With only three stops left on the Eras Tour, Taylor Swift has been reminiscing on the last almost two years, and in particular, the one major movement that has occurred – friendship bracelets.
In a video posted by a fan on X, formerly known as Twitter, the singer took a moment during the Red era section to stop and thank fans, and share how proud she was of their passion.
“You’ve created traditions. You’ve created this mass movement of joy every time we play a show. And it makes me so proud, it really does,” she said.
Speaking to fans during the first night in New Orleans at the Caesar’s Superdome, she added: “I just showed up one day and you guys were trading friendship bracelets and I was like, ‘That’s cool’, and now there is a giant friendship bracelet on the outside of this stadium.”
Caesar’s Superdome had built a giant friendship bracelet for the weekend, hanging it outside the stadium.
“Which is so nice of them to do for us — but it’s even nicer of you guys to create things that went so far beyond what I ever expected for this tour.”
The tradition was sparked by fans early on in the tour in 2023 and it was inspired by a line from “You’re On Your Own Kid,” track five on her 2022 album Midnights, where she sings: “So make the friendship bracelets / Take the moment and taste it / You’ve got no reason to be afraid.”
Fans have traded them with each other, spending hours making the homemade jewelry, and have also done their best to give them to Taylor herself during moments on red carpets such as the Eras Tour concert film premiere in 2023.
Earlier in 2024 it was revealed that the 34-year-old singer has donated those bracelets to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, where they are appearing in the entrance to the Taylor Swift Education Center.
The center launched a new exhibition to tie in with the release of her April 19 2024 album The Tortured Poet’s Department, and it also featured the mother-of-pearl fingerboard she used during the 2013 and 2014 Red tour.
Unique posters from each of the 2023 dates also feature in the exhibition, as well as the Deering Boston B6 six-string acoustic-electric banjo Taylor played when she performed her song “Mean” at the Grammy Awards in 2012, and the BCBG Max Azria silk handkerchief dress, accented with sequins, she wore to the 2006 ACM Awards.
The Taylor Swift Education Center opened in 2013 and “was made possible through a generous donation from Swift to the museum’s capital campaign, which doubled the size of the nonprofit cultural organization”, the Museum said.
“In 2023, the museum’s educational initiatives served more than 230,000 people through in-person and virtual programs — many of which originated in the Taylor Swift Education Center.”
The Eras Tour began on March 17, 2023 as a three-hour long show with over 45 songs spanning what was then Taylor’s ten albums from her 17-year career.
After the release of TTPD, she changed the set to include the 11th album, and rearranged the order of the eras, cutting several songs.The tour has become the biggest-grossing tour of all time, and was recorded in Los Angeles in August 2023 and released in cinemas in October 2023 around the globe.It later premiered on Disney+ where fans can watch the original setlist.
