So, the title is a dead giveaway, isn’t it?!! YES!! This blog is about how Manasi and I got to see the incredible Taylor Swift LIVE on the last stop of her ERAS tour!! And seeing TS was the absolute grand finale of a week with back to back performances! First up was Manasi and her a cappella group ‘No Strings Attached’ in their Acatoberfest – the annual showcase for all UIUC a cappella groups – the talent on display is here is unbelievable!! The very next day, Ajey and I had the chance to watch a locally produced show – Prasanna Jeer’s ‘Jungle Book’ – PJ has a dance academy, and all his students perform in this Broadwayesque musical extravaganza – a visual treat with the spot-on costumes, lavish sets and out of the world choreography! Peoria folks, a PJDA show needs to be on your must-watch list!! Mid-week, Manasi attended a performance – none other than the tabla maestro, Zakir Hussain, performing with Rahul Sharma on the santoor – and she came away absolutely bedazzled!! And then, of course, Taylor Swift in Indianapolis – the first of three shows on the last US stop of the Eras tour!!

I’m sure everyone remembers the frenzy when Taylor Swift first announced the Eras tour – this was almost 2 years, Manasi’s Senior year at DHS. The whole Ticketmaster debacle and the craziness to get tickets – Manasi wasn’t able to get the pre-sale code to get in line for tickets, and neither did most of her friends. Although as things settled in, there were more and more people that we knew that were buying tickets. At this time, our big adventure to EBC was planned at the same time that TS was to perform in Chicago – so not having the tickets didn’t really bother Manasi. And then of course, we had to push our trek by a year – and the night before the Chicago performance, Ajey was in India, and the social media posts started coming in…

Of course Manasi wanted to be there with all her friends, who wouldn’t?? So literally the night before, we decided to make one last attempt to get tickets! The official sites were either sold out, or super expensive – then I had the idea to check FB Marketplace – and, bingo!! There were several people selling tickets – have to admit, Manasi and I got a little carried away at this point – we had Ajey on the phone, trying to figure out the best way to get to Soldier Field, where to park, would it be better to get a hotel and take a Uber, what are we going to wear – peak excitement, you get the picture!! And then that little voice of caution – so started asking more questions to the sellers, before sadly concluding, that most of these offers were scams, no Taylor Swift, not this time around. It was funny in retrospect, how close we came to being scammed – I think the tipping point for me was when one of the sellers actually said that they were a God-fearing person, and started quoting Bible verses about not cheating – that’s it, sorry, you’re trying too hard!!

At this point, Manasi accepted that the Eras tour had passed her by – and then the tour was extended beyond the Europe leg, more US cities were added, including Indianapolis! This time around, I was right there with Manasi trying to get in line to get the tickets – we had a time slot to login to Ticketmaster, and as soon as we logged in, Manasi straight away hit the upper tier for the $100 tickets – and huge sigh of relief, she was able to secure 4 tickets!! Now this was last July – high school was done, college not yet started, and she didn’t really know who she would go with. And then we got busy with her moving into her dorm, start of the new academic year, and I honestly think we forgot about the tickets for a while!! I mean, we don’t even buy airline tickets that far ahead in time – planning ahead almost 18 months!! That’s the power of Taylor Swift for you!!

The next big question was who the 3 tickets go to. Manasi held on them until she was really, really sure – and you can imagine my surprise when she asked me to go with her!! Full disclosure – I only really know 2 Taylor Swift songs – and that too because Manasi had performed them! But hey, concert with Manasi – of course I’m going!! Ajey had no interest at all, so Manasi offered the remaining 2 tickets to her good friend, AM – another Taylor Swift fan who had been unlucky with the tickets so far! AM and her mom, DM, immediately agreed to go – and the plan was set!! I was happy that Manasi had a friend to go with!! Ajey had already booked a hotel room for us a couple of months ago, which was really good foresight – since by the time DM started looking, Indy was showing zero availability for hotels in decent price range. All the regular rooms were going at double or even triple the regular rates – there literally was no place to stay!!

All of social media is awash with costume ideas for Taylor Swift concerts – I was obviously depending on Manasi to tell me what to wear. When she found out that the concert was literally on the same day as Diwali, she wanted to wear something Indian themed – she does have several Indo-Western outfits that would definitely work! For me, she kept it simple – I got to wear (comfortable) jeans and a slightly blingey top from my closet – I was told that I was dressed for the album ‘Red’! After trying on several combinations from our combined Indian wardrobes, Manasi finally decided to wear the ghaghara we had got for her cousin’s wedding last December – a long midnight blue skirt with spangles all over, and a golden blouse – perfection!! And then the bracelets – she’s quite busy at college, you know, all those pesky classes and homework and tests! – so she was making bracelets in the car ride to Indy and even at the hotel as we waited to get checked in! I even got one to match my outfit!!

