It’s the end of the Eras. With less than two weeks until pop sensation Taylor Swift wraps up her Eras tour, Canadian fans are indulging in their sometimes first — or maybe 20th — opportunity to see the star on stage.
Ashley Chase, a Swift fan from Woodstock, will be seeing her 20th show this week — her eighth of the Eras tour alone.
“I’m a little bit notorious for crying at almost all of her shows, just totally sobbing my eyes out sometimes, from the moment she comes on stage to the moment she leaves,” Chase said.
“So people always said, you know, ‘You don’t even see anything.’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s why I have to go multiple times to see it all through the tears.”
This photo was taken during the Red Tour in 2013. Chase, right, said the picture become a tradition of catching her on camera crying during Swift shows. The photo even caught the attention of popular YouTuber Grace Helbig. (Submitted by Ashley Chase)
The Eras tour started in March of 2023. The three-hour-plus shows explore songs from all of Swift’s studio albums, most recently including songs from her latest release — The Tortured Poets Department.
Chase is attending one of the six Toronto shows, and it will be her first time seeing a show with songs from the new album. Before she attends a Swift concert, she goes on a months-long social media blackout so as not to spoil any set changes.
Her love for Swift goes all the way back to when she was 12 and heard Teardrops on my Guitar — a Swift song released in 2006.
Chase’s view of the Speak Now portion during the first Foxborough, MA., Eras show. (Submitted by Ashley Chase)
“The first time I heard it, I was like, ‘Well, I need to play that again. Who is this?'” Chase recalled.
“I’m one of those people, I like to say, you know, I’m a bit of an all or nothing person and I don’t really know how to like things just a little bit. So I kind of dove all in and really got involved in … the fan community.”
Chase’s first live Swift experience was in 2010, when the artist performed at the Cavendish Beach Music Festival on Prince Edward Island.
From there, Chase has been to shows in Massachusetts, including a famous one in held during a total downpour on the the Speak Now tour. She went to four concerts from the Red tour and four from the 1989 tour.
During one of the 1989 shows, Swift’s mom picked Chase out of the crowd, and she got to watch the concert from the VIP section.
Chase attended the opening night of the Eras tour in Arizona and has even travelled as far as Australia for multiple Swift shows.
Chase and her sister attended the Speak Now tour in Foxborough in 2011. The show is well known because it turned into a total downpour. (Submitted by Ashley Chase)
She describes the Eras show as a “three-and-a-half hour adrenaline rush.”
Chase said she loves Swift for her dedication to her fans and her incredible songwriting.
“She kind of just caters to that awkward girl next door who’s a bit too passionate and a bit too hopelessly romantic, and I’ve just always related to that.”
The farthest Chase has travelled to see Swift has been Melbourne, Australia. This was her view at one of the Melbourne concerts. (Submitted by Ashley Chase)
As long as Swift keeps creating music, Chase said she’ll remain a fan.
“Her music has been there for me through good times, very bad times, and [it has] just kind of gotten me through all of these very different stages of my life,” said Chase.
“I think I’ll always be there in the crowd somewhere.”