We’d made no plans, our house in York was a mess, our one-year-old’s naps were all over the place, and it felt like the whole weekend was going to be a write-off. Seven hours later and we were standing at Wembley Stadium screaming our hearts out as the most famous singer in the world took to her diamond stage. I still can’t quite believe it happened.
Advertisement Advertisement Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Forget Glastonbury . This summer, if you want a true “tear your hair out getting tickets” experience, it’s all about Taylor Swift .
Tickets for her Eras extravaganza, which takes in 18 years of her extraordinary career, are not easy to come by. Registration for the tour launched back in 2022, and even after expressing an interest, you could only buy tickets if you were picked, lottery style, and sent a special access code for the sale. Many Swifties missed out.
Despite the stadiums hosting her having capacity of more than 90,000 people, there are just too many of us out there obsessed with the music and words of the 34-year-old with a songbook mixed of heartbreak and empowerment. I’d registered myself for a chance to buy tickets in every one of her British dates: Liverpool , Cardiff, Edinburgh and London, but never received a code. However, back in June, I was fortunate enough to get tickets for a Liverpool date through a friend of a friend.
It was truly one of the most magical nights of my life. My dear Swiftie friend Susie and I belted out hit after hit, from the Fearless days of our teenage years lusting after boys from the year above, to Taylor’s latest opus, The Tortured Poets’ Department - an album she describes as “female rage - the musical.” It didn’t matter that Susie and I are now happily settled down in our 30s.
We screamed every word. Advertisement Advertisement My only sadness was that I couldn’t experience the concert with my husband. He’s not your typical Swiftie.
He loves hardcore dance and techno, and before 2020 would have - and absolutely did - turned his nose up at my passion for all things Taylor. But in the midst of the pandemic, Swift put out her surprise folklore/evermore album duo, a Grammy award winning foray into folk and acoustic which was as lyrically beautiful as it was catchy. It became the soundtrack to a thousand car journeys, and when we married in 2021, our first dance was to the song ‘peace’ at his suggestion - an ethereal and heart tugging exploration of a relationship which thrives through mental health challenges, as he has supported me through mine.
Fast forward to Saturday. I’d sent Matt to Tesco and was trying to get our little girl to nap. As she dozed in her cot, I started absent-mindedly scrolling through my inbox, deleting a deluge of marketing spam.
And then I gasped as I saw it. It had been sent two days ago and I’d missed it. An access code to buy last minute tickets to Wembley.
Advertisement Advertisement At first, I thought it was spam, but as I logged into my Ticketmaster account, I realised it was legitimate. And there were still seats! Dozens of them in fact, as close to the stage as you could get. Released by production at the last minute after they’d confirmed the set-up configuration, they were going for - and I stress this is comparatively speaking - a song at £150 each.
The only catch? It was close to midday, Taylor was due to take to the stage in just over six hours, I had a napping child, and we live in York, some 200 miles away. Thank goodness for willing grandparents, who were more than happy to step in and take our little girl for the night. A quick check of Google Maps revealed with a fair wind we’d make it in the nick of time.
It took us no time at all to decide it was worth the risk. And less than an hour after I’d seen the email, we’d thrown our essentials in the car and were on the way. I remembered my Taylor Swift cardigan, but forgot my friendship bracelets.
I can’t lie: the journey was stressful. Every time we hit even a minute’s traffic on the A1, I mentally calculated what songs we’d miss if we were late. At one point we both had a meltdown over whether we’d booked parking properly (that was my husband’s job: he had.
) Advertisement Advertisement But four hours and as many Taylor albums later - we’d arrived at our parking spot a short walk from the stadium. We made it inside Wembley with a good 20 minutes to spare before Taylor was due onstage, soaking in the incredible outfits and effort people had gone to. For many, this date had been ringed in their diaries for over a year, and it was hard to believe that for us, it had been less than six hours.
And the concert? Well, I’ve already written over 800 words just on how we got there. But it was everything we could have dreamed of. As the sun set over Wembley Stadium, and Taylor emerged in her folklore/evermore forest cabin themed stage set, we threw our arms around each other and sung the words to ‘cardigan’ ‘august’ ‘betty’ and ‘marjorie’ - songs that had memories of our lives together entwined with every line.
My hastily applied make-up was smeared down my cheeks as I cried my heart out. It was our anniversary week and I couldn’t have imagined a more perfect way to end it. As this article is published, it’s midday on Monday September 19.
There are two Wembley concerts to go. The first starts in about six hours. Check your inbox - you never know, you might be as lucky as we were.
And if you are? Don’t think twice. It’s a love story, baby, just say yes..
