Can you imagine saving money for weeks (or months), booking an expensive hotel, traveling to another city (or even country), just to see your idol perform live… only to forget the whole experience?
That’s the reality for some Taylor Swift fans, who reportedly experienced “post-concert amnesia” on social media after attending the singer’s Eras tour. The unlucky Swifties suggested that the heightened excitement of seeing the “Blank Space” singer live and in person somehow caused them to experience amnesia-like symptoms, leaving them with little to no memory of the experience.
If this sounds like a fabrication, I can assure you it is not real; The same thing happened to my six-year-old daughter, Liberty.
In her case, she was so overwhelmed with accumulation, adrenaline, excitement, changing friendship bracelets, and dressing up that she developed narcolepsy, a classic response to overwhelm. This meant he was out like a light for most of the show and didn’t remember much; A tragic reaction for a child who waited months for his dream ticket.
The problems started immediately. He saw 62,000 people packed into Liverpool’s Anfield Football Stadium and looked completely shocked. He turned pale. I dragged her to her seat and gave her a big hug. Even I was stunned by the sea of people – we had never seen anything like it before.
Weeks ago, he had asked me if Taylor Swift, the “real person,” would actually be there, or if she would just appear on a television screen. Nothing could prepare him for the truth.
We were five seats up front with her eight-year-old sister, Lola. As the show opened with her medley of “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince,” I couldn’t believe she fell asleep like a rag doll in her red plastic chair before launching into her favorite song, “Cruel Summer.”
I was a little worried – was he sick? Was he hungry? He had eaten a bowl of macaroni and cheese at a burger bar in Liverpool. I gave him some water. How could a child who had been dreaming of this moment for months suddenly fall asleep?
I then tried to get Liberty to her feet for “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” naturally desperate for my child to not miss it. “Look at Taylor, Liberty,” I said, trying to wake her. “She’s wearing that hat you liked.”
But after a few minutes of slurring her words, she collapsed. Even as Taylor Swift sang “Look What You Made Me Do,” another Liberty favorite, she was swaying like a leaf in the wind. I nudged her, and her eyes started to close as if they had been drugged. She fell asleep in a very strange way. I’d never seen her like this before. It wasn’t that late.
So, I can understand Liberty falling asleep after 9pm, which is 30 minutes after her normal bedtime. Admittedly, “Shake It Off” was a bit late – as Swift turned 28.This song – performed. But do you fall asleep at 8 pm during a Taylor Swift concert?
He even mumbled to me, “Mom, I think I want to go home.” Go home? Was he crazy? I can’t really explain it.
Experts have expressed their views on this phenomenon, suggesting that it is similar to a post-traumatic stress response due to sensory overload – but we still don’t understand the details. Maybe it’s all down to familiarity — Swifties know the songs by heart, so they can’t form new memories when they hear them perform live. Maybe it’s the same “deindividuation” that people in angry crowds experience—the complete loss of self that occurs when everyone in a large crowd feels the same way.
I finally woke Liberty from her deep sleep and took her for a little walk backstage at the stadium. A guy from the tour who was probably eating a burger by himself came running up to her and gave her the guitar pick that Liberty had pressed to her heart, thinking Taylor Swift had asked him to give it to her personally.
She was eager to show the gift to Lola and her friend Poppy, but when we returned to the enthusiastic atmosphere, Liberty shut down and fell asleep in my arms again. At one point he even fell off the back of the couch onto a fellow Swiftie.
Everyone around him saw his struggle to stay awake. Swift was showered by fans with bracelets featuring the words “Lover” and “Evermore” written in colorful beads – which promptly fell from her tightly clenched fist every time she fell asleep. Even the light-up concert bracelet we were all given — or even waving my phone in the air with a flashlight like everyone else — couldn’t keep him up for more than a few seconds. I finally gave up trying.
What’s really annoying is that she never falls asleep that quickly on weeknights when she has school the next day. Lately, I’ve found her up late making Taylor Swift friendship bracelets under the covers or posing in front of the mirror wearing a pink cowboy hat and singing “Delicate” before bed. Maybe I’ll try streaming the Eras concert film on Disney Plus next time I catch her – that should do the trick.