Kelsey has been a Taylor Swift fan since childhood. Last week in Melbourne was the 27-year-old’s first time seeing the singer play live. It was a huge moment. But now that it’s over Kelsey is “just plain sad”.
“I’ve been in post-Taylor Swift depression,” she says. “I’ve been trying to manage it … But my mind wanders back to the concert. And it just makes you feel a bit sad, because it’s like a dream that you don’t want to wake up from.”
Kelsey isn’t alone in experiencing a harsh comedown after the Melbourne leg of the Eras tour. On TikTok, fans are posting videos of themselves crying in the car on the way to work, “now permanently unfit to function normally”, or asking followers what they’re meant to do with their life now that Eras is over. On the social media platform X, others have said that after watching Swift perform, they’re scared they’ll “never feel the same happiness again”.
Melbourne Swiftie Rachel Turner says the blood, sweat, tears and money that went into attending the event makes the crash feel harder.
“Half the country was in line for those tickets, and I spent hours and hours across so many different devices to be able to get the chance to go,” she says. “Since then I’ve been in preparation mode for Eras. I’ve been watching the TikToks, I’ve been planning the outfits, I’ve been strategising what era everyone should dress as for like three months.
“So much effort, planning and anticipation really built up into one night, so I’m definitely feeling like I’ve closed the chapter.”
It “absolutely is” normal to feel a little deflated after an anticipated event like the Eras tour, says Kayla Greenstien, a former counsellor and psychology PhD candidate who was on the steering committee of last week’s Swiftposium, an academic conference devoted to assessing the musician’s widespread impact.
“I think we see a similar thing with weddings,” Greenstien says. “For people attending the Taylor Swift concert, the atmosphere created there is such a space of femininity … to step out of that concert space and go back into the real world, it’s kind of like the Barbie movie effect – it can absolutely be jarring. So I think people really need to look out for themselves at this time.”
Greenstien, who doesn’t identify as a full-blown Swiftie but is certainly “Swift-curious”, researches psychedelic therapy. She sees parallels between taking psychedelics and attending the Eras tour. Both have “a lot of preparation and lead-up, and the experience is almost transcendental”, she says.
“The sense of connectedness that you have with others is extremely sparkly in the same way … someone might experience at a Taylor Swift concert.”
So what can be done when a lavender haze fades to blue like you’ve never known?
“In psychedelic therapy, we talk about integration, which is how you make sense of that profound experience you just had,” Greenstien says. “It’s worth reflecting on what was really so wonderful about that experience, because I think it goes beyond just seeing Taylor Swift – it’s the atmosphere, the connectedness, the dressing up, going with family, going with friends.”
Greenstien says it’s worth asking what positive things about the experience can be brought back into everyday life.
To commemorate the event, she also suggests “doing something nice” with photos and memorabilia from the show, such as printing pictures out and putting them in a scrapbook.
Some Swifties have other suggestions. Blessed by the ticketing gods, “proud Swiftie” Lorrae McKenna went to two Eras shows in Melbourne. To ease the re-entry, McKenna and some friends she attended with plan to hold a screening of the Eras concert movie “to help us process everything”.
Her comedown has been manageable, she says, except for the number of Swift tracks she has been playing. “My partner is like, ‘You have a problem. And you need to stop listening now.’” McKenna says giving her friendship bracelets from the night to her children has helped too, because she enjoys seeing the thrill they get out of them.
Turner has also taken solace in friendship bracelets. She is still wearing hers. “It’s not just an ironic gimmicky thing. I think that they’re actually quite sweet and it’s a memory that I’ll cherish.”
She went to Eras with her older sister Jess, and spent the whole show “screaming, crying, singing and holding Jess’ hand”.
Her elder sibling hasn’t been in the same post-Eras funk, though – she’s actually been riding a high ever since the confetti dropped. “[Taylor Swift] just puts an ethos out into the world that if you lift other women up, and live your life leading with kindness, that you are the best or most powerful version of yourself,” Jess says.
“I think that’s really at the heart of it. When you go and are surrounded by 96,000 people that all buy into that, you can’t help but walk out of that, just being like … ‘People are awesome.’ And you just are reminded to be a bit better every day.”
Jess doesn’t want Swifties to be deterred by the party-pooping “Swift grinches” out there. She says those going to shows in Sydney should celebrate the night by posting their photos on social media. “Bask in it – just be like, ‘That made me happy and I had a really fun time.’ Don’t hold back, just put it out in the world.”
For Kelsey, watching the videos she filmed on repeat at Eras has certainly helped with the comedown. Her advice to Sydney Swifties is to do the same: “It can ease your mind to just say: ‘Oh I went there. I was part of history. We did it.’”
