“We spent the entire year of 2024 travelling the world,” including Australia, Europe and Asia, and we thought to ourselves: ‘Where have the crowds been so generous, so welcoming, so warm-hearted — where they know every single word, they not only sing them, but they scream them?” -Taylor Swift
As a travel writer, I was once again relying on the expertise of Virtuoso Travel’s Misty Belles when I sent the company’s vice-president of global public relations a non-urgent question in an email. I got an immediate response. Belles, as a rule, is fast…but not that fast. It was bounce back email:
AUTOMATIC REPLY:
“It’s the end of the Eras and I’m there for it! Please note I am away from the office until Tuesday. My response time may be delayed as a result….”
Belles was referring to the final show of Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour,” scheduled to be performed in Vancouver just before Christmas.
But wait a minute, I recalled that only a couple of months earlier Belles and her 11-year-old daughter Maddie had made a pilgrimage from their Washington D.C.-area home to Miami’s Acqualina Resort for a “once in a lifetime” weekend getaway to see Swift’s concert.
Miami was magnificent for Misty and Maddie – I even wrote a column about their experience and published some grainy-but-riled-up side-stage photos.
So, I texted Belles – something I try never to do unless I am on deadline.
“Are you okay? Your ‘away message’…’”
Belles, the genuine Belles, not A.I., texted back.
“It’s true. We’re on the move. I promise to send pics…”
How, What, When, Where and Why?
“It all came together very quickly the day before,” Belles eventually revealed after returning. “I happened to notice ticket prices started coming down and were almost half of what they were the previous week, which is why I took the leap.”
It might seem daunting for the average person to plan a coast-to-coast, international trip to see a concert the next day, but remember Belles is a top executive for Virtuoso Travel, a worldwide network of luxury advisors and providers who made dreams come true – and solve problems – every day somewhere on the planet.
But Belles, who obviously travels extensively for business, was able to cowboy this itinerary on her own. “I quickly patched together flights to Seattle since flying to Vancouver was a ‘no-go,’ and I booked a red-eye flight home on Monday night.
I rented a car and reserved a hotel room in Bellingham, Washington, which was about two-thirds of the way to Vancouver.”
Breaking the News
With the logistics booked, confirmed, and reserved, it was time for Belles and her husband Mark to tell their young “Swiftie” daughter Maddie she was going to have a travel encore and experience Taylor Swift’s performance again.
“We told Maddie after school by having her look at the family calendar. I asked her to add her Christmas break dates. In doing so, she looked at the calendar for a while…then it finally sunk in. The calendar read that she and I had a flight to Vancouver that day. She was over the moon.”
Belles did note that Maddie, with so little notice this time, was less prepared with bracelets and her outfit than she was for Miami. But she and her mother knew seeing the last show of the Eras Tour would be amazing.
I asked Belles if her husband Mark was an enabler for their Swiftie devotion?
“Mark may be an enabler. Or he may just be a husband and dad who wants to make his girls happy. I suppose two things can be true,” she answered.
Then I asked if Mark has similar experiences with their son Jack.
“Jack’s thing has to be sports-related. He and Mark went to the World Series when the Nats were in the hunt. And Mark did a ‘whisk away’ to Boston when the Celtics were poised to hit a record. If Texas or Notre Dame made it to the National Championship, that would be their equivalent,” she explained.
Family Affair
The Miami experience Misty and Maddie shared previously will always be special and stand-alone. The last-minute Taylor Swift Vancouver surprise offered a completely different memory.
“I am so glad we went to Vancouver. Seeing it a second time allowed us to enjoy the moments and favorite songs without worrying about taking video and pics,” Belles admitted. “Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium had far better screens and sight lines throughout than B.C. Stadium, so we were less tempted by our phones in Vancouver.”
Well…the camera phone did come out at one stage.
“We were about five rows from the family VIP section. Maddie got to meet and take several photos with Taylor’s mama, Andrea Swift. She could not have been kinder or more gracious to Maddie. And Maddie now has an official TS guitar pick from Taylor’s dad, Scott Swift,” said Belles. “I mean, she met the parents of the world’s most famous person at the moment, earning her some major middle-school street cred!”
