Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour hits Australian stadiums
The Australian leg of The Eras Tour is underway, with Taylor Swift playing the first of three sold-out Melbourne concerts on Friday night, to be followed by four in Sydney.
The crowd was reported at 96,000 for Taylor Swift's first concert at the MCG, making it the biggest crowd she's ever performed in front of at any stadium in the world. The remaining two shows at the MCG are back to back, on Saturday and Sunday night at the iconic Melbourne stadium.
Taylor Swift mania then heads north to Sydney to play four concerts at Accor Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park, with her first show on Friday 23rd February, followed by shows on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. See the full schedule below and click through to see further event details including times, maps, directions and accomodation.
The Eras Tour 2024 Australian Schedule
| DATE | CITY | VENUE | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 / Fri 16 February |
Melbourne | MCG | INFO |
| 2024 / Sat 17 February |
Melbourne | MCG | INFO |
| 2024 / Sun 18 February |
Melbourne | MCG | INFO |
| 2024 / Fri 23 February |
Sydney | Accor Stadium | INFO |
| 2024 / Sat 24 February |
Sydney | Accor Stadium | INFO |
| 2024 / Sun 25 February |
Sydney | Accor Stadium | INFO |
| 2024 / Mon 26 February |
Sydney | Accor Stadium | INFO |
The tour is one of the most anticipated in Australian concert history, with more than four million people attempting to purchase in excess of 450,000 tickets to her five concerts when they first went on sale. An extra show was added in both Melbourne and Sydney and they too sold out in no time, with prices ranging from $79.90 for GA to VIP packages at $1249.90. Across the globe, the tour has now grossed more than one billion dollars.
The Eras Tour Crowd Capacity
It was initially reported that each of the three concerts at the MCG were expected to be attended by about 86,000 fans, however the figure was announced as 96,000 for the first concert. While this is still short of the almost 110,000 that attended each of the two Ed Sheeran concerts last year, the MCC likens Taylor Swift’s concerts to three consecutive AFL Grand Finals.
Sheeran played his Mathematics Tour concerts ‘in the round’, meaning the stage was in the middle of the stadium with every seat able to be filled, plus seating across most of the arena. The Eras Tour’s large stage is set at one end of the stadium with a long runway, meaning seats behind the stage are unavailable and less of the arena can be filled.
The Eras Tour is believed to be one of the biggest operations the MCG has staged. Brunton Avenue is closed for more than a week as 70 trucks bump in Swift’s stage and then bump it out afterwards. More than 12,000 sq metres of turf is on hand to repair the damage to the ground ahead of AFL season, while more than 5,000 MCG staff will be working at each concert.
There will be no official activations around the MCG in Yarra Park for ticketless fans, however an additional 30,000 fans are still expected to be in the precinct during the concerts each night. The MCG concerts are the biggest crowds she’s played to in her career.
At Sydney’s Accor Stadium, there will be around 75,000 per night at each of the four Taylor Swift concerts, with a total of 300,000 fans attending the shows at the Olympic stadium.
Across all seven The Eras Tour concerts to be held in Australia, a total of almost 600,000 Taylor Swift fans are anticipated to be in attendance. See more concert attendance figures here.
The last time Taylor Swift toured Australia (in 2018), she played four concerts across the country - one each in Brisbane (the Gabba), Sydney (Accor Stadium - then ANZ Stadium), Melbourne (Marvel Stadium), and Perth (Optus Stadium). They were attended by a total of 230,630 fans - see more concert attendance figures here.
The Eras Tour Seating Maps
View the Taylor Swift concert seating maps for both venues here on Austadiums to see the seating layout, gate entries and more. You can also view Google maps, get directions and more. Click on a venue below to view the seating map.
Set Times
The set times are the same for all seven concerts across the two stadiums, with Sabrina Carpenter the support act at all shows. Gates open at 4:30pm.
4:30pm - Gates open
6:30pm - Support act
7:00pm - Taylor Swift
11:00pm - Show ends
Taylor Swift Merchandise
Official Taylor Swift merchandise stands will be setup outside the venues and fans are encouraged to get there early to secure merch.
Taylor Swift Music Live Stream
Stream some of Taylor Swift's biggest hits which will feature during The Eras Tour concerts on Spotify.
The Eras Tour Australian Set List
The songs selected from each of her eras are locked into the concert setlist, some as shortened versions, allowing her to fit 44 songs into the career-spanning retrospective that is The Eras Tour. There are two ‘surprise songs’ which were Red and a live debut of You’re Losing Me for her opening show. Below is the set list from her first MCG concert on Friday night.
Lover
- Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince
- Cruel Summer
- The Man
- You Need to Calm Down
- Lover
- The Archer
Fearless
- Fearless
- You Belong With Me
- Love Story
Evermore
- ‘Tis The Damn Season
- Willow
- Marjorie
- Champagne Problems
- Tolerate It
Reputation
- … Ready for It?
- Delicate
- Don’t Blame Me
- Look What You Made Me Do
Speak Now
- Enchanted
- Long Live
Red
- 22
- We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
- I Knew You Were Trouble
- All Too Well (10-Minute Version)
Folklore
- Seven (played from tape) (spoken poem; contains elements of Wildest Dreams)
- The 1
- Betty
- The Last Great American Dynasty
- August
- Illicit Affairs
- My Tears Ricochet
- Cardigan
1989
- Style
- Blank Space
- Shake It Off
- Wildest Dreams
- Bad Blood
Surprise Songs
- Red
- You’re Losing Me (live debut)
Midnights
- Lavender Haze
- Anti‐Hero
- Midnight Rain
- Vigilante Shit
- Bejewelled
- Mastermind
- Karma
Impact on the MCG's playing surface
After AFL players noticed the MCG's playing surface to be “slippery and inconsistent” following Ed Sheeran's two concerts last year, MCC CEO Stuart Fox is confident in the stadium's groundskeepers ability to go ahead and repair in time for the footy, even if it was “quite confronting”.
“Running concerts are always complicated, but running a Taylor Swift concert is going to be even more complicated,” shared Fox in an interview on SEN radio.
“It’s just massive. Building the seating plan, we obviously have people on the turf, but it’s really around the stage production. Seventy semi-trucks coming onto your ground is quite confronting, and you’ve got six days of set-up, three concerts across Friday, Saturday, Sunday evening, two or three days of pack-down.”
Fox also highlighted the minimal amount of time to repair the grounds between Tay’s last Melbourne show on February 18, and the MCG’s first match of the 2024 AFL season.
“Then you’ve got to replace half the turf at a significant cost. And then we’ve got an AFL season three weeks later.”
Additionally, Fox shared that the venue plans on continuing to have “the biggest and the best” of concerts take place at the MCG twice or so a year.
“I think holding concerts are really, really important. What I love is the fact that people who don’t normally come to the MCG get to experience it,” he said.
The first game to take place after Swift’s shows will be Carlton v Richmond on March 14.
