Thousands of Sydney fans queue for Taylor Swift merchandise

The multimillion-dollar buying power of Taylor Swift’s faithful legions has been underlined as thousands of fans rushed official concert merchandise ahead of the pop star’s Sydney shows.

One Sydney academic estimates total merchandise sales for Swift will top $66 million in Sydney alone with the artist to bank $22 million.

Long queues formed at Olympic Park on Wednesday as fans, known as Swifties, opened their wallets to spend big on souvenir items marking the artist’s Eras Tour.

Taylor Swift fans line up at Olympic Park on Wednesday morning to buy merchandise ahead of her Sydney concert on Friday.Credit: .

Hoodies and T-shirts were the biggest selling items on the first day of a two-day pop-up merchandise sale. Within hours popular sizes began selling out.

As this was happening, Swift’s convoy was spotted arriving at Accor Stadium after travelling from Crown, where she is staying, for a soundcheck ahead of the first of her four shows.

The average spend of a Taylor Swift fan is expected to be $1300 inclusive of tickets, travel, accommodation, and merchandise, according to Dr Nigel Bairstow, lecturer in marketing at the University of Technology Sydney. But some fans carried away bags of merchandise worth thousands of dollars.

Fans began lining up from 4am, security staff reported, bringing mattresses with them to prepare for the 10am opening, with organisers deciding last minute to open almost an hour early.

Typically, Swift fans were likely to spend about $1300, including $208 in merchandise sales, Bairstow calculates.

“It is huge business, the numbers are just ginormous in terms of the sheer pull she has,” he said. “It’s safe to say that Swift’s concerts will have a positive impact on increasing domestic consumption.”

Cam Gower, of Mt Colah, had queued since 8.50am, and waited for 70 minutes before snaring a tour shirt for herself, a zip-up pullover for her sister and a crew neck and another jumper for a friend.

“I didn’t spend as much as some people had, just shy of $500,” she said. “I’ve loved Taylor from when she was doing country music.

“I grew up with her music, and her music got me through some very hard times. I like to wear the merchandise of artists I love.”

The good-natured crowds grew steadily, the rush attributed to a fear that garments might sell out as certain items did in Melbourne.

“You can get some of the merch on Taylor’s website, but there are shipping delays and more choice here. I am going to wear these to death,” Gower said.

Tour posters emblazoned with Swift were selling for $40, pullovers for $150 and t-shirts in black and beige for $65. A bracelet retailed for $50, and a water bottle cost $40.

Mums Lucy Gilligan and Lisa White from Sydney’s north shore bought big for their daughters and friends of their daughters, plus “one shirt for each of us”.

“We were lucky we did the school drop off and got here at 8.50am. It opened a little after 9am and we’ve met lovely people in the line. We are Swiftie mums now,” Gilligan said.

Anita Trimboli, from Silverdale, drove from Sydney to Melbourne to attend Swift’s third concert last Saturday and went straight to the merchandise stall, only to find her sizes sold out. She wasn’t risking anything today, spending $1500 on 13 items including hoodies, T-shirts and water bottles.

Niece Sienna Fodda, from Liverpool, took a day off school to purchase eight items, including a bracelet.

“It would have been all sold out if we hadn’t have come when we did,” Sienna’s mum Angela Fodda said. “They’ve already told us they had sold out of the extra-small in the blue hoodie. The thing you do as mothers, the things you do for your children.”

Organisers were expecting 5000 people to visit the stalls, and opened a fourth stall as crowds swelled.

Destination NSW conservatively estimates more than $80 million will be spent in Sydney by Swift fans while Business Sydney has predicted Swift will deliver a $133 million boost to the economy.

Internal modelling by Deloitte Access Economics suggests Swift’s Eras Tour could generate $346 million in spending across Sydney and Melbourne, including approximately $126 million on 620,000 concert tickets and $220 million in visitor expenditure including accommodation, food and drinks, and airfares.

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