VANCOUVER — They're united by a devotion to all things Taylor Swift.
Meet the superfans heading for Vancouver for the final three shows of the singer's Eras Tour.
'I DON'T KNOW THAT I'VE EVER BELONGED THAT HARD'
Before she was a friendship-bracelet-making, glitter-wielding Swiftie, Maya Klein was a Deadhead.
Klein, from Castle Rock, Colo., is still a fan of the rock group The Grateful Dead, but was slowly converted into a Taylor Swift fan by The Eras Tour.
"I'm a classic rocker and we're all kind of snobs about our music," she said. "I just thought 'this girl is beautiful, so they give her hits to sell' and I could not have been more wrong."
She now deems Swift "the best songwriter in history."
"I'm looking at you, Sir Paul McCartney, and I'm looking at you, Mr. Bob Dylan and all the classic rockers can fight me over this, because if they don't agree with me, they just haven't listened," she said.
"This woman is gifted in the extreme, and so that's why it feels OK, at 52, that I've made 470 bracelets like a psychopath."
Klein has tickets to Saturday's show in Vancouver, having seen the Milan show in the summer.
"It was the most fantastic show I think I've ever seen, and not even necessarily because of my view," she said, noting she was in the "nosebleeds."
"It was 100 per cent the Swifties. I don't know that I've ever belonged that hard anywhere before."
Klein is bringing a copy of Swift’s Eras Tour book to Vancouver to treat like a yearbook.
"I am taking this thing with some silver Sharpies and some glitter markers, and I'm gonna beg Swifties to please find your song, sign it," she said. "This thing is gonna be the most amazing concert memento."
Favourite Swift song: "loml"
Favourite Swift era: "The Tortured Poets Department"
'I SPENT HALF THE SHOW IN THE BATHROOM'
Kayla Zimmerer from Fresno, Calif., hopes it's third time lucky in Vancouver.
A self-described "elder Swiftie," who's been a fan since Swift's 2006 debut album, Zimmerer has already attended two Eras Tour shows last year, in Las Vegas and Seattle.
In Vegas in March, Zimmerer was in a VIP box — but she forgot her glasses. She says she is "blind as a bat" without them.
"One of our friends that was there in the box — we shared glasses for half the show. So, even though I had gone, I still felt like I hadn't really seen it and experienced the show."
Then came the Seattle show in July, by which time Zimmerer was five months pregnant.
"I spent half the show in the bathroom, (and was) sitting down for most of the show," she said.
"If you're sitting on the floor, you can't see the screens and I barely got through standing for one full song — which was 'Long Live,' which I will hold on to — but it was really, really sad."
When the Vancouver dates were added late to the tour, it became a chance to finally get the full Eras Tour experience.
Zimmerer and her husband scored resale tickets for Saturday night, while a friend who is joining them in Vancouver bought a solo ticket for Sunday. Zimmerer is still hoping to find a last-minute ticket to join her friend for that show, too.
Favourite song: "Afterglow"
Favourite eras: "Midnights," "The Tortured Poets Department"
13 CHOCOLATE BARS? 'IT'S A SIGN'
Calgary resident Heather Roy had almost given up hope on attending The Eras Tour, missing out in every ticket lottery and competition she tried.
Then her 12-year-old daughter, Harper, went trick-or-treating on Halloween. In her bag at the end of the night were 13 full-sized chocolate bars. "It's an Easter egg from Taylor," Harper declared. "It's a sign we're going to get tickets."
Thirteen is Swift's favourite number. She wrote the number on the back of her hand before each show of her 2009-2010 Fearless tour.
The next day, Nov. 1, Roy says she got a call from a dentist's office that had been running a promotional contest. The Roys had won two tickets to Saturday's show in Vancouver.
Swift's music provides an ongoing link to Roy's first-born daughter, Evelyn, also a fan, who died of cancer in 2020.
"It's just this connecting point through Taylor to good memories in dark spaces and just brought us so much joy," Roy says.
Favourite song: "22"
Favourite era: "Folklore," "Evermore"
'IT STARTED OUT WITH JUST MAKING BRACELETS'
Becky Mercereau is a driving force of Taylor Swift fandom in an unlikely location — Hudson's Hope, the tiny B.C. Interior community best known as one of the oldest European settlements in the province.
She and her 14-year-old daughter secured tickets for Saturday's show through a friend of a friend who let Mercereau use her Ticketmaster account. "We were successful, but it was a bit of a nail-biter," she says.
That was more than a year ago. To keep up the excitement, Mercereau helped form a group of local Swifties who would meet monthly. "It started out with just making bracelets," she says.
Then it grew. Now, they get together for Swift-themed barbecues, brunches, listening parties, and Kansas City Chiefs football games — Swift's boyfriend Travis Kelce is a player and Swift is a regular at Chiefs games.
The group from Hudson's Hope and nearby communities has about eight regulars but the biggest turnout was 17. "A cool thing about our group is that it spans six decades," she says of the attendees' ages.
She says that after the concert, she and her daughter plan to meet with the group to share their experience, and exchange gifts. They also hope to keep the meetings going.
"We did say we should continue, probably not every month, but we'd love to still get together and do some fun things together," she says.
Favourite song: "Exile"
Favourite era: "Midnights"
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 4, 2024.
Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press
