Eras Tour Highlights and GA Survival Guide: Gelsenkirchen N2

You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me. (Just kidding, you can do it!)

Jul 25, 2024

Last week, as my lyrical analysis essay on “ivy” went live, I was waiting out in the sun in the queue for the Eras Tour in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, wearing my homemade ivy outfit. I had attended (and written about) the Eras Tour already, but this time my group had general admission standing tickets, which made the day an entirely different experience. I tried to be extremely prepared for the concert, since I was expecting the standing tickets to be a source of both stress and excitement, but there were still things that didn’t go entirely to plan. With that in mind, I figured it might be helpful for anyone with standing tickets to the shows the rest of the summer to share my experience, and I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect on it and catalogue my thoughts while they’re still fresh.

Oh, Goddamn (A Moment for the Fit)

If you’ve been reading my articles about Taylor Swift on here, you’ve probably been able to guess that I love “ivy.” I decided that I wanted to make my own outfit inspired by the song pretty soon after I got my ticket to this show (so about a year in advance), but I ended up working on it over the course of several months. As it turns out, ivy outfits with plastic leaves have become fairly popular at the Eras Tour, but I wanted to put my own spin on it and design the base as well. I ended up crocheting the corset top and the strands of leaves, and I sewed the half-circle skirt with a €1 piece of fabric I found at my local market—talk about serendipity.1 After creating the base for both the top and the skirt, I assembled the final outfit by hand sewing the ivy leaves all over it and using the same green yarn to add straps. I really love how this outfit turned out and matched the evermore vibe at large, since that’s one of my favorite Taylor albums. I put hours and hours of work into making it, so please comment suggestions for other events or places where I can pull off this look and wear it again!

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Who’s Afraid of the Little Old Queue?

Let me guess the number one question people will have, because it was always my first question when I was trying to plan for this concert: what time did we get to the venue? We arrived at VELTINS-Arena around 7:15 in the morning and got numbers 70-73 in the queue for GA back standing—honestly, I was happily surprised by how early we were for our section. In fact, there were at least double the amount of VIPs for the same area who were there when we arrived, which was mildly concerning for our stadium view aspirations (more on that later). Based on our experience last week, here are some tips for queueing all day for the Eras Tour this summer:

Be prepared for rain or sun. Obviously this might depend on where your show is, but in places like Germany and the UK, you never know what to expect. We attended the second concert in Gelsenkirchen, where it went from cloudy to sunny throughout the day, but the day before had some bouts of heavy rain and the day after had sun and high temperatures. I brought a cheap rain poncho that I didn’t end up needing, but we used it as an extra mat to sit on, so it served its purpose.
Bring sunscreen and a sun shade. We didn’t have the bag space to bring something like an umbrella to block out the sun, but most people around us in the queue had these thin foil sheets that acted as sun reflectors and could be tied to the queue barricade above their heads. I have to give a special shoutout to our queue neighbors for helping us to survive the heat and direct sunlight in the afternoon by sharing their resources and letting us use their sun shade—everyone was very friendly and willing to help each other.
Bring something big to sit on while you wait, since you might end up sitting in a dirt parking lot littered with rocks, like we did. If you get to the venue by public transport, take something that you don’t mind abandoning/throwing away if you don’t have enough space to bring it inside. I brought a thin beach towel/blanket that I’d gotten for free by chance when I was shopping the week before. With that and the multi-purpose rain poncho, we had enough space for the four of us to sit and keep our concert outfits clean!
We realized once we were there how much easier it would have been to take breaks and store extra things had we come by car. Lots of people were making friendship bracelets, which would’ve been a great waiting activity, but I didn’t have space in my concert bag for all those beads. This isn’t always a choice, and it wasn’t for us, but if you’re debating car versus public transport for queueing, opt for the car.
Drink plenty of water and eat lots of snacks throughout the day—we each brought water bottles that we refilled, and the venue started handing out free water when it got really sunny. Don’t not drink because you’re worried about going to the toilet in the stadium; you’ll have time once you get inside before Paramore goes on, and after that you’ll probably be sweating so much that you’ll forget about your bladder completely. Eat a bigger meal in the early afternoon before the standing room people start moving toward the stadium. If you’re travelling to your show, make sure to have some snacks in your hotel or accommodation for when you get back late at night, because you’ll be hungry.

