Sam here! Your Swiftie in residence is taking over this week with dispatches from The Eras tour. 

I’ve been changed for the better after seeing Taylor Swift at MetLife on Sunday. Yes, she can be a divisive artist (though a lot of her criticism is deeply rooted in misogyny, and I won’t even get into the Matty Healy of it all), but her talents as a songwriter and performer are undeniable. As Rob Sheffield described it in Rolling Stone (after seeing all three New Jersey shows, jealous):

“Taylor Swift keeps building the legend of her Eras Tour, week after week, city by city, making every night so much longer, wilder, louder, more jubilant than it has to be. There’s nothing in history to compare. This is her best tour ever, by an absurd margin. It’s a journey through her past, starring all the different Taylors she’s ever been, which means all the Taylors that you’ve ever been. Taylor always designs every tour to be the best night of your life. But she designed this one to be the best night of all your lives. Every Era you’ve ever lived through, it’s in here. She does 46 songs, plus snippets of a few more. That means this show has 22 percent of her songbook, and don’t even imagine she didn’t plan it that way.”

At my show, after a heartbreaking rendition of “Champagne Problems,” Swift paused at the piano and scanned the crowd. She seemed to be returning to her body for a moment — an hour into her 3.5-hour set — to look into the eyes of her fans. “If you think I’m just coasting along thinking this is normal, I can assure you this is not the case,” she said. “This is extraordinary.”

I relate to her music on a cosmic level — we’re the same age (and sign — hi, Sag!) and from similar backgrounds. We moved to New York in our early twenties and experienced heartbreak of all intensities along the way. Of course, I applied to the ill-fated Ticketmaster lottery, and when I wasn’t selected, it didn’t matter. I was going. While the cost of my ticket from the secondary market could have afforded me a new Louis Vuitton bag or one month of rent for an NYC studio, again, it didn’t matter. I would have paid double if I’d had to. And I’m not the only fan who was willing to take out a small loan to see her live.

The infamous Enchanted number

She leaned into our collective obsession with nostalgia, rewearing old costumes from music videos past, catapulting us back in time with her. Watching Swift perform 2010 hit “Enchanted” transported me to my college apartment, crying over some boy I knew I was destined to be with whose name I can’t even recall now. 

It was a perfect show. Her energy was sky high from her opening song, “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince,” at 7:45 until she walked off stage arm in arm with Ice Spice after “Karma” at 11:35. Even the Gen Alphas around me had to take sitting breaks between set changes. This tour should be studied. Swift should teach college-level courses on how to enrapture your audience. I’m sure there were backstage scrambles, missed cues and technical failures, but I didn’t notice them. No one did. I was too busy making sure I didn’t blink and miss a second.

— Samantha & Co.

Q&A with artist and experience maker — and C2MTL visionary — Nico Fonseca

Last week in Montréal, we were reminded why we’re so obsessed with Nico Fonseca. The artist and storyteller — who is already a fixture in the immersive experience and culinary worlds — just completed his first term as C2MTL’s creative director. We had the pleasure of interviewing Fonseca back in 2021 on everything from his experiential predictions to his dream experiential project (and we’re ready to run strategy if anyone would like to fund a food-based pop opera).

Check out the full interview on XP Land, plus additional details on what he’s up to this summer. And remember, we have plenty more dispatches from C2MTL, including our XLIST jury members’ takes on the experience and additional insights into their XP lives, coming all summer long.

🔥 Forward to a Fyre survivor — Are you attending Julius Solaris’s interview with Fyre Festival scammer Billy McFarland next Wednesday? We will not be attending. Yes, the catastrophic dumpster fire that was Fyre Fest is still generating eye rolls (especially from those of us who DO this for a living, and don’t BS our way through it), but six years later, why are we still giving it oxygen? If your schadenfreude is getting the better of you, you can check it out. But we’re not including a link.

Check out XP Land fav Priya Parker’s take on generous exclusion in her latest newsletter, including how it can help define and elevate a gathering. “Generous exclusion is the intentional drawing of a temporary line for the good of the guests and to help activate and fulfill a gathering’s purpose.” 🤯

Since we travel to Vegas approximately 100 times a year (and bet you do, too), we’re always interested in dispatches from the event world’s favorite city. Turns out, gamblers lost almost $1 billion at blackjack tables in Las Vegas last year, the most since 2007 and the second-highest amount on record. Sounds like a massive guest experience change to us…

The XP Land team going all in on the XLIST this summer

Today's newsletter was brought to you by Samantha Stallard. Editing by Shannon Barr. Graphics by Greg Hall. Marketing by Anne Woodard. Site management by Nick Lawson. Managing edits by Erica Boeke and Caitie Murphy.