Taylor Swift’s blockbuster Eras Tour rolled into New Orleans on Friday (Oct. 25) for the first of three sold-out shows at Caesars Superdome.
After a lengthy run of overseas dates, Swift returned to North America for three shows in Miami last week; New Orleans is the second city on this final leg of the Eras Tour. Whereas Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium is a bit of a drive outside the city proper, the Caesars Superdome is very much in the thick of downtown New Orleans. Leading up to this weekend, bars, restaurants, hotels, pet shops, art galleries and more freely surrendered to the Swiftie takeover, offering themed menu items (Holy Ground Hurricane, Fearless Jambalaya) or hosting get-togethers tailored to the Taylor crowd (karaoke, trivia, drag shows and even look-alike contests offering hundreds of dollars to the winner).
From Canal St. to Bourbon St. to Frenchman St., concertgoers in Eras Tour t-shirts began trickling into the city days ago, eventually reaching a fever pitch on Friday. Adding to the insanity is the fact that this is also New Orleans’ big Halloween weekend. Pop into any number of bars on Bourbon ahead of the concert and you’re just as likely to spot revelers out for the city’s annual witches’ luncheon as you are tourists rocking Taylor Swift looks and/or Kansas City Chiefs gear in honor of boyfriend Travis Kelce (who also has more than his fair share of themed cocktails in New Orleans at the moment).
But as much as this once-in-a-generation cultural event has been about the sense of community leading up to the show, it’s ultimately about the music and Swift’s performance.
With more than 50,000 fans packing into Caesars Superdome on Friday night (the venue can hold closer to 83,000, but Swift’s stage design – which makes even the nosebleed seats a worthwhile investment – cuts into that), these were the best moments from Taylor Swift’s first Eras Tour show in New Orleans.
New Orleans isn’t your ordinary tour stop. Days before Swift took the stage, locals and visitors were already dressed up as various iterations of the pop star, drawing on her music video looks and various outfits she’s previously worn on stage. Creative, subtle looks abounded, but the most fitting riff on a Swift look was a woman wearing a shirt reminding folks that there is “A Lot to Vote on at the Moment.”
“I’ve been having more fun on this tour than I ever had in my life before. The main reason for that is you turned this tour into something completely unrecognizable from anything I’ve ever done before. You created traditions. You created this massive movement of joy,” Swift said early in the evening. ”I showed up one day and you guys were making friendship bracelets and I was like, ‘That’s cool.’ Now there’s a giant friendship bracelet on the outside of the stadium.”
Swift was referring to the fact that a giant approximation of a Swiftie friendship bracelet was draped across the front of the Caesars Superdome. That giant bracelet wasn’t flying solo, though: literally tens of thousands of friendships bracelets connecting Swift to NOLA were circulating throughout the city before she took the stage.
New Orleans doesn’t loom as large in Swift lyrical lore as Nashville or New York, but the Big Easy has undoubtedly played a part in her recording history. Three songs from The Tortured Poets Department were recorded at Esplanade Studios, including “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” (part of the TTPD section of the show). But Swift’s sweetest NOLA tribute was her look during the 1989 segment, which paired a purple top with a yellow skirt and green boots – i.e., Mardi Gras colors. Or, if you’re hungry, the color of a King Cake.
At this point, you would think Swift’s closet would be empty. And yet, during her first New Orleans show, the pop star debuted a new outfit ahead of her surprise songs – a red, white and blue chiffon pleated dress. The roar of excitement that greeted the look made it clear that the fans in N’Awlins have been paying attention. Good thing, too — when the tour wraps, she might need a tour guide to steer her through her wardrobe.
Swifties are still waiting (not so patiently) for the Taylor’s Version version of both her self-titled debut and her thematic breakthrough Reputation. The wait continues, but lucky New Orleans concertgoers were treated to a mashup of the former’s hit single “Our Song” and the latter’s “Call It What You Want.” Worlds apart as those albums may seem, Swift made the case that her early tunes aren’t a country mile from her recent, reflective pop material.
As tens of thousands of Swifties flooded the streets following the conclusion of her Friday night show, folks couldn’t help but unleash their excitement over “The Black Dog” being one of the surprise songs. The TTPD tune was paired with “Haunted” from Speak Now; similar to her first mashup, it made the case that despite the genre leaps Swift has made throughout her career, there is an effortless throughline that connects everything she writes.
If the Kansas City Chiefs make it to the Super Bowl, you can say Swift called it. While she’s done it before, Swift imitated boyfriend Travis Kelce’s bow-and-arrow shot movement during “So High School.” Later in the night, during “Midnight Rain,” Swift imitated throwing a football pass – clearly, the idea of the Chiefs making it all the way to the Caesars Superdome for the 2025 Super Bowl is maybe a little bit on her mind.
While open-air stadiums tend to be the most visually romantic, there’s something to be said for venues with closed ceilings. Yes, the volume is painfully piercing to the eardrum. But more importantly, the lighting feels more intimate. Despite the size of the venue, “All Too Well (10-Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)” — when paired with the warm lighting in a contained environment — landed harder even harder, and that’s saying something. When Swift delivered the lyric about the refrigerator light, the diffuse yellow that emanated throughout the stadium made you feel like you were right there in the kitchen with her.