In exactly 100 days, Toronto will “trade (its) baseball cap for a crown” when global “Superstar” Taylor Swift brings her record-smashing Eras Tour to the city for six sold-out shows at Rogers Centre this November.
The four-time album-of-the-year Grammy winner’s expected presence in Toronto had the Rogers Centre implementing renovations with Swifties in mind and city officials planning away in preparation.
The city will be welcoming her by designating the path between Nathan Phillips Square and the arena “Taylor Swift Way” for the month of November, continuing the trend of cities around the world honouring a visit from the pop star.
As we approach the long-awaited concert weekends — which fans have lovingly dubbed “Tayronto” — here is everything you need to know:
The basics
When are the Toronto Taylor Swift shows?
The Eras Tour is coming to Toronto for two weekends with three nights each Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Swift will be playing Rogers Centre with opener Gracie Abrams from Nov. 14 to 16 and Nov. 21 to 23.
She is set to become the first artist to perform six shows at Rogers Centre, but could the multi-hyphenate superstar possibly be doing even more? Reality can be “Sweeter Than Fiction.”
On Friday, fans noticed a Nov. 24 Eras show had been added to Ticketmaster’s website, despite no announcement of additional dates from Swift. The additional date was swiftly removed, but it has fuelled speculation that the city may be getting an extra show.
The Star has reached out to Ticketmaster and Rogers Centre for comment, but has not received a reply as of publication date of this article.
If Toronto gets the extra date, it will be the 150th show of the Eras Tour.
What songs will Taylor Swift perform in Toronto?
Swift is expected to give a breathtaking ten-act performance over three hours, which will include songs from almost all her studio albums or “eras.” Her debut album, “Taylor Swift” has remained conspicuously absent from the permanent set list.
Since the tour started in March 2023, the set list has gone through several changes, most notably after Swift released her 11th studio album “The Tortured Poets Department” in April.
As of the singer’s latest show in Warsaw, Poland on Saturday, the set list includes 44 permanent songs each night. As Swift recently collaborated with Abrams for her new song — “us” — it is possible that Swift replaces a song on the set list with the new tune.
And, on top of that, every night Swift plays two songs which are not on the set list — one on acoustic guitar and the other on piano.
These songs have even included some of Swift’s non-album songs such as the country love ballad, “Crazier” from 2009 Disney Channel film, “Hannah Montana: The Movie” in which Swift cameoed, and have even on occasion included special guests performing a song on which they collaborated with her.
While initially, the rule was that the surprise songs would not be repeated (except for the ones from “Midnights” which had just been released the year before the tour started), during her Melbourne show on Feb. 18, Swift announced that she has abolished the no repeats rule.
Also in Melbourne, Swift started playing mash-ups of two and sometimes even three songs for each of the two acoustic performances. So over six nights, Toronto can get anywhere between 12 to 36 surprise songs (although it is unlikely it would be that high — 24 is probably a safer bet).
Specially with the no repeats rule gone, it is hard to say which songs the city will get, but there is one song that may make its way because of its Toronto connection.
For her song, “It’s Nice to Have a Friend” from her 2019 album “Lover,” Swift sampled a track featuring the then 9- to 18-year-old students of the city’s very own Regent Park School of Music. Licensing and publishing proceeds from the use of sample goes toward funding the school’s music program. Swift also made an additional undisclosed donation to the program on the album’s day of release in 2019.
How bad will traffic be for the Eras Tour in Toronto?
If you’re lucky enough to be heading to see Taylor, or unlucky enough to have to go through the area around the Rogers Centre on the day of a Swiftie swarm, you might want to plan ahead. Even artists performing in Toronto have had to get out of their cars and walk to their concerts — maybe you’ll catch sight of Swift walking down Lake Shore Boulevard?
The area around Rogers Centre continues to be heavily under construction — for both drivers and transit riders. Construction on the Gardiner is expected to continue through all of the days of Swift’s shows in Toronto. A study in June found that morning rush hour travel times on the Gardiner had increased by more than 250 per cent, which might not bode well for concertgoers hoping to make their way downtown by car.
Meanwhile, Queen Street, between Victoria and Bay Streets, remains shut down for Ontario Line construction and the Spadina streetcars has been replaced with buses — which after heavy congestion in the first month, now have a priority bus lane.
But don’t fret, city officials told the Star in March that they would be finalizing plans this summer to help manage the expected influx of concertgoers with plans for traffic and increased TTC service.
How much money is Eras expected to bring to Toronto?
Toronto tourism still hasn’t bounced back to pre-pandemic levels but there’s one last hope for this year: Taylor Swift.
Economists upgraded Singapore’s economic outlook in March, credited in part to the impacts of six-nights of Swifties, secured with payments by the Singaporean government in return for Swift not performing elsewhere in Southeast Asia.
We’ve already seen the beginnings of Swift’s economic boon for the city — just days after Swift announced her Toronto tour dates, flight searches on Expedia for her Nov. 14 to 16 tour dates jumped by more than 5,000 per cent, and hotel searches went up by more than 8,000 per cent, according to the travel agency.
No ticket? No problem
How much are Toronto Eras tickets?
All six Eras Tour nights in Toronto are sold-out with fans travelling far and wide to catch the world’s biggest superstar on stage. Some resale tickets are going for as high as $121,000 on the resale market.
If you were waitlisted by Ticketmaster, then you may still have a shot at being “The Lucky One” — for some of the previous shows, fans were taken off the waitlist for additional tickets as late as the weekend before the concert.
However, some fans have been using social media to buy and sell tickets at face-value, but that comes with its own risk of possible scammers
What if I didn’t get a ticket?
In many cities with open stadiums, fans without tickets got together outside the stadium to enjoy the show and in Munich, over 20,000 fans assembled at a hill just outside the stadium to experience the Eras Tour. Unfortunately, Rogers Centre in November will probably not have an open roof but there are still events that Toronto Swifties can attend to have “The Best Day” even if they don’t have tickets.
On all concert six dates, “Toronto’s Version: Taylgate ‘24” will be running from 1 p.m. until 11 p.m. at the nearby Metro Toronto Convention Centre and will include will include a live DJ mixing Swift’s hits, singalong spaces for the vocally brave and a massive space to create friendship bracelets.
Organizers of Taylor Swift Dance Party Canada have also planned after-parties for all six nights at the Antler Room at The Loose Moose on Front Street from 11 p.m. till 2 a.m. the next day.
