10 eras. Forty-four songs. Three nights in New Orleans.
The second leg of the U.S. Eras Tour kicked off on Oct. 18. This time around, the tour only has three stops, compared to the 53 of the last leg. Three nights in Miami, three nights in New Orleans and three nights in Indianapolis. Swift performed at the Caesars Superdome this past weekend, Oct. 25 to 27, in New Orleans, and the entire city wasted no time to piggyback off her success and massive influence.
Swift was happy to express her gratitude to the city and its fans during her night three show.
“I have been so moved and so blown away by the way that this city has embraced us and welcomed us,” she said. “So can y’all just please say a big ‘Thank you New Orleans.’”
Swift’s first round of the Eras Tour generated $2 billion dollars just from ticket sales, with $700 million dollars in ticket sales coming from just the North American tour. Her overall revenue surpassed $4.1 billion dollars, and the singer reportedly makes around $13.6 million per show.
Time predicts that by the end of 2024, the tour is expected to have brought in an astronomical $2.165 billion. In comparison, the second-highest grossing tour of all time is Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, which earned $399 million from 2018 to 2023.
Swifties fought for tickets on Ticketmaster and have come from all over the country to see the pop sensation perform in New Orleans. The limited number of shows on this round of the tour guaranteed thousands of tourists in the city. With Swift’s stage set up, a sold-out Superdome can fit 65,000 fans, over the course of the three nights, that totals to 195,000 fans.
“She puts on the greatest show ever,” Gracie Abrams, who has been opening for Swift on this leg of the tour, said on stage at night three of the Eras Tour.
Local businesses completely turned New Orleans into a Taylor Swift festival. Storefronts near the French Quarter and Central Business District were covered in Eras Tour-themed displays and items.
The French Quarter staple Cafe du Monde had a line wrapped around the building and down the street throughout the weekend so fans could purchase beignets with pink and blue powdered sugar representing Swift’s presence in the city.
READ MORE: Wondering which surprise songs Taylor Swift played in New Orleans? Check here to find out
French Truck Coffee announced special coffee cups on Thursday Oct. 26 in the same format as the tour poster and completely sold out the next day.
“Swifties, we’re completely out of our Taylor Swift NOLA Era cups,” French Truck wrote on Instagram one day after the release of the cups. “The response has been absolutely incredible.”
Stoney Clover, located at 3938 Magazine St., hung friendship bracelets over the entire front of its store and hosted a friendship bracelet-making party throughout the weekend. Making friendship bracelets was a tradition created by fans at the start of the tour.
The city of beads took this ritual to the extreme. The Superdome reached out to Miami-based artist Shawn Kolodny to create a larger than life, inflatable friendship bracelet reading “Taylor Swift The Eras Tour” to cover the side of the dome.
“I love it; it’s definitely a photo op you can’t do anywhere else,” said Swifty fan Trinity Thompson from South Carolina. “Everyone passing out friendship bracelets is so fun. I met like 100 different people already.”
Fans from out of state loved the atmosphere throughout the city. Most knew that New Orleans was an energetic and chaotic scene, but this was unlike anything they had seen before.
“It’s super fun seeing how lively the city can be outside of Mardi Gras,” Bailey Thompson, another fan from South Carolina said. “The city is thriving.”
Owner of Fleurty Girl and New Orleans native Lauren LeBlanc Haydel, 43, has nine shops across the state. The shop has Mardi Gras clothing and lots of sparkles, a perfect place for New Orleans Swifties to shop. Though the store deals with people flooding in to purchase items every year during Mardi Gras, no carnival season has compared to this past weekend.
“We’ve never seen anything like this,” Haydel said. “We have done 12 Mardi Gras in the French Quarter, and none of it has been as big as this weekend for us.”
Bourbon Street, the popular destination in New Orleans for partying, was perpetually filled with Swifties singing their hearts out. Fans gathered in the street to show off their love for Swift all weekend. Although most fans on Bourbon are ticket holders, some of the Swifties are out there rather than attending the concert.
“It was really the shot in the arm that we needed after a very slow year,” Haydel said. “The French Quarter needed this and the customers have been amazing. City is magical right now.”
