Taylor Swift is in Toronto to perform her first of six sold-out shows at the Rogers Centre tonight.
The highly anticipated show gets underway at 6:45 p.m. but crowds of excited ‘Swifties’ have already been spotted roaming about the area outside the Rogers Centre in anticipation of the doors to the stadium opening at 4:30 p.m.
Fans are being warned not to line up outside the Rogers Centre until 3:30 p.m., however.
Follow along as CP24.com provides LIVE updates throughout the day:
9:45 a.m.
Taylor Swift tickets sold out nearly instantly when they first went on sale last year and since then have been fetching premium prices on the secondary market. As of 9:45 a.m., the cheapest seat listed on StubHub for tonight’s show was available for $2,155 but offered an obstructed view in the 500 level. The cheapest floor seat was listed for more than $3,200.
9:30 a.m.
The city will be closing the westbound lanes on Bremner Boulevard between Rees Street and Navy Wharf as of 1 p.m. amid an expected influx of concert goers. The city also says that there will be additional spot road closures for crowd and traffic management during and immediately following the concerts. Meanwhile, GO Transit has added additional trains on the Lakeshore West and Lakeshore East lines. There will also be special nighttime service on the Milton, Kitchener, Barrie and Stouffville lines on concert days.
9 a.m.
The city has said that it is expecting over 500,000 visitors over the course of Swift’s 10-day stay in Toronto. CP24 spoke with Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie about the potential economic impact earlier on Thursday morning.
“About 93 per cent of spending will be by visitors to our city and that is at a time when we don’t have a lot of major events going on with a lot of revenue being generated,” she said. “So we are certainly welcoming the $283 million in spending that is expected by Swifties over the course of the concerts.”
8:30 a.m.
One Taylor Swift fan who spoke with CP24 outside the Rogers Centre on Thursday morning was still pulling along a suitcase after arriving in Toronto on a flight from Mexico hours prior. The fan, Fergie, said that she previously attended one of the Eras Tour shows in Mexico City and had tickets to see Swift in Vienna prior to those shows being cancelled due to a foiled terror plot.
“It is like the last chance so I wanted to be here,” she said of Swift’s shows, which are among the final dates on the Eras Tour.