Taylor Fast’s “Eraaz” tour is reshaping London. I never made it clear that other people liked it.

Taylor Fast is in London. Even the least culturally conversant person would not have failed to understand this. The city is packed with “eras” sales, and social media is filled with live performance photos from tour dates at Wembley Stadium: Travis Kelce wearing a major hat and tails to make his on-stage debut, Prince William Celebrating your 42^Ra Celebrate birthday by shaking it in your personal area. We have been given the opportunity to have elections here at this time, so the candidates are busy doing things to the public to appear to be of maximum standards. Opposition leader Keir Starmer posted a photo of himself on Friday on an “eras” excursion described as a “swift campaign pitstop”. Mayor Sadiq Khan posted a model of a London Underground map with entire stops replaced with Taylor Fast Track headings and captioned it “London (Taylor’s version).” For better or worse, it’s certainly made it feel like it’s in town for a weekend.

However a special playground in London is a fascinating petri dish through which the Taylor Fast effect can be observed. Before this past April, the Dull Canine Pub, in the Vauxhall community of South London, was once a playground of sorts. I live nearby and have been further a few times. It’s a regional joint that serves substantial food and beer – in other words, just a pub. On the other hand, the nearest fast discharge occurred Tortured Poets Branch, the status quo catapulted itself to world prestige. long, Compilation The novel version includes a song called “The Black Dog”, in which the Fast Age narrator describes learning that a lover – possibly one of the two London boyfriends about whom much of the novel is set – is showing up. Forgot stops sharing the location, and she soon realizes that he has been cheating on her by tracking her to the bar through that title.

I set out this generation’s malaise over the weekend to see if there might be any Swifties before or near their “eras” experience in the pub, and if that’s the case, invite them to explain themselves. to do. As soon as I went there at 3 pm on a Saturday, I was a bit disappointed. Why would a family in London for the weekend, some of them from as far away as the United States, spend some of their precious time in a traditional pub in a part of the city off the tourist trail? Surely they would have better playgrounds? It was once just a bonus monitor, the closest one.

I don’t need to worry. The lazy dog ​​was once hanging out with a group of friends with “eras” stuff; Mothers and their young daughters in “Eras” T-shirts; Troubled boyfriends taking pictures with their girlfriends, all of their fingers adorned in bands with letters and singing lyrics to their favorite albums and songs. There were also some girls on the grass outside the pub who were tying these friendship bracelets together. Inside, it was even busier, and anyone hoping to get a desk without a reservation was kidding himself.

The pub now sells products: red dull canine baseball caps, pint glasses embossed with the Status Quo brand, and, of course, friendship bracelets. Taylor works at Fast Audio Systems. According to a team member wearing a Dall Dog friendship bracelet, it’s busy not only throughout the weekend, but throughout the day. Sharp-minded people who had seen the tour elsewhere on the continent were incorporating the live performances into the more widespread peace, stopping off in London on their own ECU tour. There was a mildly irritated-looking security guard in an orange hat yelling at Swifties to stay away from cars as they were given their footage of a sign with the lyrics “And so I look at you as Let’s go to some bar called Black Dog.” The security guard himself was wearing a full sleeve of letter beads that enthusiasts had given him, as well as a wristband that read “Go Chiefs”, a word that holds meaningless connotations for many Londoners. As I stood there, three South African women in “eras” were debating which of them to give her. “Give him ‘King of My Heart’,” said one. “It will match his hat.”

I told Michelle and Tammy, sisters who both live in Tennessee and Florida, respectively, who had gone there with their daughters. They are in London to see out the night fast, and will remain there until Tuesday. Maya, one of the oldest daughters, said that “The Black Dog” was her favorite song, so it was the only thing she wanted to do in town instead of seeing the concert. That night also they were going to the stadium to pay attention from outside.

