Taylor Swift Melbourne concert live updates: fans flock to the MCG for biggest Eras tour show yet

The once-in-a-lifetime show has finally come to Australia. For the millions who couldn’t get tickets, might a slightly chaotic blog be the next best thing? We’ll find out. But fair warning: setlist spoilers

Set-times: Sabrina Carpenter at 6.30pm AEDT; Taylor Swift at 8pm
Is this Taylor Swift’s biggest ever concert?
Find your seat with the MCG stadium seating map.

As suspected, Melbourne’s Eras show will set a new record for attendance at a single Taylor Swift concert – a record that may not be toppled even in Europe later this year.

The biggest show on the Eras tour so far/before this was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Taylor’s home state), which hosted just over 73,000 fans. The Melbourne Cricket Ground has an official capacity of 100,024 people. Last year, Ed Sheeran played to a record of 109,500 people in a single night.

But Sheeran was able to do that because his stage was set in the middle of the stadium, whereas Taylor has quite an enormous stage for the Eras tour: there’s three separate parts that change via hydraulics, along with a ramp. (The singer famously loves to move around in her stadium tours so fans up the back can enjoy the show just as much as those front and centre.)

Melbourne’s still going to be her biggest though. On Tuesday, after the set-up was confirmed, Frontier Touring sent out a press release that said it would be “the largest concert of Taylor Swift’s career to date.” Her three concerts there will break the MCG’s record for most tickets sold by one artist at the venue too. And she’ll be the first artist to ever perform four concerts at Accor Stadium when she heads to Sydney next week.

The only show that may pose a challenge to the MCG’s record is one of her eight shows in Wembley Stadium in London in June and August; the stadium can officially house up to 90,000 seated and another 25,000 standing.

It’s quite ironic that I was asked to live blog for Swift’s first Australian show, since the last time I publicly spoke about the Eras tour was detailing my attempts to avoid any concert spoilers.

Yep, the past 10 months I have been on an excruciating journey of self-control to not look at any TikTok Eras moments or Instagram reels … well, up until now.

When I was emailed a simple question – “Are you a Taylor Swift fan?” – by one of my bosses, I knew this was my time to stand up and show up for the Swifties and not let the team down with my foolish dreams of wanting the ultimate surprise viewing of one of the greatest concerts of all time.

And let me tell you … Wow. I had no idea what I had been missing out on, and I think I may be even more excited for the concert now (if that is even possible).

The last 24 hours has been a whirlwind of me deep-diving into every costume change, every era, and the ins and the outs of that mammoth setlist.

And I am so excited to bring it to you.

But first, here’s a throwback to where I was at before this:

Welcome to our Taylor Swift blog!
It’s here folks: the first official night of the Eras tour in Australia – in Melbourne – which will bring out the biggest audience of Taylor Swift’s career.

People have been lining up outside the MCG in Melbourne since the morning – and we’re going to be blogging it right until the end.

It’s hard to overstate how much of a cultural phenomenon this tour has been. Swift’s first show was in Glendale in the US on 17 March last year, and by the end it will have comprised more than 150 three-hour shows across five continents – making it the highest-grossing tour of all time.

Australia broke records when more than four million people tried to get tickets; for those who managed, it will be a historic, culture-defining moment. For those who didn’t – maybe this live blog could be the next best thing?

The show doesn’t actually start until support act Sabrina Carpenter takes the stage at 6.20. Taylor herself is expected around 8pm. We have a few people in the arena, who’ll be feeding us bits and pieces – but only if they can get reception in one of Australia’s worst reception black holes.

This could be chaotic. It could be disastrous. But it’s going to be fun.