We were in Taylor Swift mode as soon as we hit I-74!! Several cars, Minnesota and Iowa and Wisconsin license plates, decorated with ‘Honk for Taylor Swift’ and other slogans, all roads leading to Indy today! Even at the hotel, all the folks checking in seemed to be there for the concert – some already dressed in their costumes – sparkle and dazzle all around – high boots, sequined dresses, cowboy hats – this was already looking like a Taylor Swift convention! One young lady was actually carrying a mannequin with her dress – an intricate beaded blue outfit! By the time we checked in, it was almost time to get dressed and head to the stadium – the opener was Gracie Abrams, another of Manasi’s favorites – so there was no way she was going to miss even a single moment of music!! A quick stop at Culver’s for a really early dinner, and we were soon heading downtown!

First stop was a parking garage about a mile away from Lucas Oil Stadium to pick up AM & DM. As we drove towards the Stadium, there was a steady stream of people – easy to spot the concert goers – all headed in the same direction. We were inching along, and there it is, a first glimpse of TS – standing tall on the exterior of the JW Marriott! Ajey was able to drop us really close to the East Entrance, and in spite of the crowds, we didn’t take too long to get inside – after a few photos on the steps, of course!! Right by the entrance stood a mother and her young daughter holding up a poster ‘Looking for tickets’ and I did have a flashback to last year with our last-ditch attempt to get tickets to the Chicago show! Inside, we had to take the escalator up, up, up – way up to what Manasi called the ‘nosebleed’ seats! We did have a good view of the stage – the gigantic ramp extending more than half of the arena – remember this is actually a football stadium!! Being so high did give me a touch of vertigo – and then DM said that there were 70,000 people attending – a completely sold out show!! A staggering number, 70,000, can you believe it!! I have to admit that it almost gave me a panic attack, had to sit down for a minute there, catch my breath!

We got to our seats with time to spare – I had thought that Manasi would want to get some merch, but with the long lines, the girls didn’t want to wait. Gracie Abrams came on shortly after, and the crowd went wild! Again, I didn’t know any of the songs, but Manasi and AM sang along for the entire hour she was on stage! Her last song, she said was a duet that she said she had co-written with Taylor, and I was a little surprised that Taylor Swift was coming on with so little fanfare – but of course, she didn’t! A short break after Gracie Abrams’ set, a countdown clock showed up on the giant screens, and the crowd went wild!! And then right as the clock hit zero, there it as – all the expected fanfare!! Taylor Swift – LIVE – making a splashy entrance on to the stage!! We had been given bracelets as we walked in, and these were used to create a backdrop of shimmering colors through the audience! No need for camera flashlights!!

What followed was a 3 and a half hours of eye-popping, jaw-dropping flamboyant musical showmanship!! Dazzling costumes, incredible moving sets, fireworks, laser beams, flawless transitions, stunning exits and entrances – and 70,000 voices singing as one with their idol!! Virtually no breaks, even the costume changes were barely a few minutes – which meant that this talented star sang and danced and entertained for almost the entire duration – her piano songs were her ‘rest’ times! I imagine her costume changes were like a F1 race car coming in for a pit stop – an army of helpers descending to make the change!! The energy was crackling in the stadium – seriously, I’ve never seen or heard anything like this before!! At one point, she finished a song and was sitting at the piano, beaming at the audience – and for a solid five minutes, there was nothing but deafening cheers and Taylor just soaking in all the adulation!! What a display of star power!!!

Don’t ask me about the songs – except for ‘All to Well’, and ‘I’ve seen this film before’, they were all new to me. But that didn’t really matter – I was swept along with Taylor’s charisma and charm, cheering just as loudly as any other die-hard fan! I mean, she’s literally a force of nature – keeping a crowd on their feet for more than 3 hours, screaming, shouting, tears rolling down! An incredible stage presence, handling even a mic malfunction with aplomb – she totally owned this huge crowd heart and soul!! I had always wondered about this mania – but seeing her on stage, her hard work, humility and dedication to her fans on full display – it was easy to understand the frenzy, the absolute devotion of her legions of fans!! Truly, a once-in-a-lifetime experience!! Although I can understand why folks spend thousands of dollars on tickets, going to multiple shows in different cities – sometimes you can’t just get enough of Taylor Swift!!

Our plan was to have Ajey pick us up at the same place he dropped us off – but leaving the arena, we found that they had stopped traffic for about a square mile around the arena. We started walking towards DM’s parking lot, trying to coordinate with Ajey on the phone – it was starting to get cold, but the fizzy energy of the concert was still with us, keeping us warm! There was a brief minute of panic, when both Manasi’s and my phone died (blame the gazillion photos and videos we took!) – but we were able to meet up with Ajey without an incident, and were soon back in our hotel, feasting on the biryani we had brought from home! I was exhausted – but I doubt that Manasi was able to sleep at all, she was on a total high – seriously, Taylor Swift live in concert – is this even real!! Yes, it is!! Wind in our hair, we were there – Swifts for life now!!

By the way, the last concert Manasi and I attended together was Katie Perry’s Prism tour in Shanghai – read all about it here: “You’re gonna hear me roaaar!!”