This type of tourism seems to be a marginally untouched factor in Europe anyway. This also happened with Beyoncé’s visit: the large number of concert-goers who traveled to the Ecuadorian towns were no longer very keen, such as the family who flew in specifically for the Stockholm show that played “Renaissance”. Had started the journey. However it appears to be just like any other step with respect to numbers. This summer, 700,000 people are expected to attend the “Eras” tour across 8 dates in London, this time and again in August. A large portion of that target audience may come from outside the country. Tickets for the ECU leg of the “Eras” excursion are significantly cheaper than in the US, to the point that many people did the math and discovered that it may be more expensive to get “Eras” tickets and fly in Europe. For live performance. The Greater London Authority estimates the tour will generate £300 million for the economy, and the renowned Economist of the Echo Central Reserve was heard wondering about the star’s potential impact on inflation. This generation’s fast-themed weekend integrated the Taylor Fast Drag Brunch; Taylor Fast Mini-Golf and Cocktail Tournament; Taylor Fast Touring Bar Bus Tour of London; and an adult ball pit fun with Taylor Fast Track fun, in addition to each warmup events and after-parties for each live performance. I can’t remember any other time when one person’s presence in a city has sparked such a huge response of supportive events and cash-in efforts. It’s a denial of hyperbole when everyone from CNBC to BrandNew York Times writes about him as not just a pop celebrity but an entire economy.

Three women from Ottawa told me they had thought about coming to Dull Dog during their weekend in London, but they postponed their event to that month because Fast had sung “The Black Dog” the previous night. Of the important two Miracle songs she plays at every moment of the tour. I was sitting unhurt on a bench outside a pub with a few enthusiastic people, some from America and some from London, who had met each other there that month. That they had cleaned the display the night before. ,tortured poets It’s my favorite album,” a woman in her early 20s named Lily informed me, “and we said, ‘We have to tour the Black Dog.’ Just seeing that this is the place he wrote about—it’s crazy. I almost imagine, like, this is the atmosphere of it tortured poets, You know what I mean? It’s like the album in real life.

Two alternative Swifties, Rachel and Ashley, found out they were taken off the waiting list for London tickets at BrandNew York at 11 a.m. on Thursday. “We bought tickets and flew here that night. We were at the airport by 4 o’clock,” Rachel said. They were married for a maximum period of time. “Now we’re like, I don’t know—we thought we had the best night of our lives? And then it happened last night.” They wanted to come back and see Lazy Dog because they found the song relevant. “She was stalking her boyfriend, and, like, it’s the most human thing to do. I’m always looking at my Find My Friends like, Where is everyone, what are they doing?,

Some of the other party, friends from London, were sitting in the garden with their pints. “I suggested Black Dog to these two,” Zoe said, pointing to the other women with her, “and they said, ‘We don’t know what you’re talking about.’ I was like, ‘This is where Taylor got cheated on. This is very important to us!’ “She wasn’t surprised at all that it was busier. “Honestly, I thought it would be busier.”

I believe that for most of these fans, coming to Dull Dog is a way to get some Instagram photos (let alone real ones) – but also to feel a little closer to Fast. And his stardom is so amazing that such emotions can be generated even by a person getting drunk from a plastic cup on the grass outside an ordinary pub.

When “Eras” tours include a city, it gives an unusual understanding of the people—accustomed locals—and them, the Swifties of the area. As I stood outside the lazy dog ​​door, a herd passed by.

“It’s strange that there are so many people, and they have so many bags,” one of the important women said to the others. One of his friends replied: “Imagine you own this pub. They probably hate it.

They don’t, it seems. Then when the song was released and Swifty guests started arriving at the pub for the first time, the pub’s events manager, Lily Bottomley, told the BBC that the audience was “overwhelming” but that the bar “couldn’t be happier”, during which she presumably The intent was at least partly: “We’re making a lot of money.”

People eating on the terrace outside the café next door were craning their necks to see what the fuss was about. One buyer gave up and walked over to an American girl wearing a friendship bracelet.

“What is all this?” the customer said in a speech in south London.

“Oh, it’s because of the Taylor Swift song,” the American girl replied.

“Okay,” the Londoner said before going back into the café, looking over his shoulder now and then with a puzzled look on his face. face.