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Taylor Swift\u00a0has never brought one of her huge concerts to New Hampshire. It was, therefore, a bit of a surprise when Frank Breen stopped in at the\u00a0Exeter Historical Society\u00a0back in December to ask us a question and happened to mention that he remembered when Taylor Swift performed at\u00a0Exeter\u2019s Relay for Life\u00a0many years ago.<\/p>\n
At first, we thought he was putting us on. Swift\u2019s\u00a0gigantic Eras Tour\u00a0had just ended and earned bragging rights as the\u00a0largest-grossing tour ever. No, he was certain. The Relay for Life was a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. He knew Taylor Swift performed, but he wasn\u2019t quite sure of the date. We guessed about 2001. He contacted Kristin Sullivan, who is now living out of state, and who also remembered the event.<\/p>\n
Sullivan\u2019s mother was friends with\u00a0Britney Spears\u2019 manager, and she asked if Spears might perform at the Cancer Society\u2019s fundraiser in Exeter. Spears was huge at the time, so it was no surprise that she was unavailable. But how about another up-and-coming singer \u2013 a bit younger, but eager to play at smaller venues? And this was how Taylor Swift came to play in Exeter in 2003.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Exeter News-Letter\u00a0ran a piece about the Relay for Life leading up to the event. \u201cHundreds of participants are expected to participate in the American Cancer Society Relay for Life, scheduled to take place at Phelps Stadium on the campus of Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter beginning Friday, June 27th.\u201d<\/p>\n
The\u00a0article\u00a0goes on to mention, \u201cEntertainment will be included as part of the event. The day of June 27 will feature Taylor Swift, a singer who has opened for the Charlie Daniels Band in Pennsylvania, Diamond Rio, Tammy Cochran and Trace Atkins, and other acts. She has sung the national anthem at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City and in Philadelphia. Swift, a 13-year-old from Pennsylvania, writes and records in New York and New Jersey. Her debut album was released in 2002.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cdebut album\u201d was more of a demo CD than an actual album. It comprised only two songs: \u201cLucky You\u201d and \u201cSmokey Black Nights.\u201d A youthful Swift appears on the cover in jeans, a white tank top, and a comfortable flannel shirt.<\/p>\n Sullivan spent the weekend hosting Swift and her family at a few different venues. She remembers her as \u201cvery sweet and very genuine.\u201d<\/p>\n Breen recalled that she performed in the evening, not the afternoon as scheduled. He thought it was the weather that delayed the performance. Kristen Sullivan also recalls the show in the evening, but thinks it might have been due to Swift stopping at a radio station to do a bit of promotion. It wouldn\u2019t be surprising \u2013 WOKQ has a framed photo from Swift that she inscribed, \u201cWOKQ the first station to ever play me! Love love love\u00a0 Taylor Swift.\u201d She would later play a gig at the Portsmouth Gas Light as a thank you for the station\u2019s support in 2005.<\/p>\n Swift played a few songs at the Phelps Arena for the Relay For Life, and the next day she sang a few songs at Frisbee Memorial Hospital\u2019s cancer ward. That evening, she appeared at the \u201cBest of NH Party\u201d at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester. Rick Broussard, the event planner, recalled in the 2011 edition of\u00a0New Hampshire Magazine, \u201cAll I recall about the skinny teenager with the big guitar standing alone on the Verizon Wireless Arena stage was that she had a great name for show business. I\u2019m terrible with names, but this one I remembered: Taylor Swift.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, it would have been easy to forget these performances. There are so many local events with artists performing \u2013 how often do we remember them later? Kristin Sullivan\u2019s sister-in-law, Dawn, remembered Swift well. The crowd at Exeter was small, perhaps only a few hundred people. It was a far cry from her later performance in Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where she sang to a\u00a0crowd of 67,000 fans. There was no seismic activity (called a \u201cconcert tremor\u201d) like her\u00a02023 performance in Seattle\u00a0during \u201cShake it Off.\u201d Exeter\u2019s entire population in 2003 was only 14,000. Even if we\u2019d all shown up for the concert, we wouldn\u2019t have shook the earth.<\/p>\n Dawn followed Swift\u2019s career over the years. She still seems to marvel about her later success. \u201cWow, who would have thought this would be where she would end up when she was performing at a small town in New Hampshire? This is how people get their start.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Taylor Swift\u00a0has never brought one of her huge concerts to New Hampshire. It was, therefore, a bit of a surprise when Frank Breen stopped in at the\u00a0Exeter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":84942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-taylor-swifts"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Taylor](\"https:\/\/www.seacoastonline.com\/gcdn\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2025\/07\/30\/NPOH\/85433262007-taylorswift-2.jpeg?width=300&height=379&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp\")
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