Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is easily one of the most significant musical events of our generation. Spanning 10 albums, four of which had never been previously performed onstage due to the pandemic, Taylor performs a 3 hour 15 minute set with a total of 44 songs and numerous staging and costume changes while indulging in virtually no breaks.

If you are lucky enough to have tickets for one of her shows, you’re probably pretty invested in having the best experience possible. Don’t worry: You’re NOT On Your Own Kid! After attending on Night 1 in Arlington, TX, I have a long list of tips to help you prepare All Too Well to Stay, Stay, Stay having fun and enjoy for the perfect night out Shaking It Off. What can I say? I’m a Mastermind.

Tips for Attending The Eras Tour

Before the The Eras Tour Concert

1. Purchase parking ahead of time. Remember: the closer to the stadium, the longer it will take to exit the lot!

I highly recommend pre-purchasing your parking so you won’t be ripped off by local opportunists on the day of the show. When we purchased our parking spot on StubHub before the concert, at first we were dismayed that the only options under $50 were .5 miles (AKA a 30-minute walk) away from the stadium. While it did make for a long trek back to the car, our $22 lot was right next to the highway and we were able to exit the traffic nightmarescape and get home pretty quickly after the show! Take this into account if you are comfortable with 20-30 mins of walking after the concert.

2. Check your stadium’s bag policy.

Make sure you find out what types of bags are allowed at your venue. Some only allow clear bags, while others simply have size requirements. AT&T Stadium only allows very small opaque clutch purses, but they also allow clear plastic tote bags as large as 12x12x6 inches. We found a clear tote on Amazon and loved it. Having all of that extra space for carrying shoes, merch, water, and more is such a game changer!

3. Bring essential supplies.

Here’s what I would recommend bringing in your concert bag: hand sanitizer, backup battery charger (if allowed), concert earplugs, Advil, a water bottle (if allowed), any makeup you might want to touch up, and friendship bracelets to trade. I highly recommend wearing comfortable shoes because between walking to the stadium from your car, waiting in lines for food or merch, 2 hours of openers, 3 hours of Taylor performing, and the walk back to your car, you will be constantly on your feet. But if you want to wear some cute heeled shoes for pictures, you could always bring a backup pair of comfy sneakers in your bag with you!

4. Bring friendship bracelets to trade!

If you enjoy crafts, I definitely recommend making some friendship bracelets to trade with other fans before the concert per tradition! You can find so many cute ideas on TikTok. Having a little DIY leading up to the concert and something that connects you to other fans really enhances the experience!

5. Order merch online ahead of the concert.

Almost all of the Eras Tour merch for sale at the venue is identical to what is available online. Pro tip if you want merch: skip the long lines at the venue and order it from the official Taylor Swift store online before the concert even comes to your city! I did this and it allowed me enough time to stand in line for food and eat dinner before the show instead!

6. Leave snacks and water bottles in the car for a post-concert snack.

While I definitely highly recommend eating an actual meal at your venue before the show (see more below), I also predict you’ll be hungry at the end of the night when you’ve burned a lot of calories from dancing and screaming! Leave water bottles and munchies like Chex Mix or Pringles in the car as a treat for future you so that you don’t have to track down food on your way home at 1 a.m. We were SO glad we did that!

During the The Eras Tour Concert

7. Arrive early to avoid traffic and stress.

If you want to take any photos, get merch onsite, eat, trade bracelets, or sit down to enjoy the openers, I recommend getting to the venue as early as possible: ideally, arrive when the doors open around 4:30 p.m. This might sound excessive, but even though we left our house five hours before Taylor went onstage, we only had juuust enough time for parking, a couple of quick pictures, food, and bathroom breaks beforehand! There’s going to be at least an hour of traffic as you get close to the venue, and you also have to allow time to walk from your car to the doors and wait in line at security. As Taylor would say, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” So plan to get there early and enjoy yourself!

8. Take photos outside the venue for the best lighting.

We took some really fun photos in our concert attire outside the entrance to the stadium, near the merch tents. If your venue is an enclosed dome like AT&T Stadium, pictures probably aren’t going to be quite as bright or flattering inside! I saw lots of people in really cute outfits make this tragic mistake.

9. Go to the merch lines inside the stadium – they are MUCH shorter!

If you decide you don’t want to buy merch online beforehand (or if you want that elusive blue crewneck everyone is talking about) here’s a tip that will save you hours: there are multiple merch tables encircling the entire stadium when you get inside, and the lines for the ones indoors are much shorter than the outdoor tents! So take your pictures outside, then go grab a spot in line for merch inside.

10. Don’t miss the Capital One elevator photo op.

Since The Eras Tour is sponsored by Capital One, they have the cutest photo op with the Bejeweled-style elevator from Taylor’s Capital One commercial! They sometimes even choose a few lucky Capital One cardholder fans who pose for pics with the elevator to receive upgraded floor tickets. Can you imagine?!?! We missed out on this experience because we got stuck in a bit more traffic than we originally planned and arrived about an hour after the doors opened. The lines for the elevator experience are really long, so arrive extra early if you want to do this!

