The devotion was palpable, as thousands of Taylor Swift fans on Wednesday stood in long lines that snaked outside SoFi Stadium in Inglewood just to buy the pop singer’s trademarked merchandise.
Jamie Divis waited six hours to buy some of the mega star’s wares for herself and her daughters, including a sweater reminiscent of Swift’s album “1989.”
“It was amazing,” she said. “I got everything I wanted, even the blue, crew-neck (sweater),” the same type of garment Swift wore on the album cover. Her cost for the haul: $1,400.
Fandom bordering on worship was evident even 36 hours before Swift was scheduled to take the stage on Thursday for the first of six sell-out shows at the lavish $5 billion stadium. Swifties, as they are called, chatted, befriended one another and waited, and waited in a queue that wrapped along District Drive all the way out to Century Boulevard.
This is not your typical concert. This was an early peek at what will be an invasion mostly of teenagers, mothers and millennials from all parts of Southern California and beyond to see the celebrated pop star who has won 12 Grammy Awards, sold 114 million album units worldwide including 3% of the total album sales from all artists in 2022 and thereby becoming the top-selling act that year.
The entertainment publication, Variety, estimates the concerts on Aug. 3, 4, 5 and 7, 8, 9 will bring 420,000 people to SoFi, and those are the ones with tickets. At other concerts, non-ticketholders gather outside and sing, Tayle-gate and just party while the show plays on inside the arena.
To handle the crush, LA Metro will keep its train lines running two hours longer than normal, until 2 a.m. to take concert-goers back home. Likewise, Metro is running two shuttle buses directly to SoFi: One from the K (Crenshaw) Line’s Downtown Inglewood Station and the other from the C (Green) Line’s Hawthorne/Lennox Station in the middle of the 105 Freeway. The shuttles will run 3:30 p.m. to 6:30…
Read the full article here
