'Love and kindness': Taylor Swift fans are ready for historic final Eras ...

Dressed in shimmering outfits, tasselled jackets, and cowboy boots inspired by their favourite pop star, crowds of mostly women from around the world gathered outside Vancouver’s B.C. Place on Friday — four hours before doors opened for Taylor Swift’s record-breaking The Eras Tour.

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Many wore armfuls of friendship bracelets adorned with Swift’s lyrics, eagerly swapping them with one another as they waited.

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“Taylor is closing out her 149-concert tour in our city. It’s such a big deal,” said Vancouver’s Alice Lo, who stood outside the stadium next to her daughters.

Lo’s eldest, Makaelyn, eagerly exclaimed that she was hoping to hear Swift perform the song, Betty. She then pointed to the Beatty Street sign across the road, eyes wide with excitement. “It looks like Betty,” she said.

Taylor Swift fans Alice Lo with daughters Makaelyn (left) and Miela outside B.C. Place on Friday for the first of three concerts this weekend. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /10106633A

Although the stadium grounds were fenced off and secured by 700 police officers, fans — many of whom had been waiting since early morning — teemed with excitement, their energy palpable as they anticipated the night’s performance.

The young Swifties were part of the 250,000 people expected to move in and out of the stadium district Friday through Sunday. In anticipation of the crowd surge, the city has closed several roads around B.C. Place, and TransLink has increased transit services.

For young Edmonton Swiftie Anthea Corry, who wore a fuzzy lavender jacket similar to the one the pop star wore in her Lavender Haze music video, the concert will be her first.

“Anthea is autistic, and Taylor Swift is her special interest. At her school, all of her projects are Taylor-focused,” said her mother, Tara St. Clair as Anthea scanned the crowd, eagerly looking for fans dressed as Swift from various eras.

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Fans, including Anthea Corry, exchange friendship bracelets outside the stadium. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /10106633A

The 11-year-old then darted across the road to 16-year-old Saanvi Patel from Toronto, who was wearing a white dress and holding a sign referencing a song from Swift’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, along with two black Sharpie markers.

“The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived — it’s the best breakup song about the worst man,” Patel said. She invited fans to come scribble the names of their exes on her skirt. “Anyone can come and sign my dress.” As fans lined up to sign, her parents looked on smiling.

Taylor Swift fan Saanvi Patel, 16, from Toronto outside B.C. Place on Friday. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /10106633A

Swift’s Vancouver concerts mark the finale of her nearly two-year Eras Tour, which became the first in history to surpass $1 billion in gross earnings. The three local shows are expected to generate an estimated $157 million in economic impact for the city, according to Destination Vancouver.

However, for many fans, getting their hands on one of the 160,000 or so tickets for Swift’s Vancouver shows proved difficult, with scams and inflated prices becoming widespread.

For Seattle’s 13-year-old Eme and her mother, Danielle Barnard, having tickets to Swift’s Friday concert felt too good to be true.

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“I feel like when I’m in the stadium, I could wake up at any minute and it will all be just a dream,” Eme said Friday morning from a hotel room.

The American mother-daughter duo had originally planned to attend the Eras Tour in London this spring, but disaster struck just two weeks before their flight. Eme, who has a rare and life-threatening heart condition, suffered a cardiac arrest on May 22. Doctors determined that a nine-hour flight would be too risky for her.

“We had to perform CPR for 22 minutes before we finally got a pulse back,” recalled Barnard.

After being rushed to the hospital, Eme was placed on life support with a breathing tube.

“For the whole time, we played Taylor Swift — who’s been her favourite for years — and because the music kept her so calm, the doctor didn’t have to put her into a medically induced coma,” said Barnard.

Now, the pair said Friday night will be a celebration of Eme’s survival and their shared “girlhood.”

“If it were any other concert, I’d be nervous to bring her because of her heart condition, but the love and kindness that flows from Taylor’s fans is incredible,” Barnard said. “We’re going to this concert and celebrating right now because we don’t know what tomorrow looks like.”

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For Port Moody’s Heidi Hughes and her 16-year-old daughter, Andie, Friday night’s concert was only made possible by a friend’s kindness.

“We’ve been giddy all morning,” Hughes said from home Friday morning. “We spent all of last night making friendship bracelets.”

Last Christmas, Hughes and her husband, Steve, had surprised their daughters with a trip to Munich, including floor seats to the Eras Tour. But in February, plans were derailed when Steve was diagnosed with Stage-4 brain cancer, requiring surgery and radiation.

“We had everything set up,” said Heidi. “We had to cancel the trip and sell the tickets.”

Although Andie understood, the loss of the concert was still heartbreaking. Swift’s songs, such as All Too Well and August, had been a soundtrack to her teenage years.

Then, out of the blue, Hughes’ best friend Crissie gifted them two tickets to Friday’s Vancouver show. “I offered to pay more, but she said, ‘No, I want you both to go. You need this,’ and asked me to pay just the face value — $185 each.”

Hughes said the Friday concert has given her daughter something to look forward to during her father’s terminal cancer diagnosis.

“This Taylor Swift thing — it’s a whole culture.”

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