Taylor Swift ERAS Tour July 4th

The long anticipated day had arrived! A year prior, I had bought 4 tickets for the July 4th ERAS tour in Amsterdam. The only tickets available after the 2 hours of waiting behind 50,000 people online were standing VIP tickets. Melissa, Rachel, and Samaya were thrilled to take the extra tickets off my hands and as luck would have it, Brittany and Shauna had tickets for the same day in the same section! Outfits were chosen, friendship bracelets were made and the Amstelveen crew met up to cycle to the Arena together. 

We were not die-hards and arrived to the VIP line just as the early doors opened at 3:30. Many people had clearly been camped out for a while as we have to carefully step over all of the trash and food they left behind when the line started moving. We still had hours to wait until the opener began so we got as close the stage as we could and sat down with the others around us to save our legs for the long concert ahead of us!

A few bracelets were traded and we caught up on each other's summers thus far. 

We all stood up when Paramore came on the stage and we quickly realized that despite being just 10 rows or so from the stage, our views were going to be seriously blocked by being so close to everyone around us. A few gals had already moved back to an area near one of the rigs so that they could lean and have some space. We all joined so we could be together. 

Then is was go time! When she came towards our end of the stage for the first time, I will admit that I got teary-eyed. It was pretty powerful being there in her presence with so many adoring fans. 

Snow coming down during the epic 10 minute "All Too Well."

 A fun surprise! 

The rest of the concert was really a blur, and I wasn't even drinking. There was a lot of shuffling to try to get better views. It didn't help that there were some REALLY tall Dutch people in our vicinity. Exhibit A above. I underestimated how big a stadium is and how small she would seem on the stage. Watching the tour on Disney plus gave me a false sense that we would be much closer in person. It was a non-stop singing and dancing fest though and I still loved every minute. 

Our acoustic surprise song mashups were "Guilty as Sin" and "Untouchable" on guitar and "The Archer" and "Question.. ?" on piano. 

So impressed with her performance, her stamina, everything! Swiftie for life! 

We had a debrief after the concert at a nearby hotel bar. It felt so good to sit down! Then we cycled back home with all of her music floating in my head.