by Can you imagine saving your money for weeks (or months), booking an expensive hotel, traveling to another city (or even country), all to see your idol perform live… not to forget the whole experience?
That’s the reality for Taylor Swift fans, who have taken to social media to report experiencing “post-concert amnesia” after attending the singer’s Eras tour. The Unlucky Swifties suggested that the heightened excitement of seeing the “Blank Space” singer live and in person somehow caused them symptoms of amnesia, leaving them with little memory of the experience.
If that’s made up for you, I can assure you it’s not – it happened to my six-year-old daughter Liberty.
In her own case, she was so engrossed in the build-up, the adrenaline, the excitement, exchanging friendship bracelets, and dressing up, that she developed narcolepsy – a classic response to being overwhelmed. That meant she was out as a light for most of the show, and has little memory of it – a tragic response for a child who waited months for the dream ticket.
The problems started immediately. She saw the 62,000 people packed into the Anfield Football Stadium in Liverpool and looked extremely isolated. She went pale. I shuffled her to her seat and gave her a big hug. Even the sea calmed me – we had never seen anything like it.
She had already asked me weeks before if Taylor Swift, “the person” would really exist – or would she appear on a TV screen? Nothing could prepare her for the reality.
We were five seats from the front with her sister Lola, eight. When the show opened with a medley, “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince”, before she went into her favorite song, “Cruel Summer”, I couldn’t believe it when she fell asleep like a ragdoll in his red plastic seat.
I was a bit worried – was she sick? Hunger? She just had a bowl of macaroni and cheese in a burger bar in Liverpool. I gave her some water. How could a child who had been dreaming of this moment for months resist?
I tried to hold Saoirse down for “We Are Ever Getting Back Together”, naturally desperate that my child didn’t miss it. “Look at Taylor, Saoirse,” I said, trying to wake her up. “She’s wearing that hat you want.”
But she flopped down just after mouthing the words for a few minutes. Even when Taylor Swift sang “Look What You Made Me Do”, another of Saoirse’s favourites, she swayed like a leaf in the wind. I nudged her, and her eyes started to close like she was drugged. She leaned out in a very strange way. I’ve never seen her like this before. It wasn’t even that late.
I mean, I understand Saoirse falling asleep after 9pm – 30 minutes after her usual bedtime. Admittedly, it was a bit late by the time “Shake It Off” – Swift 28th song – done. But you’re still asleep at 8pm during a Taylor Swift concert?
She even said to me: “Mom, I think I want to go home.” go home? Was she delirious? I can’t really explain.
Experts have pondered the phenomenon, suggesting it is similar to a post-traumatic stress response, perhaps due to sensory overload – but we still don’t understand the specifics. Maybe it’s down to familiarity – Swifties know the songs by heart, so they can’t conjure up new memories when they hear them played live. Perhaps it is the same “deindividuation” that people suffer in angry mobs – a complete loss of self that occurs when a large crowd of people feel the same way.
Eventually I woke Saoirse from her deep sleep and took her for a walk backstage at the stadium. A man – possibly a member of the tour team who was eating a hamburger alone – rushed over to give her a guitar pick that Liberty had placed in his heart, thinking that Taylor Swift had personally asked him to give it to her.
She was desperate to show the gift to Lola and her friend Poppy, but as we walked back into the euphoric atmosphere, Saoirse gave up and fell back to sleep on my lap. At one point, she even fell through the back of the seat onto another Swiftie.
Everyone around her saw her struggle to stay awake. Swift fans threw her bracelets with “Lover” and “Evermore” spelled out in colored beads – which promptly fell out of her tightly clenched fists every time she walked away. Not even the light concert bracelet we were all given – or holding my phone with the torch to send a wave in the air like everyone else – could keep it upright for more than a few seconds. Eventually I gave up trying.
What’s really annoying is that she doesn’t fall asleep this quickly on a weeknight, when she has school the next day. Lately I’ve been catching her making Taylor Swift friendship bracelets under the covers late at night, or posing in the mirror wearing a pink cowboy hat and singing “Delicate” at bedtime. Maybe next time I find her I should try streaming the Eras concert movie on Disney Plus – that should do the trick.
