Taylor Swift fans display fandom bordering on worship a day before her 6 SoFi shows

Nov 10, 2023

The devotion was palpable, as thousands of Taylor Swift fans on Wednesday stood in long lines that snaked outside SoFi Stadium in Inglewood just to buy the pop singer’s trademarked merchandise.

Jamie Divis waited six hours to buy some of the mega star’s wares for herself and her daughters, including a sweater reminiscent of Swift’s album “1989.”

Taylor Swift performs on stage during The Eras Tour at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Friday, July 28, 2023. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

Ale Ramirez takes a proud selfie of her Taylor Swift merchandise at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Wednesday, August 2, 2023. The Eras Tour at SoFi officially begins Thursday, with additional performances set for Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Some of the merchandise is venue only and therefore sales were limited, 2 per person and even then items were selling out quickly. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

Lili Sunga, 18 waited in linear 5 hours to purchase Taylor Swift merchandise at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Wednesday, August 2, 2023. Sunga spent $484 for tees and sweatshirts that she will wear to the concert, her second Swift concert. The Eras Tour at SoFi officially begins Thursday, with additional performances set for Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Some of the merchandise is venue only and therefore sales were limited, 2 per person and even then items were selling out quickly. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

A crew of hard working people were busy filling orders as fans lined up by the thousands to purchase Taylor Swift merchandise at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Wednesday, August 2, 2023. The Eras Tour at SoFi officially begins Thursday, with additional performances set for Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Some of the merchandise is venue only and therefore sales were limited, 2 per person and even then items were selling out quickly. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

Fans lined up by the thousands and waited under the hot sun to purchase Taylor Swift merchandise at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Wednesday, August 2, 2023. The Eras Tour at SoFi officially begins Thursday, with additional performances set for Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Some of the merchandise is venue only and therefore sales were limited, 2 per person and even then items were selling out quickly. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

A crew of hard working people were busy filling orders as fans lined up by the thousands to purchase Taylor Swift merchandise at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Wednesday, August 2, 2023. The Eras Tour at SoFi officially begins Thursday, with additional performances set for Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Some of the merchandise is venue only and therefore sales were limited, 2 per person and even then items were selling out quickly. (Photo by Brittany Murray, Press-Telegram/SCNG)

“It was amazing,” she said. “I got everything I wanted, even the blue, crew-neck (sweater),” the same type of garment Swift wore on the album cover. Her cost for the haul: $1,400.

Fandom bordering on worship was evident even 36 hours before Swift was scheduled to take the stage on Thursday for the first of six sell-out shows at the lavish $5 billion stadium. Swifties, as they are called, chatted, befriended one another and waited, and waited in a queue that wrapped along District Drive all the way out to Century Boulevard.

This is not your typical concert. This was an early peek at what will be an invasion mostly of teenagers, mothers and millennials from all parts of Southern California and beyond to see the celebrated pop star who has won 12 Grammy Awards, sold 114 million album units worldwide including 3% of the total album sales from all artists in 2022 and thereby becoming the top-selling act that year.

The entertainment publication, Variety, estimates the concerts on Aug. 3, 4, 5 and 7, 8, 9 will bring 420,000 people to SoFi, and those are the ones with tickets. At other concerts, non-ticketholders gather outside and sing, Tayle-gate and just party while the show plays on inside the arena.

To handle the crush, LA Metro will keep its train lines running two hours longer than normal, until 2 a.m. to take concert-goers back home. Likewise, Metro is running two shuttle buses directly to SoFi: One from the K (Crenshaw) Line’s Downtown Inglewood Station and the other from the C (Green) Line’s Hawthorne/Lennox Station in the middle of the 105 Freeway. The shuttles will run 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. before each show, and for 90 minutes after the concerts.

Metro will increase the number of Metro Ambassadors at Union Station and key K, E and C Line stations, pointing the way to the correct train, bus or shuttle, said Tracy Smith, Metro spokesperson on Wednesday. Customer service teams will be at tables selling TAP cards and helping riders fund them. It costs $1.75 per ride on a Metro train or bus. The extra shuttles are free.

“It’s important for all of these people to see the ease of taking Metro and say, ‘Why didn’t I think of this before and leave my car at home,’ ” Smith said. Metro is hoping to use these special promotions as lures to attract regular riders in the future to a system many feel is unsafe.

At other concerts in New York, New Jersey and Chicago, many Swifties rode the subways and buses, something that LA Metro has studied, she said. In the East Bay, the Santa Clara County Valley Transportation Authority broke a record for one night of rides after Swift’s concert at Levi’s Stadium. The L.A. transit agency hopes the same thing happens in car-centric Los Angeles.

But reports from other venues say the concert-goers also use ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft. But these folks will pay between $100 and $200 a ride, some concert-goers reported.

Uber is expecting more than 10,000 requests for each night of the concert, wrote Zahid Arab, Uber western region spokesman in an emailed response. And when Uber gets busy, prices go up.

“As is the case for most major events, dynamic pricing can go into effect during periods when demand for rides is at its highest,” Arab wrote. “For the Taylor Swift concert, this means that rates could increase towards the end of the night and when she finishes performing, as a high volume of guests may be looking for rides from SoFi Stadium.”

Allie Priore, 32 of Burbank, is going to the Aug. 9 concert with friends. She checked out prices for an Uber ride and said the costs were around $125 each way. “They are upcharging. It normally doesn’t cost that much.” Instead, she and her friends are carpooling in one car to wait out the line of vehicles exiting the parking lot after the show.

And they will pay the $200 for parking at SoFi, she said, which may actually be less than if they took Uber each way, she said. “We’ll be like real moms, bringing water and snacks,” she said with a chuckle.

Celine Castaneda, 20, of Long Beach, is planning on hiring a Lyft ride Thursday morning at 8 a.m. Yes, that’s right, 8 a.m. for a concert that starts at 6:30 p.m. She will join the long merchandise line as soon as she arrives, which could last several hours.

She, too, is hoping to buy the sought-after crew-neck sweater and enjoy meeting other Swifties at her first-ever Taylor Swift concert. And she’s making friendship bracelets, something Swifties embraced from a lyric of her song that says: “Make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it.”

For related news, see: SoFi Stadium’s Taylor Swift merch sale brings out the masses – a day before the shows even begin

Priore said she’ll skip the merchandise line and order from online sites instead. She’s been to three Swift concerts and knows the drill. But for Castaneda, the bloom is still on the rose, despite months of effort to buy one ticket for $300.

“If I get a sweater that I buy from a Taylor Swift concert, the first concert seeing my hero, this will be like a keepsake for me,” said Castaneda.

Castaneda plans on staying long after the last note of the concert is sung, perhaps dreaming of a what if scenario. “I would love to meet her. If I did meet her I’d probably faint.”

For Celine Daire of Los Angeles, who waited 5 1/2 hours in line Wednesday to buy $503 worth of merchandise, she wanted to squeeze every drop of the experience out of what will be her first concert, with her sisters. “It was totally worth it. Everyone was nice and we made friends in line,” she said.

For Los Angeles, this friendship thing among strangers may seem a little more country, a tad more Midwest than independent LA. But that’s changing for the next week.

“For the next six or seven nights, we will all be Swifties,” said Smith.

Photographer Brittany Murray and Staff Writer Christina Merino contributed to this story.

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