For those Taylor Swift fans who couldn’t wait for the pop megastar’s three sold-out shows at the Aviva Stadium this weekend, an early pop-up merchandise store opened at Dublin’s 3Arena on Thursday morning.
By 9.30am, half an hour in advance of schedule, hundreds of fans were rushing into the venue. Lucy Daly (19), from Skerries, Co Dublin, spent €550 on Swift merchandise in France a couple of weeks ago. “Today I spent over €200,” she says. “I picked up the water bottle, poster, crew neck, long-sleeved T-shirt and a T-shirt.”
Andres Hyde (17), who travelled from Cork, says he forked out “€250-ish. I’ve been saving up, but all the money spent this weekend is pretty much free.”
Bernard McGrath, holding his own Eras Tour bag and sporting a Dublin GAA jersey under a zip cardigan, has been living in Hereford for 20 years, having originally emigrated to Jersey from Marino.
“I’m the oldest Swiftie in town,” says Bernard. “I’m 71. I look older ... I suppose [I’m a big fan]. I collect all the vinyl and that, you know. I just got a hoodie and a sweatshirt [today]. I got four tickets because I buy all the vinyl stuff and CDs on the website, you get in through the presale. So, I’ve two people coming from Jersey to go.”
As well as Swift’s extensive catalogue, there was merchandise available for support act Paramore.
Sky Crystal and his wife Cassandra flew from Atlanta to attend the gig. “I’m a big fan of underground heavy metal music,” he says. “Our merch is pretty dirt cheap so that [the price of Taylor Swift wares] was something else. But I’ve been a Paramore fan since I was a wee lad, so I made sure to fork something out for that.
“She’s such a huge fan of Taylor that I think [the cost is] worth it for her,” he says of Cassandra. “For myself personally, you know, I’m used to $25 concert tickets at the end of the day.”
Tickets for the Dublin concerts began selling at €86 for general admission seating, while VIP packages ranged from €371.28 to €743.62. The resale market tends to be significantly steeper, but Fiona Liston, Beth Furey and Millie Madden, all travelling from Canada, had no problem with high prices.
“She’s playing in Toronto and Vancouver in November, and tickets are about six grand,” says Liston. “I got a VIP floor ticket here for €750. So, with the flight over, it’s still far less.”
“We got our flights for $600,” says Furey. “And we got our tickets — we paid 660 Canadian [dollars], so that’s maybe €400.”
Suzanne Jones (23) from Foxrock, Co Dublin, admits she lost some control when she made it to the merchandise stand. “I have no idea,” she says when asked about the prices of items she bought.
“I was like, I’ll just get that and everything. I know it was about 300 quid, but I don’t know about individual.”
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