Taylor Swift fan in Regina has wildest dreams come true

One lifelong Swiftie couldn’t calm down after she got tickets to see Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Toronto in 2024.

Aly Askin was only eight years old when she first saw Swift on her Reputation Stadium tour in 2018. When Askin is reunited with the Love Story singer, she will be 14.

Aly Askin and Andrea Swift at the Reputation Stadium Tour in Minneapolis in 2018 (submitted photo).

“It’s crazy because the Reputation Tour was so fun, but I was kind of young so I didn’t really know what was happening. And now that I know I’m going to the Eras Tour, it’s crazy because now I became a bigger fan as the years go on,” said Askin.

It was a group effort to get tickets for the show. Her mom Rickie, dad Brian and Brian’s girlfriend Fallon Keogan all signed up for the Verified Fan sale through Ticketmaster. Only Keogan got a code.

Askin didn’t help her dad and Keogan get tickets; her dad told her she couldn’t distract them.

Keogan, a dedicated Swiftie herself, immediately signed up for the sale when the announcement dropped. But that wasn’t enough: She got her friends and family to sign up to increase her odds.

“Once I had the code, we sat down and had a serious conversation. We scoped out the stadium and said, ‘OK, this is what we’re willing to spend. This is where we want to be. Just shoot for it,’ ” said Keogan.

Overall, the ticket process was easy, she said.

“Waiting in the waiting room was nerve-racking but when I first got in, there was only just over 4,000 people in front of me and I felt pretty good about that. It was a long 15 minutes with my heart pounding, but once we got in, I knew where I was looking for and was able to snag them,” said Keogan.

She is looking forward to the nostalgia of this tour.

“This feels like a really important tour because it’s not specialized to one album. You’ll really get to experience everything — especially with the re-recordings. Like, being 14 when Fearless came out and now experiencing it again how many years later, just reliving everything will be so cool,” said Keogan.

When Askin got the news of the tickets, she was thrilled.

“I kind of just woke up and I was like, ‘Oh, I didn’t get a text yet and I’m not allowed to bother them,’ so I was just waiting and then my dad started typing and I was just like, ‘Oh, oh, oh,’ so I went into the chat and then he said, ‘We got tickets,’ and I was like freaking out. I was crying. (There were) so many mixed emotions,” she said.

Askin has been paying close attention to the tour since it started. She is most excited for the surprise songs.

Aly and Brian Askin in their matching ‘Shake it Off’ ballerina costumes. (Submitted)

At every show, Swift sings two surprise songs, one on guitar and the other on her piano. She is slowly going through her entire discography of songs.

“She’s been playing really good surprise songs lately and I’m kind of sad but I think she’s going to redo all of them because she’s kind of running out of them. But I’m kind of nervous to see if I get bad ones or not; that’s like my worst nightmare,” Askin said with a laugh.

She was around five years old when she started listening to Swift’s music.

“My dad would play bedtime playlists for me. My dad would catch on and I would say, ‘Ooh, this is my favourite song,’ and it was all Taylor Swift. I wasn’t really aware it was all Taylor Swift. But then he started playing me a lot of Taylor Swift and that’s when it sort of all began,” she said.

Taylor Swift fans are known for going all out on costumes for the tour, and this one is no exception.

When Askin and her dad saw Swift in 2018, they wore matching ballerina costumes, inspired by the ‘Shake it Off’ music video.

It caught the attention of many fans, with one fan even taking to Twitter to call Brian the dad of the decade.

Game over. Dad Of The Decade. #repTourMinneapolis pic.twitter.com/eDVvAhtgN9

— Brianna Conway (@BriannaConway) September 1, 2018

“I told him if it fits him, he’s wearing that and if it doesn’t fit him, we’re putting him on a diet,” Askin said with a laugh.

The pair have a lot of time to plan an outfit, as the show isn’t until November 2024.

When asked if she and her dad would make friendship bracelets, she replied: “We have to.”

She plans to have a friendship bracelet-making day with her friends before the show.