‘Four NRL grand finals in a row’: Inside Accor Stadium’s set up for Taylor Swift’s Sydney Eras Tour

The countdown is on for Swift’s Sydney concerts, with Accor Stadium organisers and their thousands of staff saying it’s the biggest event since the 2000 Olympics.

When 19-year-old Taylor Swift first set foot in Sydney, Australia in 2009 — she played her second studio album, Fearless, to an audience of 450 at Marrickville’s Factory Theatre.

Fourteen years and 14 Grammys later, the preparation involved in Swift’s Australian visit is in a whole different stratosphere.

Accor Stadium organisers have likened the Eras Tour to “four NRL grand finals in a row”, saying it’s their biggest undertaking since the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

The global ‘It’ girl is expected to have touched down in Australia, fittingly, around midnight on Wednesday.

Swift will play the first of seven Australian concerts at Melbourne Cricket Ground this Friday, which means Accor Stadium has a little more than a week to build (and set) the stage for Taylor’s four Eras shows in Sydney.

Taylor Swift performs onstage during night two of Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour in Kansas City, Missouri. Picture: Getty

“Obviously the grass is looking in pristine condition at the moment,” Ben Raggatt, Event Operations general manager for Venues NSW, told The Daily Telegraph at Accor Stadium on Wednesday.

“But there’s plenty of work to be done.”

All the grass at Accor Stadium, pictured on Wednesday 14, will be covered by next week, before Swift’s first Eras Tour concert on February 23. Picture: Tim Hunter

While tour organisers and public officials have discouraged the phenomenon known as ‘Taylor-gating’, Raggatt said it’s something organisers expect.

“We know people are going to turn up.”

Taylor-gating is a play on the US term tailgating, which is when fans camp outside of a football stadium.

The world over, Swifties who missed out on tickets have been congregating by the thousands outside stadiums to hear their idol live.

“It’s fair to say that for once we’re happy that Melbourne’s going first,” Raggatt told The Daily Telegraph.

Fans of US singer Taylor Swift, also known as Swifties, queue to enter the Tokyo Dome shortly before the start of the first leg of her Asia-Pacific Eras Tour in Tokyo on February 7. Picture: AFP.

“A few of us are heading down to Melbourne this Friday to scope out the situation, so we get to see what’s going on and learn from what has not worked down there.”

Swifties who haven’t secured tickets are being discouraged from creating their own live site outside the stadium.

“Our advice is that if you don’t have a ticket, don’t turn up,” Raggatt said.

The changing rooms that Taylor Swift will use at Accor Stadium during The Eras Tour, lit in a Lavender Haze. Picture: Tim Hunter

“Obviously our key focus is the customer service and experience for patrons inside the venue.

“We can’t control what everyone’s going to do outside, but we’re putting measures in place so we can obviously provide a safe environment for anyone that does decide to come and stand outside, and listen to the festivities inside.”

Organisers expect ticketless Swifties to congregate at the northern end of Sydney Olympic Park to better hear the stage positioned on the southern side of the stadium.

“We have Cathy Freeman Park across the road, so we think naturally people will go there,” Raggatt said.

Bottled drinks that will be sold throughout Taylor Swift’s four Sydney concerts stacked in underground cages. Picture: Tim Hunter

On Thursday, while the Karma singer takes the stage at MCG, flooring will start going down at Accor.

Trucks, forklifts, and deliveries including 900,000 units of bottled drinks will begin to arrive.

“We’re expecting 60-odd semi-trucks and trucks to arrive to as part of Taylor Swift’s entourage over the next week,” Raggatt continued.

“Nearly one thousand staff are responsible for the delivery of the stage to that point, and three-and-half thousand staff per night to deliver the concert series ahead of us.”

“I’ll be in a lot of strife if we’re not ready to go by Friday next week.”

Nicholas Ferrer and Jordan Piper, staff members that are looking forward to the concert, during a press conference for the Taylor Swift The Eras Tour Event. Picture: Tim Hunter

That breaks down to roughly 600 security, 400-plus in customer service, 1400 in catering, and cleaning on top of that, he said.

The scale of Swift’s entourage alone: “is nothing like any other event we’ve seen.”

“We’ve got other major concert artists around at the moment, and they have 40 trucks.” That includes Swift’s ex-boyfriend, Harry Styles.

“It’s a pretty big entourage,” Gema Group chief operating officer Dwane Goodman added.

Taylor Swift. Picture: Getty

Taylor Swift. Picture: Getty

“This event, from a catering perspective, will essentially be four grand finals one after another. An NRL grand final takes months and months of preparation, and we’re about to do it night after night in terms of volume.”

On top of that, Goodman said he’s providing “1500-2000 meals in the week leading into,” Swift’s first Sydney Eras concert for her entourage.

Hundreds of additional portaloo toilets have been ordered for set-up on the ‘northern ring’, to service the 15,000 attendees “on the floor” (which currently still looks like an NRL field). With some Sydney fans claiming they’ve bought adult diapers so they won’t have to miss a single second of their idol’s performance, this is an important thing to note.

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