In a record breaking year for Indy tourism, Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour was the cherry on top.
According to an Instagram post by Swift, the three sold out concerts brought in a combined 207,000 fans to Lucas Oil Stadium. On top of that, Swift told fans each night of the concert broke the former Lucas Oil Stadium attendance record.
”We thank the Swifties,” said Morgan Snyder with Visit Indy. “They came in in full force. I’ve never seen a more loyal, passionate, dedicated and just joyful fan base than what Taylor Swift brought into the city this weekend.”
Visit Indy expected roughly 200,000 fans and it appears that and more showed up with about 69,000 fans inside Lucas Oil Stadium each night.
”I think you’re going to be hearing the word recording breaking over and over again,” said Snyder. ”Record breaking hotel and room rates and revenue for our small businesses and social media impressions. Just a huge win in the marketing of Indianapolis.”
Ticket data shows more than 80% of tickets for the Indy Eras Tour were owned by people from outside of the state. This means the story of what Visit Indy considers a very successful weekend will spread across the country.
”I think Swifties are all going home this morning saying, ‘Wow, what an incredible experience in Indy,’ and that’s what we wanted,” said Snyder.
From the personalities to the creative costumes to the stories and just the fandom itself, it was a blast to have Taylor Swift and 200,000 of her adoring fans in Indy. Here are some of my favorite moments from our live coverage of #IndyTSTheErasTour on @FOX59 & @CBS4Indy. pic.twitter.com/aDr2qXIID6
— Eric Graves (@ReporterEric) November 4, 2024
Local bars, restaurants and shops are tired but smiling after a very successful weekend.
”We treated it like three back to back back of our biggest Colts games,” said Sean Lothridge, co-owner of longtime downtown bar Slippery Noodle.
The Slippery Noodle had three specialty Taylor Swift themed cocktails. In total, they sold more than a thousand over the weekend.
”They out sold everything else we had that weekend, so it was awesome,” Lothridge said.
In a year filled with big time tourism events like the NBA All Star Game, U.S. Olympic Swim Trials, Solar Eclipse and more – Lothridge said this weekend stood out.
”For us it was probably bigger than all of those,” he said. “The Friday and the Sunday were probably equal to a Colts game and the Saturday, which was our biggest one, was as big as any concert we’ve had.”
Few businesses might have had as good of a weekend as Francis & Fern. We told you about the Mass Ave boutique on Thursday. The owner and employees had been preparing for months to transform the entire store to all Taylor Swift.
”We just wanted to offer a lot of unique stuff that no one else carries,” said owner Kim Pauszek. “We even had a lot of really great vendors who have done custom orders for us.”
When a few Tweets and Tik Toks received extra attention, they opened their doors Thursday to a line of more than 60 people.
”Our wildest dreams,” said Pauszek. ‘We never could have imagined this. We knew we were going to be busy but not like this.”
We went back to Francis & Fern today to talk to the owner about the impact of the #IndyTsTheErasTour – turns out customers hadn’t left! Roughly a hundred people were waiting to get in the store. Hear from the owner about her record Swiftie business weekend on @FOX59 & @CBS4Indy. https://t.co/8y5umm9JAu pic.twitter.com/7ENGEDPr1X
— Eric Graves (@ReporterEric) November 4, 2024
Francis & Fern had a line out of the door for four straight days. Even Monday, after Swift had left and the concerts were over, nearly 100 people were waiting outside Pauszek’s door.
”I don’t think people realize how much of an impact she {Swift} does have on local businesses, on small businesses,” Pauszek said. “This is huge, huge. I think a lot of people and businesses have benefited from her being here this weekend.”
The Swift success doesn’t just bode well for Indianapolis right now, the show put on this weekend could have long term impacts. Visit Indy uses large scale events like the Eras Tour to show off the city to convention booking decision makers.
”We had an incredible roster of meeting planners in Indianapolis, to show off our city and we’re really hopeful they’ll go back home and say, ‘We need to book our convention in Indy,” said Snyder.
As a thank you to Taylor Swift for choosing Indianapolis as the final U.S. stop on her record-breaking The Eras Tour, Visit Indy is packaging up postcards written thanking Swift from fans who visited Indy for the shows. These will be sent along with locally made Eras Tour souvenirs to the superstar.
