Taylor Swift in Edinburgh: why Fifers flocked to see iconic singer’s city gig

To see Taylor Swift live has been a global conversation beating all records along the way. The stage crew were in from Wednesday at 8:00am building the set for a Friday night start but by Thursday long queues formed for the official merchandise at the stadium and not surprisingly were of a quality that befits the status of the artist.

This is the ever-long ERAS Tour and so we get songs from all the back catalogue with a section for the brand new The Tortured Poets Department album just released. Support was Paramore with their 45-minute opening set bang on 6:00pm. A half hour of warm up Taylor Swift videos followed before the stage was set with ten dancers appearing first beside four backing singers and a six-piece band.

Then the audience caught first sight of Ms. Swift, and this caused even more noise than ever before. Remember, with 73,000 in attendance this was the biggest pop show Scotland has ever seen. In fact, records have been broken everywhere in this apparent $1billion tour.

Every concert goer was given an LED flashing wristband which picked up signals to give the stadium universal colours according to the song – mine is still flashing away randomly days later. The three-hour 20-minute set, 13 costume changes, 42 songs, innovating effects, flames, smoke, moving stage, confetti cannons with red sequins, huge screens, and fireworks this was bigger than any arena tour before.

The Saturday weather was kind but windy. Scotland will remember Taylor Swift and I read that 4.5% of the Scottish population attended as the whole roadshow moves on to three shows at Anfield Stadium Liverpool, then Cardiff, Wembley and Dublin before a return to London in August for five more shows at Wembley. The Swift phenomenon continues.