Sydney native Carly Heading, 34, and Taylor Swift go means again (to 2018, if you wish to get particular).
So when information broke that the Eras Tour was coming to Australia, Heading knew she needed to be in any respect seven exhibits – irrespective of the associated fee to her pockets or well being.
“I’ve so many bodily, power circumstances I am scared I am gonna find yourself in hospital, however I do not care. Actually, I’ll take any dangers,” she tells 9honey.
Miraculously, Heading and her mates acquired tickets to each single present by doing issues the old style means.
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“As a result of we’re OG Swifties we knew to go to the Ticketek cubicles, so I went to Penrith and my good friend went to the Melbourne ones,” Heading says.
“We might get [tickets for] a number of exhibits, so long as you did not get greater than 4 for every evening.”
The one present they missed out on was the primary evening in Melbourne, so Heading turned to the official Ticketek resale web site to keep away from scammers.
She scoured Ticketek Market for weeks till one appeared, which she rapidly snapped up.
Lastly she had tickets to all seven Aussie Eras exhibits and it had solely value her $3000, averaging out to about $428.50 per ticket.
It is a discount when you think about some followers paid nearly $1250 for only one VIP ticket.
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All the celebs noticed at Taylor Swift’s Australian Eras Tour exhibits
Heading even managed to attain free flights and lodging for the Melbourne exhibits by utilizing flight credit she’d saved and staying with a good friend. She did not pay a cent.
However really attending to the exhibits and making it by way of the three-hour setlist was one other story.
For years Heading has struggled with power sicknesses together with fibromyalgia, power fatigue, Hashimotos illness, endometriosis and complicated PTSD, which might trigger seizures.
Within the final 5 years alone, she’s spent over 300 days in hospital.
“Taylor’s the explanation I am nonetheless right here,” she says.
“I used to be terrified to fly to Melbourne, I did not know if my physique would deal with the flight. However I used to be like, ‘You realize what? I am simply doing it.'”
Heading’s well being points and frequent hospitalisations are an enormous drain on her psychological well being, however she’s at all times discovered consolation in Swift’s music.
The lyrics to This Is Me Attempting hit particularly near house, so Heading put out a social media name for Swift to play it in Australia as a ‘secret music’.
And Swift did.
“I do not know if she noticed my put up, or if it was destiny, however she performed it. It felt prefer it was simply to remind me to maintain going,” Heading says by way of tears.
It felt like a second Swift had orchestrated only for her, which might be true.
WATCH: Taylor Swift performs This Is Me Attempting in Melbourne
In 2018, Heading was gearing up for certainly one of Swift’s Fame exhibits in Nashville, USA when she acquired an electronic mail. It was from Taylor’s staff.
“Taylor mentioned that you simply had been right here,” it learn. “She needs to fulfill you.”
Swift had been following Heading on-line and invited her backstage, the place she requested after Heading’s well being earlier than posing for a photograph the Aussie nonetheless treasurers.
Within the snap, Swift leans on Heading, who had at all times leaned on Swift’s music for help.
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“It was therapeutic in a means that I can not actually clarify. There have been factors the place I really did not know if I used to be going to make it … and it simply saved me hanging on,” Heading says.
“Taylor’s the explanation I got here ahead a few sexual assault. She’s the explanation I stood up for myself. She’s the explanation I maintain combating.”
She fought by way of 5 years of hospital dashes and well being scares to make it to each certainly one of Swift’s Melbourne exhibits final weekend and can do the identical once more in Sydney this weekend.
Attending so many live shows is taking a toll on her well being however Heading will not cease.
Finest Aussie fan images from Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour
“I ended up having a trauma seizure in the course of the present on Sunday. It is my physique’s means of shutting down if I am in an excessive amount of ache, so I missed 4 or 5 songs,” she says.
“I threw up each morning earlier than the exhibits as a result of I am in a lot ache, however it’s price it.”
Sadly, she’s acquired hate from followers who missed out on getting any tickets whereas she nabbed seven.
They name her “grasping”, however Heading says the frustration is misdirected.
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“The hate must be directed on the scalpers,” she says.
“I have been going to a number of exhibits because the Crimson Tour. For 1989, I went to 5 exhibits and it was by no means a difficulty. I went to 6 for Fame.
“I get that the demand is greater, however OG followers should not need to cease what they’ve finished for years due to scammers. That is not truthful. That is not our fault.”
Greater than 4 million folks queued for the primary batch of Eras Tour tickets, over 280,000 followers flocked to see her in Melbourne and much more will end up this weekend in Sydney.
Swift’s tour has turn out to be a large cultural second and Heading is grateful to be part of it.
“It jogs my memory of the Matildas, when everybody was within the jerseys,” she says.
“Now we’re all screaming the phrases, we’re standing up for what we imagine in, and we’re allowed to be loud about it.”
