to my parents for fully supporting two major Taylor Swift fans. Ed Sheeran opened the concert and the rest was honestly a blur of screaming my 12 year old heart out and waving my light up bracelet in the air. The last Taylor concert I went to was 1989, and all 15 members of my family went—grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We had to split up so my cousin and I took the two floor seats and were right on the aisle. It started pouring rain, but nothing could dull our excitement, and the weather made the night that much more memorable. Taylor ran down the aisle, and my cousin and I jumped and screamed, feeling as though those two seconds of eye contact meant that we were now Taylor’s best friends. We left that night on a complete high.
– Sophie Zakin ‘24