The Eras Tour is the ongoing sixth concert tour by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. Swift has travelled the world on her tour, with the European leg starting in May 2024 in Paris and concluding with sold-out shows in London.
In total, the Eras tour visited 12 European countries, generating headlines, buzz and even boosting economies. It has become the highest-grossing concert tour in history, and is reported to be the first tour in the world that has generated revenue of more than $1 billion. Tickets were snapped up by dedicated fans and were sold out within minutes.
And museums were getting in on the act. Read on to discover how museums and cultural heritage organisations from four countries engaged audiences with their collections through the Taylor Swift Eras Tour.
Emigration heritage in Ireland
The Eras Tour rolled into Dublin at the end of June with three sold-out shows. EPIC, The Irish Emigration Museum, took advantage of the tour's cultural moment to explore Taylor Swift's Irish emigration heritage. They held a guided tour in the museum exploring the Irish roots that shaped Taylor Swift, as well as a livestream, which highlighted how migrating musical styles influence her songwriting. What's more, the museum commissioned research through their Irish Family History Centre to tracing Taylor Swift’s Irish roots back to 1836.
Costumes and lyrics in the United Kingdom
London is the European city that has hosted the most concerts with eight shows on the Eras Tour. Throughout summer 2024, the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington has hosted a theatrical trail which celebrates the creativity of Taylor Swift's costumes, lyrics and music videos as well as exploring the global phenomenon of the pop icon. The 13 stops on the trail showcase a chapter in the songbook of Taylor Swift’s career. Events and workshops also complement the trail. Mused, the V&A Museum's website for 11-15 year olds, also marked the occasion with quizzes and other online content.
In Scotland, marking both the tour's visit to Edinburgh and their new exhibition Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk, the V&A Dundee created a bespoke kimono with designer KellyDawn Riot which represented all of Taylor's eras and the colour palettes associated with each of her album. The kimono was displayed at the museum, and in the stadium where the concerts took place, and ultimately was gifted to Taylor Swift herself.
Social media engagement in Germany
The Eras Tour went to Hamburg in July 2024. There, the Museum of Arts and Crafts (Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe) attended the concerts and interviewed fans attending about their sparkling outfits for an upcoming exhibition about glitter. Discover the outfits on Instagram.
Even though the Eras Tour did not visit Berlin, this did not stop the Museum Europäischer Kulturen based in the city from engaging its online audiences with content related to Taylor Swift. This social media post is a quiz, using the museum's digitised collections to create a Taylor Swift song title guessing game.
Free museum entry in Austria
In August 2024, three concerts from the Eras Tour in Vienna, Austria, unfortunately had to be cancelled due to a security threat. However, with thousands of fans already visiting, the city's museums decided to waive their entry fees to ticket holders. Thirteen museums across the city took part in this initiative, with some even offering free guided tours to concert-goers - going down well with Swift’s fans!
Share more examples
An important aspect of the work of museums and cultural heritage institutions is to remain relevant and connect their collections to contemporary audiences. In these four examples, we see museums harnessing the power of a very popular cultural event in their cities and nations, and finding creative ways to engage Taylor Swift's captive and dedicated audiences to their museum's collections, venues and missions.
Do you know of more examples? We'd love to hear from you! Email [email protected].
This post was edited on 26/08/24 to add information about the kimono created by V&A Dundee to mark the Eras Tour.