Taylor Swift ignites crowd at Rogers Centre in first of 6 Toronto shows

Taylor Swift hit the stage in Toronto for her first show Thursday night, and the first Eras Tour stop in Canada, greeting a sold-out crowd in a signature glittery bodysuit as Swifties rejoiced with both cheers and tears.

She emerged on stage to strains of the unreleased “Long Time Coming,” a feeling many fans voiced about the highly anticipated tour as they streamed into the Rogers Centre. It quickly transitioned into “Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince.”

While belting out her 2019 hit “Cruel Summer,” she asked the crowd to join in on the bridge as she skipped down the ramp to the front of the stage. When the song ended she stopped to take it all in, slowly pointing to the crowd around the arena as each section erupted in applause.

“It brings me so much joy to say these words to you – Toronto welcome to the Eras Tour!” she said.

Swift acknowledged how Toronto has gone the extra mile to welcome her and said it’s a different experience than she’s had in any other city. 

She also called Toronto fans the most generous, welcoming, encouraging and excited. 

Another nod to Canada came during the performance of “We Are Never Getting Back Together” when a dancer chimed in saying “sorry about that” after the chorus in an exaggerated Canadian accent.

When performing the “Folklore” and “Evermore” eras, Swift told the audience it felt like she was “returning it to where it belongs anyway” and said she feels it fits in with the natural beauty and wilderness of the country.

Following the performance of “Champagne Problems,” the nearly 50,000 strong crowd applauded and cheered for more than three minutes. Swift appeared to tear up as she stopped to soak in the adoration. She thanked fans, saying she and her crew only have eight shows left in the tour and to receive an ovation of that magnitude was unforgettable.

Swift adds two surprise numbers in every show, usually acoustic, that fans have come to expect. She explained that no two shows are the same.

For her first night in Toronto she played a mashup of “My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys” and “This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” on an acoustic guitar. She then moved over to a piano and played “False God” mashed up with “’tis the damn season.”

She closed the nearly 3.5 hour show with 2022 hit Karma with all on-stage performers donning glittery fringe jackets and taking one final bow together.

The anticipation was palpable around Rogers Centre leading up to the show, with sequin-clad fans of all ages lined up for hours before the gates opened. 

Every step was marked by a selfie or with spontaneous sing-alongs of a favourite Swift song and periodic eruptions of gleeful cheers.

Toronto has been primed and prepped for weeks ahead of the megastar’s arrival. Streets were temporarily renamed, transit modified and every available advertising surface covered in glittery promotional posters.

As fans entered the sold out arena, packing it all the way to the rafters with sparkles, it was clear they didn’t need much warming up — they’ve been ready for it for months.

A giant screen with a mosaic of Swift photos as background played behind-the-scenes footage of Swift’s video shoots as thousands of photos were snapped for posterity.

Friends were being made in the floor seats as they swapped Swift stories and friendship bracelets. 

Fans travelled from all over Canada and the world to see the show. Rachel Ness hopped across the border from Minneapolis and says her flight was the “Swiftie express” with many others on board making the same pilgrimage.

She shared with CityNews that it was her first time in Toronto and that she was ready for the trip even before she was able to score tickets for the concert. 

“I proactively got all the things I needed to go without having tickets. Got my outfit, made the bracelets – all of it,” she said.

“I almost went to Europe but the timing didn’t line up, the pricing didn’t line up … I felt like this is my last shot!”

She found a floor seat ticket for Thursday night just two hours before show time and decided the price was right, even though she already snagged a ticket for the Friday show last week. As a die hard fan who made the trip to Toronto just to see Swift, she said it made sense to go two nights in a row.

“I could hardly sleep, my heart’s been racing” she said.

Like many others, this was not Ness’ first attempt at getting her hands on the highly coveted tickets. She lost $300 to an online scammer trying to buy tickets for herself, her sister and her niece. 

Various police forces across the GTA have been warning fans to avoid buying tickets from social media sites and stick to legitimate ticket resellers.

Gracie Abrams opens for Swift

Gracie Abrams had the enormous task of opening the show and the crowd greeted her warmly with ear-piercing screams as she stepped out, guitar in hand, in a flowing white gown. 

She belted out a rousing rendition of “Risk” to kick off her set, with many in the crowd singing along. Every prolonged note and chorus was greeted with applause. 

Between songs, Abrams acknowledged the efforts of fans to dress in their sparkly best.

As she performed crowd favourite “Let it happen,” fans lit up their phones and filled the arena with thousands of sparkling lights. 

“She’s so talented,” one enthralled fan shouted in between joyous screaming. 

Her set lasted for a little over 30 minutes and included other crowd favourites like “That’s so true,” “I told you things,” and the recently Grammy-nominated “Us,” co-written with Swift.

She ended her set with “Close to you” with the crowd enthusiastically singing along.

After she left the stage there was a brief lull when the lights came on. More photos were taken, more bracelets exchanged and the enthusiasm remained high.

A clock appeared on the stage screen at exactly 7:48 pm, counting down 2:00 minutes to Taylor Time.

Tour production dazzles fans

The production is massive in both scale and complexity. The stage is a long, T-shaped ramp with triangular wings about halfway down. Sections of the stage elevate throughout portions of the show revealing screens with graphics and lights.

The stage floor also lights up with graphics that change based on the songs and choreography. A massive screen looms large behind the stage, ensuring the entire arena gets a good view of the idol they came to see. 

Lighting, on-stage pyrotechnics and video displays fill in the gaps when Swift was not on stage for brief costume changes.

Pyrotechnics were also deployed from hanging rigs above the floor seats with large flames shooting out to punctuate the performance of “Bad Blood” and fireworks for the finale.