Maddie treasures the photos, but the excitement of the memory is etched in her heart.
“Meeting Taylor’s mom was incredible,” said Maddie. “I’m such a huge fan and it made me feel like I wasn’t just a girl who likes her songs…or even just a Swiftie. It felt like I was a chosen one in a way – like I was actually important enough to take a photo with the mom of the most famous person in the world.”
Misty’s daughter Maddie is the most famous star in her life.
“I got to travel and experience something incredible with my best little friend…who is young and sweet enough to not be embarrassed by my incredibly loud singing and dancing for over three hours. This was a narrow window of opportunity,” Belles acknowledged.
Canadian Concert Review
Taylor Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce was in Kansas City with his Chiefs team playing football against the Chargers that night. But Swift embraced the Canadian crowd with sentimental words explaining why she chose Vancouver for the final Eras Tour shows. The tour’s 149 performances touched 51 cities across 21 countries.
“We spent the entire year of 2024 travelling the world,” including Australia, Europe and Asia, and we thought to ourselves: ‘Where have the crowds been so generous, so welcoming, so warm-hearted — where they know every single word, they not only sing them, but they scream them? Oh, we’ve got to go back to Canada.’ And so now here we are in beautiful Vancouver.”
Belles said the Vancouver and Miami concert experiences were very different…but alike.
“I think it comes down to this: every person we encountered in Miami was a true fan there to revel in the experience; Vancouver was a mix of diehards who came to bid farewell to something meaningful…and there were people who there because it was their last chance to check it off the list. A different dynamic. Overall, the crowd in Miami was friendlier, though there was far more bracelet swapping in Vancouver,” Belles observed.
As For the Music and Performance?
“The Vancouver show was for the purists. It stayed true to the Eras show with no special guests or much deviation from what we saw in Miami except for some wardrobe changes. The ‘surprise songs’ included a mashup of Long Live (Speak Now); New Year’s Day (Reputation); and The Manuscript (Tortured Poets Department), Belles explained.
“These were all poignant songs for the end of the Eras because The Manuscript is about closing a chapter of your life and moving on. Long Live is about finally making it big and playing for sellout crowds after years of work to get there.”
Belles said Swift thanked the fans for building this tour into something bigger than she could’ve ever imagined, referencing how one line about friendship bracelets in a song (You’re on Your Own, Kid) led to a phenomenon all into its own.
Belles is grateful to Taylor Swift for the special moments with her daughter and for the inspiration.
“The Eras Tour provided a boost of positivity that it seems so many of us needed. Must be a lot to carry on one’s shoulders, trying to deliver that night after night, country and country, for nearly two years.”
Cautionary Travel Tale
Comedian Nikki Glaser admitted she spent nearly $100,000 traveling to attend and taking friends with her to Taylor Swift concerts.
WestJet denied compensation to a Swiftie who had to drive 10 hours through the night to make the Vancouver concert because of a flight cancellation due to unplanned maintenance.
A woman over 50 flew to Toronto and booked a hotel after spending $2,749.95 on her single ticket…a ticket that would not download from the ticket app at concert time. Panicked, she bought another ticket that would download for just under $2,000 and then fought for weeks for her refund from the original seller.
Unrelated to the overwhelming positivity of the performances and the overall record $2-billion Swift story, many people got completely shafted by the ticket resellers, Belles observed.
“We are among those misguided in that we had obstructed views both times that weren’t disclosed, but ours is a minor issue,” Belles admitted. “The people sitting behind us were sold tickets that were never in Stub Hub’s possession…and then given inferior seats despite the astronomical price they had paid.”
She said she’d heard numerous cases in which Seat Geek and Stub Hub engaged in “bait & switch” tactics. “I don’t think there’s anything that can be done about it, but it’s a really sad byproduct of something that was so amazingly positive on every other level.”
Read more of Michael Patrick’s work at The Travel Tattler and contact him at [email protected] Order his book Travel Tattler – Less Than Torrid Tales at https://amzn.to/3Qm9FjN
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