LISBON — Chaos and madness. Two words that fans may fit into “Blank Space” lyrics were instead two words frantic Swifties used to describe Taylor Swift’s first-ever show in Portugal.
“I’m just sad,” says Noelle Vavuris who went to the Eras Tour in Santa Clara, California, and wanted to see the new “Tortured Poets Department” addition at the Estadio da Luz. “I’ve spent thousands and thousands of dollars to see Taylor. Please. I just want to be inside.”
Vavuris lives in Amsterdam and came to the concert with three of her best friends.
“We’ve been waiting in line for an hour and a half and we just got all the way to the stadium and then got sent all the way outside,” she says, trying to find her correct gate after multiple attempts. “We’re herded cattle. There’s absolute chaos.”
Show opener Paramore went on after 7 p.m. The tickets said the show was supposed to begin at 6 p.m. You could hear Hayley Williams singing her last song “This is Why” booming from the open-roofed stadium as Vavuris made it past security.
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“There was a massive bottleneck at the security checkpoint to get rid of water bottles,” says Malika Nunes, who lives in Lisbon and was in the same line as Vavuris. “And then people were jumping over the barricade, pulling them apart. We stood behind a post.”
Security opened the gates to more areas and fans ran by the hundreds to the stadium doors.
“They finally got more police and more security people,” Nunes says. “There’s soccer games here weekly with as many people, and those are organized. This is chaos. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Temperatures hovered in the mid-70s. When Swift took the stage at 8 p.m., the temperature was 66 degrees. In a last-minute change by producer Last Tour, fans were allowed to bring a plastic water bottle into the open-roofed stadium up to 50 centiliters (about 16 ounces). No glass, hard plastic or metal containers were allowed inside according to an informational packet released.
When Swift came on stage, she didn’t mention the delay or the wait. Her team didn’t respond to an email asking about the late start.
“This is my first time getting to come to Portugal, and this is how you welcome us,” she said, and the crowd went wild. “When I first walked out in the show and I looked out and saw the crowd, you took my breath away. My heart was beating so fast. You just made me feel so loved. Thank you so much.”
Swift will play one more night in Lisbon before going to Madrid.
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