{"id":15206,"date":"2024-02-07T12:47:35","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T12:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/07\/taylor-swift-mania-sweeps-tokyo-for-sold-out-concerts-with-all-eyes-on-return-trip-to-super-bowl\/"},"modified":"2024-02-07T12:47:35","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T12:47:35","slug":"taylor-swift-mania-sweeps-tokyo-for-sold-out-concerts-with-all-eyes-on-return-trip-to-super-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/07\/taylor-swift-mania-sweeps-tokyo-for-sold-out-concerts-with-all-eyes-on-return-trip-to-super-bowl\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Swift mania sweeps Tokyo for sold-out concerts, with all eyes on return trip to Super Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Long lines in snowy weather to buy merchandise days in advance. Hordes of fans, some from other countries, filling up the 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome, excitedly swapping homemade bracelets. People around the world feverishly calculating time zones and watching online flight trackers. <\/p>\n

This is the Taylor Swift phenomenon \u2013 and the mania that has followed the pop superstar as she prepares to perform four nights of sold-out shows in Tokyo before potentially jetting back to Las Vegas to watch boyfriend Travis Kelce play at the Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs. <\/p>\n

The Tokyo leg of Swift\u2019s Eras Tour \u2013 a multi-continent extravaganza that could end up as the highest-grossing tour of all time \u2013 kicked off Wednesday evening and ends Saturday night. <\/p>\n

The area outside the Tokyo Dome was packed hours before doors opened on the first night Wednesday, with fans decked out in glitter, tassels, tiaras and kimonos. <\/p>\n

Kane Ishiyone, 28, traveled from her home in Fukuoka, in southwestern Japan, to Tokyo for the concert \u2013 for which she has bought tickets to all four nights. She has loved Swift since 2009 \u2013 to the point she learned English to understand the song lyrics, and left her job to move about more freely during the tour. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m taking a two-year break for going to her concerts,\u201d she said, speaking outside the concert venue with pink stickers on her cheeks. \u201cI quit my job when she announced this Eras Tour.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Eras Tour had its first show in March 2023 and will continue through December 2024. <\/p>\n

To date, Ishiyone has attended more than 20 concerts in eight cities \u2013 and is already planning future trips to Germany, Austria and the Netherlands to attend Swift\u2019s shows there. <\/p>\n

Childhood friends Sarina Saito, 18, and Aimi Satou, 19, said they were looking forward to doing TikTok chants at the concert. \u201cWe worked hard at part-time jobs (to afford) this,\u201d they said. <\/p>\n

Excitement among Swifties, as her fans are known, had been building for days. <\/p>\n

Organizers began selling tour merchandise at the Tokyo Dome on Monday, with large crowds waiting outdoors in the snow and sleet for Taylor-branded hoodies and sweatshirts. One fan from the Philippines, who flew to Tokyo for the concert, said on TikTok she\u2019d stood in line in temperatures hovering around zero for two and a half hours. <\/p>\n

Fans have also prepared through rituals that have by now become established traditions among the Swiftie community: making personalized friendship bracelets to trade with other concert attendees, practicing crowd chants and curating carefully chosen Taylor-themed outfits. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen with the Taylor Swift tour is something that we\u2019ve not really seen before,\u201d said Richard Clarke, an analyst at investment firm Bernstein. \u201cIt\u2019s been a very well-timed post-Covid event, a sort of cultural event, everyone seems to want to go to this.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been such a popular tour that people have found that their home markets are often sold out, and therefore have begun to travel to other markets to try and find tickets,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m sure that\u2019s going to be the case with Asia as well.\u201d <\/p>\n

Two fans at the Tokyo Dome on Wednesday said they\u2019d traveled from New Zealand for the concert. \u201cWe tried to get tickets to Taylor Swift in Australia, but we just could not, it was two weeks of pressing the refresh button, trying to get tickets, couldn\u2019t get tickets, and (my friend) said, let\u2019s try for Japan,\u201d one said. <\/p>\n

In a sign of just how international the crowd was, one attendee described hearing multiple Asian languages inside the stadium on Wednesday. But then Swift appeared, the music began playing and tens of thousands of people sang as one in the common tongue of her lyrics. <\/p>\n

Super Bowl return?<\/h2>\n

Then there\u2019s the question of whether Swift will make it back to Las Vegas in time for Super Bowl Sunday, given the long-haul flight and large time difference \u2013 prompting fans around the world to draw up spreadsheets, timelines and even PowerPoint presentations to track her journey. <\/p>\n

Swift has been a regular at Kansas City Chiefs games since she turned up at Kelce\u2019s family suite in September last year to watch them against the Chicago Bears. The pair later confirmed in separate interviews that they had already been seeing each other prior to that game. <\/p>\n

Even the Japanese embassy in Washington weighed in to reassure fans, saying in a statement last Friday that \u201cdespite the 12-hour flight and 17-hour time difference \u2026 she should comfortably arrive in Las Vagas before the Super Bowl begins.\u201d <\/p>\n

Working in Swift\u2019s favor is Japan\u2019s position as the \u201cland of the rising sun.\u201d As one of the first countries to the west of the international dateline, it is a full 17 hours ahead of Las Vegas. <\/p>\n

While Swift finishes her last concert on Saturday night local time, that\u2019s still early dawn hours Saturday morning in Las Vegas, leaving her plenty of time ahead of the Super Bowl kick-off on Sunday evening Las Vegas time. <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n