A 34-story, 300-foot Taylor Swift decal displayed on the JW Marriott hotel in downtown Indianapolis. Photo by Jonathan Wang.
MOLLY DURM l STAFF REPORTER l mdurm@butler.edu
The musical icon Taylor Swift brought her world tour — the Eras Tour — to Indianapolis performing Friday, Saturday and Sunday night at Lucas Oil Stadium. Indianapolis was the last American city to host Swift for the Eras Tour, which has become the highest-grossing tour in history.
Lucas Oil Stadium, home to the Indianapolis Colts, holds 69,000 ticket holders. Swift sold out all three back-to-back concerts, bringing over 207,000 fans to downtown Indianapolis over the weekend and also broke the record for the highest concert attendance in the stadium’s history
Not only is Swift economically benefiting from her 21-month-long sold-out stadium tour, but she has left a lasting impact on each city that hosted her during the Era’s Tour. According to WTHR, Indianapolis expects the economic impact of this weekend to be around $100 million.
Lecturer of strategic communication Robert Schultz teaches a course that allows students to volunteer downtown during the Taylor Swift weekend and gain extensive tourism industry experience. He believes that Swift’s audience and global attention have cemented her status as a cultural phenomenon.
“When you look at the audience that she’s attracting right now and the brand attention she’s getting across the globe, she’s a Beatles-level superstar,” Schultz said. “I’m not commenting on her music, I’m commenting on what type of demand she is generating across all cultures, all countries and how she’s sustaining that.”
According to Visit Indy, the Indianapolis leg of the tour saw 89% of concert tickets purchased by individuals outside of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Area and 81% from individuals outside of the state of Indiana. Not only did the influx of tourists benefit downtown hotels, restaurants and other businesses, but Indy had the opportunity to utilize this major event and promote the city to many visitors who had never been here before.
“This is getting the attention of our city leadership, primarily because it’s a great opportunity to introduce Central Indiana, and specifically downtown Indianapolis, to future Bulldogs, to future CEOs of Indianapolis companies,” Schultz said. “We’re gonna have 150,000 people who have never been here making evaluations on ‘Would they come back?’ ‘Would they bring their family?’ ‘Would they consider a job here?’ ‘Would they go to school here?’”
According to Visit Indy, due to the flood of visitors, Indianapolis hotels for the weekend were virtually sold out and charged three times their usual daily rates. Airbnb and Vrbo rental bookings were up 207% compared to last year during the same weekend with a 7,000% surge in searches for Airbnb rentals. The Indianapolis International Airport increased incoming flight seat capacity and added round-trip flights from popular destinations.
“Without over-dramatizing this, it is an equivalent amount of attention from the civic community as hosting a Super Bowl,” Schultz said.
Indianapolis took full advantage of this major opportunity to promote the city and made efforts to welcome fans, maximizing the economic benefit of over 200,000 Taylor Swift lovers gathering in downtown Indianapolis.
Senior marketing major Savannah Drum is enrolled in Schultz’s class and is a lifelong Taylor Swift fan. She believes the effort that Indianapolis is putting into this weekend will make it one to remember.
“I went [to the Eras Tour] in Minneapolis, but they weren’t decorating downtown, there weren’t stores doing stuff for it or restaurants, it was very low key,” Drum said. “Here I feel like they went all out. Indy did it so much bigger than any other city.”
Apart from the three concerts, over 50 Taylor Swift-themed events took place downtown as Indy was transformed into Swift City for the weekend.
“We had a massive opportunity here,” Schultz said. “The Today Show’s calling, People Magazine’s calling, USA Today was here because it was the last leg of the tour and no other city has done or will be doing what we did with turning the town pink and capitalizing on this.”
Junior journalism major April Kirts volunteered downtown as a Swiftie street team member this weekend and believes hosting the final leg of the US tour will help put Indy on the map.
“I think us being able to put on The Eras weekend will make it easier for us to host big events like this in the future,” Kirts said. “Like music festivals or any big events, maybe possibly hosting next year’s [NCAA Final Four Tournament].”
The Eras Tour weekend will go down in Indianapolis history. With the national attention Indianapolis gained from hosting the final American stop of the world-renowned Eras Tour and transforming the city into a welcoming environment for Swifties, Indy has proven its capability to host major events. This success positions the city as a strong contender for many more high-profile events in the future.
