NOTE: Tour promoters have ruled friendship bracelets are allowed to be brought into the MCG for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour concerts. BUT, Friendship bracelets can be in your single allowed bag (no bigger than A4 size), cannot be in their own separate bag and cannot be brought in on carabiners, D-rings, shower curtain rings or other (for safety reasons).
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SUPERBOWL season for Victoria Appleby has become about making Swiftie friends - despite challenging her husband Brandon's allegiance.
She has said it is all part of the fun and the experience.
The Ballarat Taylor Swift superfan has been crafting about 100 friendship bracelets as part of a global trend for Swift's Eras Tour. Victoria has been roping in her husband to help most nights.
As part of the Eras trend, Victoria has her sequined near-replica Lavender Haze dress ready to wear (from Swift's Speak Now era). Brandon will accompany her in a Kansas City Chief's jersey, a nod to Swift's latest beau and Chiefs' tight end Travis Kelce.
This is the slight sticking point.
Brandon is a big San Francisco 49ers fan in the National Football League - they play the Chiefs for SuperBowl LVIII glory in Las Vegas on Monday (February 12, Ballarat time). Swift's Eras Tour kicks off in Melbourne five days later.
But he will wear the Chiefs jersey - he bought it for Victoria for Christmas - for his wife and because he can hardly help but be a bit of a Swiftie himself.
This is all part of a massive worldwide dubbed Swiftonomics - the boom impact Taylor Swift is having on economies with her concerts and this includes new fans (especially Chiefs fans) to the American pagentary that is the NFL and its SuperBowl grand final.
A call-out from The Courier on social media to test the Swift influence in town found plenty of tales about dads and male partners set to don a Chiefs jersey for the Melbourne concerts at the MCG. Other fans are wearing Chiefs clothing inspired by Swift's game-day fashion.
Media outlets worldwide have been calculating timezones and flying times for Swift to make it from the Japan leg of her tour to the SuperBowl. Betting agencies have opened odds on her clothing, live crosses to her match reactions and even whether American performer Usher will make a Swift tribute in his half-time show (a tradition almost bigger than the game itself).
Even Victoria had been a Philadelphia Eagles fan (Swift's previously favourite team) until Swift and Kelce hard-launched their relationship in October 2023.
In a perhaps romantic irony, it was one of Swift's ex-boyfriends that had Victoria discover her music.
"It all started because my best friend liked Joe Jonas and when they were dating we had to suss out who she was and thought her music was really good," Victoria said.
That relationship was for about three months in 2008, early in Swift's career. Since then, Victoria has experience the Swift mega-star rise. This will also be the 12th time Victoria has seen Swift perform live and she was expecting a show bigger than ever before.
Victoria has Swift merchandise from magazines to perfumes, Polaroid cameras, dolls, Keds shoes, blankets, totes and outfits.
Now there is the friendship bracelet fad.
This is said to have started with Swift's Midnights Era in 2022 when she announced the Eras Tour in the wake of her album release. The song 'You're on Your Own, Kid' features the line "so, make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it" and so Swifties started to revive the recurring generational trend in a big way.
"We've made them in different sizes so everyone is included," said Victoria, who is preparing to trade the bracelets with other fans at the MCG.
Each bracelet features beaded names of Swift songs or Swift quotes or fan in-jokes.
This is a trend crossing typical generational borders.
Laila Gibson, who at 17 is about half of Victoria's age, has prepared 237 friendship bracelets, as of two weeks from the concert.
Her efforts are a double batch so she can keep one set and trade the other. Like Victoria, Laila likes to keep her bracelets in a Taylor Swift Eras Tour popcorn bucket. These were not available for screenings in Ballarat cinemas and had to be sourced from friends in Melbourne.
"Every sleepover with my besties we've made bracelets," Laila said. "Some we traded at the Eras Tour movie, there were some fans who knew what it was about.
"I was a bit torn about watching the concert [at the cinemas] but thought I would watch it as a practice run and I've seen it all on TikTok [social media], and it's all up on Insta, so I thought I'd watch the movie and be part of it."
Friendship bracelet and bead-making kits have take centre stage at major warehouse chains across Ballarat and these stores, along with online outlets, is where Ballarat Swifties have sought materials.
Bracelets have also become a Thing among teenagers who are also fans of the touted next Taylor, Gracie Abrams. Her concert was in Melbourne in January.
Laila became a Swifite a few years ago when her dad put Swift's album 1989, released in 2014, on her iPod. This will be Laila's first Swift live concert and she only just secured tickets, having missed out on pre-sale.
Laila had a hub of computers and phones all trying to load the ticket site and it was on the oldest, slowest computer that she finally had success.
Her pink, sparkly dress and Sabrina Carpenter knee-high platform boots (Carpenter wore these to open for Swift on the Latin America leg of the Eras Tour) are inspired by the Lover era. Her friend's mum, who is accompanying them, will simply wear red clothing for the Red era.
While Laila has not been super into American football, she has instead been barracking for the highly anticipated new Swift album.
Unveiled at the 2024 Grammy Awards, The Tortured Poets Department has already been creating a search trend serving up the completely un-related film Dead Poet's Society, starring Robin Williams and released in the year Swift was born, 1989.
