Liverpool transforms into ‘Taylor Town’ to welcome pop star Taylor Swift

“If there was ever going to be a city that would go all-out with a welcome for Taylor Swift and the Swifties, it was bound to be Liverpool!” said Harry Doyle, Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture, Health, and Wellbeing. Between 13 and 15 June, Taylor Swift is performing at Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium as part of the UK leg of her world ‘Eras Tour’. As the term ‘Swiftonomics’ suggests, Swift’s concert is about much more than music; it is also about tourism and the economic boom, transforming the landscape of every city she visits. 

In less than two weeks, Liverpool will become the ‘Taylor Town’, which the city council has planned for over nine months. Starting on 8 June, visitors can find 11 Instagrammable art installations across the city with each symbolising one of her albums. For instance, a baby grand piano decorated with living moss represents her ‘evermore’ era, and the ‘Reputation’ album is demonstrated by a gigantic gold throne wrapped in snakes and skulls. Swifties can also join various art workshops run by local artists, such as a tie-dye workshop where members of the public can decorate their own concert outfits. Meanwhile, the University of Liverpool will host a series of free ‘Tay Day’ lectures, unpacking the cultural phenomenon of Swift and her place in gender liberation. All 600 tickets were sold out within hours. 

The average fan is predicted to spend £848 on restaurants, hotels, new outfits, and merchandise

Hopefully, the ‘Taylor Town’ programme will bring more benefits than costs. According to the city council, it just costs £65,000 to produce and is “the cheapest PR campaign” they have ever done. At the same time, searches for hotels in Liverpool skyrocketed by nearly 6,000% when the tour dates were announced and almost all hotel rooms are now booked. The average fan is predicted to spend £848 on restaurants, hotels, new outfits, and merchandise, so Swift’s UK concerts may bring a £1bn boost to the national economy. Hosting Swift’s concerts and the ‘Taylor Town’ not only brings economic benefits to the city, but also brings independent artists to light and pushes forward local cultural development.   

Liverpool is not the first city rolling out the red carpet for Swift by transforming itself with art installations. When she toured in Singapore in March, the Southeast Asian country about half the size of London, had already created an art trail where each installation visualised the aesthetics of one of her albums. A piano overgrown with moss was also displayed, and art workshops were also held. Yet, Singapore presented a spectacular light and water show that is not seen in Liverpool, and was caught in a Swift’s diplomatic dilemma that does not happen in anywhere else. After Swift announced that she would only perform in Singapore in her Southeast Asian tour, Thailand’s prime minister condemned Singapore for paying up to £2.4 million to secure a deal with Swift that Singapore would be her only stop in the region. The Philippines accused it of violating the “principles of solidarity and consensus” as diplomatic partners, while the Hong Kong government attempted to win faces by insisting that the city was still an attractive destination for mega global events. Heads of these nations might not be Swifties, but they were desperate to host a concert for her. Putting up a grand welcome for the superstar is the ultimate showcase of national economic and cultural strength. 

[ Concerts have ] become a transformative and immersive experience of the whole city, and a cruel battlefield of capital and politics

Sometimes a concert could change a city without state-driven initiatives. Back in 1964, the Beatles launched their first world tour. Every piece of land they stepped on was swarmed with people screaming and crying, going into the magical power of ‘Beatlesmania’. Taking Australia as an example, over 300,000 fans lined the streets to see the Beatles driving in a motorcade from the airport into the city of Adelaide where their first show took place. When they arrived in Melbourne, army and navy units were brought in to control the crowd of over 20,000 fans gathering around the airport and the hotel. Over 50 people were sent to hospital with broken bones and hundreds of girls fainted. The host cities did not do anything to welcome the band, but their fans greeted them with a voluntary history-making hurricane of pure excitement. 

In 2024, the idea of concert is more complex. It has become a transformative and immersive experience of the whole city, and a cruel battlefield of capital and politics.