When Taylor Swift announced that her Eras Tour, possibly the biggest and most successful tour in history, was coming to Latin America, local Swifties were ready to do anything for a ticket. It is rare for a mega-watt star like Taylor to make multiple stops outside of the US, Canada and Europe. And when they do, there’s often just one concert for the millions living there to try and secure tickets, a contrast to the mini-residencies that are typically held in each city across the US.
For the first time in her 17-year career, Taylor took to the stage in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, bringing rising pop icon Sabrina Carpenter along to open for her across multiple nights. We sent photographer Pedro Pinho to capture the atmosphere at the shows in São Paulo, the outfits detailed with references to Taylor’s work, and chat to the fans after years of begging Taylor to come to Brazil finally materialised.
“I had to get here at 3:30 am on a Monday to get tickets to be here today,” 22-year-old Karina says. Now, at the Brazil show, she and her friend pay tribute to the “Shake It Off” music video with TS cheerleader garms. When Taylor planned to bring The Lover Fest to the country in 2020, similar scenes of fans queuing outside ticket booths in the early hours blew up on social media. Some, like the boy now at the São Paulo concert in a Reputation-inspired, snake-green tie and mesh top, camped outside the venue a month before tickets were released, only for the two planned nights to be cancelled because of the pandemic. This time, the fans were not taking chances on missing Taylor again, and some bought tickets for every night of this leg of the tour.
“This trip is the craziest thing I’ve ever done for Taylor,” 20-year-old Juan says. “I’ve worked all summer just to come and see her.” Juan sports a Lover-esque outfit — baby pink trousers and a flower embroidered vest, with a third of his lower arm covered in the beaded lyric bracelets that have become synonymous with the fandom. 18-year-old Gabriela, now decked out in an Eras Tour embroidered Pride flag, spent the summer selling cookies at her school to make enough money for a ticket and the 3,000-kilometre trip from her home state of Rondonia. She adds that she knows no one else at the concert, but the nature of these spaces means that if you’re also singing along to an obscure “From the Vault” song that most outside the venue wouldn’t know about, you’re likely to make some friends in the crowd.
This sense of excitement, anticipation and joy palpable in the air outside the concerts makes it even more heartbreaking that one fan, 23-year-old Ana Clara Benevides Machado, fell sick during Taylor’s first night in Rio de Janeiro due to the extreme heat and died later that night. Since, petitions have been circulated by Swifties calling for all concert venues to be mandated to provide free access to water at events. Taylor performed a rewritten version of “Bigger Than the Whole Sky” in tribute to Ana at a subsequent show.
As an artist with a renowned history of changing the industry and setting precedents that others follow, perhaps other local fandoms won’t have to keep calling on their favourite artists to come to Brazil for much longer.
Credits
Photography Pedro Pinho