From 26m agoKey events26m agoPeople are inside!1h agoWhy are we liveblogging this?1h agoMCG gates are open2h agoTaylor Swift’s enormous week2h agoBeware the ticket scams2h agoTonight’s MCG show will be biggest of Eras tour to date3h agoWelcome to our Taylor Swift blog!Filters BETAKey events (7)Taylor Swift (20)Melbourne (11)Eras (7)MCG (6)Sydney (5)3m ago01.37 EST
We have Guardian’s video whizz turned Swifty correspondent Lisa Favazzo on the ground armed with an iPhone and boom microphone, and speaking to excited fans.
Sendhil Rungasamy and Urva Patel travelled all the way from New Zealand to Melbourne to see T-Swift. They were so busy saving up for the travel costs they didn’t have time to make friendship bracelets.
“You can’t miss the Eras Tour… it’s the best thing since sliced bread,” said Rungasamy.
“We were working full-time to save up for the trip, one of our friends gave us this (the bracelet).”
concert – video” src=”https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/81f08f862831954bc792abeb99982b187ee135f1/0_0_1920_1080/1920.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none” height=”259″ width=”460″ class=”dcr-my5zgw”>00:00:50Diehard Taylor Swift fans fly all the way from New Zealand for Melbourne Eras concert – video
Julie Cameron told Favazzo she’d been a fan of Swift since “she was in country”.
“She’s such a good role model for the younger girls. She’s just an amazing person all round.”
Venue being tested for asbestos prior to Sydney shows
To sidestep from Melbourne for a moment:
The Daily Telegraph has reported that Sydney’s Olympic Park will be tested for asbestos this weekend, ahead of Taylor Swift’s concerts next week.
The news comes amid an expanding asbestos investigation happening across Sydney.
A government source told the DT that the testing is proactive. The exact location is yet to be confirmed.
Taylor is set to perform four shows at Olympic Park on Friday 23, Saturday 24, Sunday 25 and Monday 26 February. About 320,000 fans are expected to be at Olympic Park for the Eras concert and a Blink-182 show, per the DT.
More to come …
Updated at 01.36 EST16m ago01.24 EST
MCG turf to ‘lose two-thirds’ ahead of men’s AFL season
It’s the start of the men’s AFL season just a few weeks away, some are wondering what mark three Taylor Swift concerts and nearly 300,000 fans will leave on the hallowed ground.
Very understandable, given last year Ed Sheeran’s team reportedly spent $1.5m replacing the turf after his two record-breaking performances eight days before round one.
Footy supporters can breathe a sigh of relief though: this morning the chief executive of the Melbourne Cricket Club, Stuart Fox, said the process for replacing the turf in time for the footy season will be much the same as it was after Sheeran’s visit.
“This will be the biggest impact we’ve ever had on our turf, this concert, and that’s obviously because of the overlay on the turf, so we actually will lose around two-thirds of the turf,” Fox told 3AW.
“We’ve got a contract with a turf farm off-site, we’ve got 12,000 sq m of turf coming in…
2024-02-16 01:29:14
Article from www.theguardian.com