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Canberra Today 2°/11° | Monday, April 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Albanese among Swifties for Sydney blockbuster

Taylor Swift kicks off the Sydney leg of her Eras Tour on Friday, when the temperature hits the 30s. (Joel Carrett/AAP PHOTOS)

By Kat Wong and Nyk Carnsew

Superstar Taylor Swift is dividing Sydney into the “haves” and “have nots” as she embarks on the second leg of her Australian tour.

For those who – like the prime minister – are in possession of a coveted concert ticket, the coming days will be spent listening to the set list and trading friendship bracelets.

Sydneysiders who were not blessed by the ticket-selling gods, however, may find themselves in the grips of the green-eyed monster.

Swift’s Eras extravaganza will take off at Accor Stadium in Olympic Park with four shows from Friday to Monday.

Thunderstorms have been forecast for the Friday show, but organisers have assured fans the event will go ahead rain, hail or shine.

And while Anthony Albanese will attend, he has conceded he might only be the third most famous person there.

“I’m way down the list… Sydney, just like Melbourne last week, has just gone cray cray for Tay Tay,” the prime minister told FoxFM on Friday.

Mr Albanese has remained tight-lipped on whether he will make bracelets, but he has already received some from avid Swifties.

“People keep giving me these bracelets, which is fantastic,” he said.

Deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley inferred that Mr Albanese was not a “real Swifty” and he should give up his ticket to a true super-fan.

“What the prime minister does on his nights off, it’s up to him, of course, and if he wants to see Taylor Swift, that’s cool,” she told Seven’s Sunrise program.

“But listening to the emotion from… thousands of Australians who couldn’t get tickets, I just want to say to the PM: hand over your Taylor Swift ticket to a real Swifty.”

Ticket prices for the sold-out shows range from $79.90 for the cheap seats up to dance-floor tickets for $380 and $1249 for the top VIP packages.

More than 320,000 fans are going, with close to a third expected to come from outside NSW.

The influx of visitors will provide Sydney with an economic boon of more than $80 million, according to Destination NSW.

Thousands of Swifties already parted with their hard-earned cash at merchandise pop-ups on Wednesday and Thursday, when many queued for hours.

Swift, 34, landed in Sydney alongside her support act Sabrina Carpenter on Monday after playing three shows at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which drew the biggest audience of the superstar’s career.

She was spotted at Italian restaurant Pellegrino 2000 in Surry Hills with Carpenter on Tuesday night and at Sydney Zoo in western Sydney on Wednesday.

Her partner and NFL superstar Travis Kelce, also 34, arrived in Sydney on Thursday morning, sending fans into a frenzy.

Swift is expected to rake in about $27 million for each of her seven Australian shows and will personally pocket about $5 million per show.

The Eras Tour as a whole, which began in March 2023 and will finish in December, is already the best-selling concert tour ever and the first to surpass $1 billion in ticket sales.

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