Taylor Swift Eras Tour tribute to energize final week of Arts Festival

"Are You Ready For It? A Taylor Experience" will recreate the energy and vibe of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour at 8 p.m. Thursday, July 10 at the Veterans Park Amphitheater as part of the 2025 Summer Arts Festival.

Credit: Tom Callahan Photography

Credit: Tom Callahan Photography

"Are You Ready For It? A Taylor Experience" will recreate the energy and vibe of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour at 8 p.m. Thursday, July 10 at the Veterans Park Amphitheater as part of the 2025 Summer Arts Festival.

Scoring tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour was like the live concert version of trying to get a winning lottery ticket. Many tried, few succeeded.

The biggest musical tour of the 2020s that captured Swift’s monumental journey through her career from her start as a country performer singing about boys and Romeo and Juliette fantasies to those about her boyfriends and relationships to more introspective and personal tunes was an all-around spectacle.

Eras movies and videos are readily available to get part of the experience. Or you can experience the energy in person and all you have to ask is Are You Ready for It?

“Are You Ready For It – A Taylor Experience” will bring the vibe of the Eras Tour to the 59th Summer Arts Festival at 8 p.m. July 10 at the Veterans Park Amphitheater, 250 Cliff Park Road.

Admission is free. The festival is presented by the Springfield Arts Council.

Traci Marie, who portrays Taylor Swift, has performed for more than a decade with her husband in a band. Two years ago, they were doing a lot of Swift songs and he noticed she sounded a lot like Taylor and with the hype at the time, it was the right moment to start a tribute.

But it wasn’t just thrown together. Traci Marie spent hours watching videos and the Eras Tour movie “over and over and over” and the costumes are authentic, costing thousands, right down to the signature red soles of Swift’s shoes.

“It’s been a lot of effort to do it the right way, to set the bar,” she said. “The Swiftie community is huge, massive. I’ve had mostly positive responses so far, people saying thank you, we never got to go.”

Traci Marie stresses this is a family-friendly tribute and it’s common to look out on an audience of kids, grandkids, ages 5-10 at their first concert, original fans in their 30s and 40s. The show does not include some of the adult themes or language in some of Swift’s newer songs.

It’s unique also in the set includes four songs off Swift’s latest LP, “The Tortured Poets Department” not on the concert movie.

The hardest part of it for Traci Marie is keeping up the constant high-energy of the show.

“Every song has so much energy, there is never a lull in 90 minutes or two hours. The kids in the audience are screaming every word and you have to match that energy,” said Traci Marie.

She gets a small break, doing 10-12 costume changes. They also recreate the Eras tradition of giving away a “22” black hat to a fan, one of the special moments of the tour, that one lucky audience member will get.

The act has paid off not just in bookings, but recognition. In just 1.5 years, “Are You Ready for It – A Taylor Experience” has earned 2024 and 2025 Josie Music Award Tribute Artist of the Year nominations. The Josies recognize and celebrate excellence in the independent music industry.

Traci Marie said the group enjoys performing outdoors, and as a Midwest resident, finds Ohio just the type of place she feels at home. This is the first stop on a four-show run and she looks forward to a meet and greet after the show.

“This is my type of local hometown crowd,” she said.

 The final week of the festival will bring a variety of acts starting on Wednesday, July 9 with Duwende, an award-winning six-person a cappella band that has toured the world and will perform covers of popular songs.

Two returnee acts will round out the series with The Pettybreakers, a Tribute to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, considered the country’s number one Petty tribute, on Friday, July 11, followed by legendary rock n’ oldies revue doing popular tunes from the 1950s-1970s, Phil Dirt and the Dozers on Saturday, July 12.

All shows begin at 8 p.m. Attendees can set up lawn furniture and blankets beginning at 6 a.m. the day of a show and must have them removed at the end of the evening’s performance.

For more information on the festival, go to www.facebook.com/SpringfieldArtsCouncil/.

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