- Rebecca Fox booked 191 hotel rooms at a New Orleans hotel ahead of the sold-out Eras Tour dates
- Thousands are expected to attend the “Holiday House” events organized from Oct. 24 to Oct. 28
- The convention was inspired by Fox’s own experience at her first Eras Tour show
The second North American leg of Taylor Swift’s sold-out Eras Tour will be hitting New Orleans this weekend – and anyone who doesn’t already live in the area has likely forked over a pretty penny for the travel accommodations ahead of the show.
Rebecca Fox has spent more than a year trying to reduce the upfront cost those traveling to Louisiana will have to pay, purchasing a block of 191 hotel rooms at the a Holiday Inn. The scope of the project has only grown in size as she’s garnered interest from the community, enticing hundreds of Swifties to participate in her Eras Tour “convention,” dubbed Holiday House.
The name was inspired by the lyrics of Swift’s folklore track “the last great american dynasty,” spawned from her own experience seeing the award-winning star live at the start of the international tour.
“I’ve been a super fan of Taylor since the very, very beginning, and when Eras [Tour] was announced, I knew that the one thing I had to do was see it before anybody else did,” Fox says.
Securing the tickets to the tour’s opening night was just one step in the battle, though, as flights and hotels would easily cost her thousands of dollars. Though she found workarounds, such as taking a train to Los Angeles and driving a rental car to the event, she spent less than 24 hours in Phoenix for the night one show.
“I didn’t get to trade bracelets. I didn’t get to meet anybody. I didn’t get to take a photo outside the stadium,” Fox says.
Missing out on the opportunity to meet and hang out with other fans of Swift’s is partly what inspired her to create the Holiday House weekend of events.
“I live in New Orleans. I could very easily just not have spent the money, stayed at my house, and driven back and forth to the [Caesars] Superdome,” she continues. “But it was like, no, I want to have an experience. I want to actually be immersed in this. I want to enjoy every moment of it, for the whole three days that she’s here. How can I do that? I selfishly plan the events that I would want to go to.”
Before Swift had even announced the second North American leg of the tour, Fox admits she had a feeling the star would be stopping in New Orleans. Using various connections she’d made around the city, she called the Superdome to inquire about Swift’s possible performance.
“[The stadium’s] response was so cagey that I kind of knew immediately that there was something that they were not saying,” Fox recounts. “And so I started making plans to make the hotel block.”
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The block initially started with just 20 rooms at the Hyatt Regency next to the stadium, though it quickly quadrupled in size until the hotel stated it didn’t have more rooms to accommodate Fox’s requests, forcing her to move the bookings to the Holiday Inn.
“I fought really, really, really hard for every single room and every single person and just so it’s entirely clear, I’ve done this all at cost,” Fox states, explaining that she’s charged those coming to the convention face value for the rooms in her block, asking only for a $25 deposit she intends to refund at the conclusion of the event.
Concert-goers have easily spent thousands of dollars seeing Swift live, generating billions in revenue for the U.S. economy – and resulting in a good number of hopeful concert-goers getting scammed out of money attempting to purchase resale tickets. By creating this event, Fox hopes it’ll at least reduce the cost of lodging for some.
“Everything that we’re doing is either Taylor-themed or New Orleans-themed,” Fox explains, breaking down the various events she’s planned for the weekend, running from Oct. 24 to Oct. 28.
Fox has organized numerous opportunities for Swifties to meet and interact with one another, including bracelet-making sessions, scavenger hunts and more for those who purchase a ticket to the events through her Friendship Bracelet Project website.
“Before this, I literally only knew one other Swiftie in New Orleans, and now I have probably 40 really, really dear friends that live here, and I have thousands all over the world,” Fox says.
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