The Opening: That One Time We Met Taylor Swift - Part 3

THE OPENING

One of my favorite feelings is walking down from the entrance of the venue to find your seats. It is so fun to watch the numbers tick lower and lower, as you move closer and closer to the stage, until you get to your assigned row. Row 4 is a pretty awesome row! And let me tell you our seats were PERFECT! Great view of both the back and front stage. Close enough you could see the facial expressions of the artists on stage, but not too close that you couldn't see all of the visual effects. How does one get these seats? Sometimes I believe it is fate. other times I think it is just luck. No matter how it happend! I'm just glad it did! :D

The first thing we did as we found our seats was to take a picture of our TAYLOR sign! We knew we needed to get one early or we would never get one, so we had someone a couple seats down from us take our picture! Joel Crouse was on stage when we entered and he was pretty amazing! It's so great when the openers of a show are just as entertaining as the headliner!

Ed Sheeran was up next. I wasn't too familiar with Ed, but certainly loved his set! He sings like no other artist I've ever had the chance to see. It is a sight and sound to behold. I honestly cannot describe it! It has to be experienced! :) Definitely a fantastic artist!

After Ed's set the venue lights went on and they started setting up for Taylor. It wasn't long before a commotion was visible on the floor. It was obvious that someone famous was down there because people were going crazy. After a minute or so Taylor Swift's mom, Andrea, Mamma Swift came into view. She was slowly walking around looking up at the fans. When she got over to our side she clearly saw us dancing around and having a good time. She pointed straight at our group and nodded. Of course we went kinda crazy! Andrea is the person who selects people to go back to Club Red! We probably could have gone down and talked to her, but we just stayed in the stands and danced! 

This picture is a screen cap from a YouTube video taken from the upper bowl of the arena. If you look carefully you can see our group holding our TAYLOR sign on the right side. It is the line of Red lights a couple row up from the floor. :) Pretty great seats I'd say! 

During this break the people behind us asked to borrow our sunglasses and heart sign to take a picture of their daughters. They looked adorable and it was quite fun getting to share our excitement with them. We also had a lady come and ask to take our picture. She stated that she was sitting in the upper bowl and saw us and thought we looked so cool she had to come down and get a picture. I think Krystal had a stroke of brilliance when she came up with the ideas for our signs!

At one point they played "I Love It," and the crowd seriously went NUTS! I think this is one of my favorite pre-concert moments! It was a BLAST dancing around and just letting go and having fun. They started showing people in the crowd up on the big screens at this point! We knew we looked awesome so we were pretty sure we would get up there and we sure did! I happened to look up right as they projected us. It was a pretty surreal moment!! 

Screams then erupted from the venue as the room went dark and the illuminated RED sign started to flash and rise from the ground. The music began beating and the intro filled the arena. The build up of anticipation and adrenaline was about to explode. All of a sudden a gigantic silhouette of Taylor appears. With purposeful and graceful movements she begins to sing State of Grace. Instantly everyone in the room knew they were in for an unforgettable night of entertainment!