Taylor Swift is currently less than a four-hour flight away as she traverses Australia for her Eras Tour, which saw tickets sold out in minutes and Kiwis dropping hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to go and see her.
Her cult following have affectionately dubbed themselves ‘Swifties’, and it will never be said as a singular but always as a plural because where there is one, there is bound to be another spawning somewhere close by.
While the initiation ritual into the cult hasn’t been made publicly available, I would bet there’s a lot of Red.
Eden Park’s chief executive, Nick Sautner, is attempting to take swift action after public outcry that Taylor wouldn’t be jumping across the ditch to perform in New Zealand.
He explained in an interview earlier this month that Eden Park was permitted to host six concerts each year, and five of those slots had been taken up by three Coldplay concerts in November and two Pink shows in March.
The Auckland Council only allocated a certain number of permits for concerts so that neighbours of Eden Park wouldn’t be inconvenienced – but it seems that the neighbours of Eden Park are Swifties, too!
The pop sensations’ influence has a wider reach than anybody could have expected.
A survey found that 97 per cent of residents local to Eden Park supported more concerts being held at the venue, preferring to have six artists playing up to 12 shows per calendar year.
Sautner said that based on the survey results, they would be exploring options with Auckland Council to give the venue more capacity for concerts year-round.
While it appears that Sautner may be outing himself as a member of the legion of Swifties, his logic is pretty sound – imagine the upset it could have caused if Sautner and the Eden Park team had pursued more permits without consultation.
Using the upset of Kiwis over a lack of Taylor Swift concerts has been the best marketing their money didn’t have to buy.
For too long, New Zealand has been left off maps [literally], and seemingly forgotten by some of the world’s biggest music acts.
Swift isn’t the first performer to leave New Zealand off the ‘world tour’ schedule, and surely, she won’t be the last, but it seems the power of Swift may be about to strike again if Eden Park manages to secure more yearly concert slots.
Some may recall the moment when Swift broke her political silence on Instagram, urging people to vote in the American midterm elections of 2018, and suddenly, over 100,000 people below the age of 29 had registered to vote.
One in five Americans already believe the latest conspiracy that Swift and Biden are secretly working together to get him re-elected as President.
The Power of the Swift is alive and well, so long as it helps boost New Zealand’s economy and tourism sector, then is there really any reason to hate it?
Call It What You Want, the lack of Swift in New Zealand has been both a blessing and a curse.
Her Swifties may have some temporary Bad Blood, but soon they’ll be able to Shake It Off and hopefully see the artist herself gracing our shores.