Amidst the chaos and exhaustion of waiting all day, I managed to trade a bunch of friendship bracelets with other GA swifties! It was so much fun to walk up and down the queue and find people to trade with; I honestly think this new tradition is such a great way of fostering community on a simultaneously massive and personal scale. Even though I don’t speak German, everyone I approached was so friendly and excited about trading bracelets. I was astounded by the beautiful and intricate designs that people had made, with charms, flowers, and double strands that I never learned how to do. I’ve included just a few of my favorite bracelets below, but check out this tiktok for a full haul!

Encounters Closer and Closer

Once we got to our spots inside the stadium, the standing area was surprisingly calm and not too pushy or crowded. We sat down on the floor before the show started since we knew we would be standing for hours. Unfortunately, the water bottle policy at the venue was unclear. One set of rules said none were allowed at all, and another one said you could have water if it was in a Tetra Pak. Then, they started handing out Tetra Pak water in the queue and told us we could take it into the concert, which truly boosted my mood for the last few hours of waiting. But then, tragedy struck: when we scanned our tickets to enter, they made everyone throw away the water, after all. Thankfully, the stadium staff inside did a great job of passing water to the crowd. They handed out cups pretty consistently between songs, and even during songs toward the end of the concert.

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Of course, I have to mention the view. It turned out that a lot of VIP tickets had been sold for our section, so despite waiting all day, we were still six or seven rows back from the corner of the stage. It seems that this is a factor that varies unpredictably from show to show and section to section, so keep that in mind when deciding how early you want to queue if you have regular or VIP tickets. Our tickets were GA for the back half of the stadium, which meant we were only close to the performers when they came all the way to the end of the stage. Nevertheless, those moments were really spectacular, and that included Taylor’s acoustic set, which was so special to witness up close! On top of that, we could see the screens perfectly and the diamond part of the stage pretty well, especially when the performers were up on the risers in the middle (I’m not tall). Ultimately, I thought that we had a great straight-on overview of the stage, and our tickets were quite a bit cheaper than front right or left standing where, unless you’re close to the barricade, you might have less of a holistic view.

Remember This Moment

For the guitar surprise song, we got a mashup of “Speak Now” and “Hey Stephen.” This meant the world to me and my inner child, since Speak Now and Fearless have remained among my favorite albums since they came out. As someone who feels personally wronged by the fact that I attended the Eras Tour only before “Long Live” was on the setlist and after it was taken off, it was incredible to get to hear another Speak Now song live for the first time (and the title track herself!). I also have an extremely vivid memory of listening to “Hey Stephen” on my purple iPod Nano (the one that had the ability to take videos but not pictures, go figure) while dancing through my house to the living room. That song was my first favorite off of Fearless when I became a hopeless romantic at the ripe age of nine.

The piano surprise song, which was on our side of the stage, was a devastatingly beautiful mashup of “this is me trying” and “Labyrinth.” This struck me as an interesting combination at first, but I suppose that both songs explore themes of anxiety from different angles. In any case, I was standing in Taylor’s direct eyeline when she was at the piano, so I’m telling myself that she saw me in the audience. As far as I’m concerned, we locked eyes and sang “this is me trying” together, and it was unforgettable.

All in all, this concert was an extraordinary experience! It was definitely a long and hot day of waiting—I'm just lucky that we had a fairly mild and cloudy morning before the sun really picked up—but once Paramore took that stage, I knew it had been worth it. By the time I saw Taylor “make her way through the crowd and say hello” to my edge of the stage during “Love Story,” I couldn't believe how close she was. Although the Eras Tour is a massive choreographed production, it’s these experiences (and the surprise songs, especially) that remind you that she’s a real person right in front of you singing, dancing, and performing her heart out, just like she started doing eighteen years ago.