It's fair to say that the two nights I spent at Taylor Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour in 2018 feature among the top five in my life -- and not just because I met Swift in person before the show. The handful of other times I've seen her perform, including the 1989 tour, would easily make the top 10.
And yet I wasn't among the many thousands of people streaming the Eras Tour Movie when it first came out in March, even though I'm a Disney Plus subscriber. Likewise, I didn't go to see the film in the theater or pay to rent it online. In fact, I decided to hold off on watching the movie entirely. (But that's me. If you want to experience it, see our guide on how to watch the Eras Tour movie on Disney Plus.)
The reason was simple: As a British Swiftie, I hadn't had the chance to see the Eras Tour live yet. But that all changed last weekend, when Swift came to Edinburgh as she embarked on the UK leg of her tour. This was the first time I'd had a chance to see the show that's been dominating cultural discourse for the past year as Swift has traveled all over the US, Latin America, Australia and Singapore.
Until I experienced the Eras Tour for myself, I didn't want to watch the movie version. I wanted the first time I saw the show in full to be in person rather than through a screen. I'm far from alone in making this decision. Many Swifties across Europe with tickets for this summer's dates also chose to hang back from overindulging in tour content. One of my friends achieved the impossible and managed somehow to avoid almost all tour content on social media, and didn't know the set list. ("I can't believe there was only one song from Speak Now," she texted me after the show.)
I wasn't that strict with myself. I was familiar not only with the set list, but also the costumes and each beat of the opening number of the show. I'd examined diagrams that map Swift's movements around the stage so I could choose the best positions for the nights I had standing tickets -- and this turned out to be a wise decision; I had a great view. After every show, I let myself watch the surprise song performances in the acoustic section, as I knew I was unlikely to get to see these songs live. At times, the wait for the show to arrive in my region of the world was painful, and it was hard not to dip my toe into the copious amount of tour content available.
Now that I've seen the show in person and finally caught up on the movie version this week, I can say that I'm glad I waited, but I don't think ultimately it would have ruined anything for me. Both experiences feel like pure magic. Even though I'd seen Taylor from mere meters away just days before, I felt no less delighted to watch her on the screen. I teared up as she placed the 22 hat on the head of a young fan just as I did at the show. I could still feel the joy radiating from Taylor and her fellow performers. "Wow, you can tell she really loves this," said my mum, a non-Swiftie, who watched the movie with me.
I was also curious to see how the Eras Tour has changed since the movie was filmed at SoFi Stadium in LA last year. The show I saw was slightly different to the movie, as it included the welcome addition of the The Tortured Poets Department set, with its monochromatic color palette and direction inspired by classical Hollywood movie genres.
As a result, the Folklore and Evermore eras have been compressed into one, and some of my favorite songs, including Tolerate It, The One and, perhaps the biggest shame of all, Long Live, have been cut from the set list. As sad as I am to see these go, the theatricality of the TTPD era makes for some of the most dramatic and exciting moments of the concert. Ultimately, I feel lucky to be able to experience both versions of the show thanks to the existence of the Eras Tour movie.
After the Reputation Tour, the movie, which was available to stream until the end of 2023 on Netflix, became one of my most frequently rewatched pieces of content on the platform. It was almost permanently downloaded on my iPad so that I could turn to it while sleepless on overnight flights or delayed on British trains. My now-husband even put it on to distract me while he was preparing to propose.
I am already anticipating forming a similar relationship with the Eras Tour Movie. Now that I've experienced the show for myself, you'll catch me streaming it on repeat. It will function as a time capsule, containing the memory of the newest entry to the list of the top five nights of my life.
I also hope that the movie comes back to theaters at a later date for Swifties like me and my friends who had the willpower to hold back when it was first released. Reliving the Eras Tour on screens both big and small together is the perfect way to stave off post-concert depression, and help the night live on for us indefinitely.
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