11. Eat dinner and use the bathroom during the openers.

I can’t stress this enough: the concert is (amazingly) long, so make sure you eat something and use the bathroom before it starts so that you won’t be uncomfortable and distracted during the show! Allow yourself at least an hour for this because the food and bathroom lines will be long. And ladies: whatever you do, DO NOT try to use the men’s bathroom! Multiple people were kicked out of the venue for this and missed the whole concert! (Plus, let’s be real, it’s kinda rude. I wouldn’t feel comfortable with the guys using our bathroom, yknow?)

12. Don’t be nervous: trade bracelets!

If you’ve never experienced the “friendship bracelet culture” at Taylor Swift concerts, you might be nervous or uncertain about how to broach the topic. But people are so friendly and eager to trade! Just go up to anyone you see with bracelets on their wrists or in a tote and they will be eager to trade with you.

13. Be in your seat by 7:50 p.m. It’s time for Taylor!!!

I almost made a crucial error when I tried to use the bathroom one last time right before Taylor was scheduled to go onstage. She walked on at 7:52ish instead of 8:00 and when I made it back to my seat I was mere SECONDS away from missing the start of the concert! If you are waiting in a line for something around 7:45, abandon hope and dash back to your seat so that you won’t miss the main event.

14. Turn the exposure down on your iPhone for crisp photos and videos.

Sometimes iPhones have a hard time recording high quality photos and video footage when it’s dark. But I saw someone on TikTok suggest this tip and it left me with the most AMAZING clear, crisp photos! (And this reel from the concert that went viral on Instagram!) First, turn your exposure all the way down on your iPhone camera. Then go to Settings> Camera> Preserve Settings> Exposure Adjustment and toggle it ON. This will instruct your camera to maintain the lower exposure when you tap in and out of the camera app, or even after you lock your phone.

15. Pay attention to the set list to be ready to capture iconic moments on film.

Since I knew ahead of time from social media when Taylor would perform some of her most dazzling feats, I managed to record clips of the concert that I’ll treasure for a lifetime without watching the entire show through my phone 24/7. If you know there are specific songs or moments when you want to record a short clip or snap a picture, you can be ready to film them and then sit back and enjoy yourself during the rest of the show!

16. Ask a buddy to film clips during your favorite song so you can immerse yourself in the experience.

If there’s one particular song on her setlist that you especially connect with emotionally, ask a concert companion to film some of it for you while you live in the moment and enjoy hearing Taylor sing it to you in real time. For me this song was All Too Well, and my husband was kind enough to record the entire 10-minute version while I sang my heart out, screamed, and cried along with Taylor!

17. Grab confetti on your way out if you have floor seats.

At the end of the show, when Taylor is performing Karma, confetti bursts from cannons at each corner of the main floor. There are confetti strips in each of the 10 colors that represent one of Taylor’s 10 albums, and I’ve seen some really creative crafts and mementos made with this confetti on TikTok! Sadly since I was in the 400s section, I wasn’t able to bring any confetti back home with me. I wish you better luck!

After the The Eras Tour Concert

18. Don’t rush out of the venue. Take your time and take a bathroom break.

When the concert is over, you might be tempted to make a mad dash back to your car to try beating the traffic. But I would advise against it! Unless you leave before the final performance is over, it is very unlikely you’ll avoid sitting in at least 1-2 hours of traffic when exiting the parking lot. I recommend enjoying every last moment of the show, taking a bathroom break, and making a leisurely stroll back to your car. By the time you’re ready to leave, some of the traffic will already be out of the way and you won’t be uncomfortable on the drive home!

19. Pause and eat a snack in the car before you brave the traffic.

Remember those snacks you packed in the car before you left? Now is their time to shine, baby. You’ll thank me later.

20. Preserve your merch quality with an iron before washing!

Last but certainly not least, READ THIS TIP if you plan to buy ANY official Taylor Swift Eras Tour merch (online or at the venue). Hundreds of fans have reported that the t-shirt company responsible for creating the 2023 shirts made some printing errors and didn’t set the ink on the fabric correctly. As a result, their shirts and hoodies were stripped of their colors and had extensive warping in the designs after only one wash (even without going in the dryer). To prevent this from happening to your merch, you can place baking parchment paper over your t-shirt’s design and gently rub an iron over the ink to help it set. Just to be safe, I’m also planning to hand wash my shirts as much as possible instead of running them through the washing machine.

Enjoy the Taylor Swift Eras Tour!

I hope these tips help you have an Enchanted night at the Eras Tour! Don’t Blame Me if they don’t work for you, This Is Me Trying my best to share advice that worked well for me. Trust me, there will be Happiness no matter what if you are The Lucky One with tickets to the concert. If you have a Blank Space next to you, I would gladly go back to the concert again! But even if this my Last Time to see Taylor for a while, I know I’ll remember it Forever & Always.

(Sorry guys, I couldn’t resist!)