Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour has been a smash success and the singer is giving back to those who made it possible by giving massive bonuses to staff. The singer gave $100,000 bonuses to about 50 truck drivers, Entertainment Tonight confirmed this week.
Swift, 33, also gave bonuses to other crew members such as dancers, musicians, lighting and sound technicians and caterers on the tour, ET reports.
CBS News has reached out to trucking companies Upstaging Inc. and Shomotion LLC, which reportedly worked on the tour, for comment and is awaiting response. Shomotion CEO Mike Scherkenbach told USA Today that Swift gave truckers a handwritten letter along with the bonuses.
The Eras Tour – during which Swift performs hits from all of her past “eras” – kicked off in March and is ending its U.S. leg in Los Angeles this weekend.
As of June, the tour had already raked in more than $300 million, according to PollStar, a trade publication for the live music industry. At that time, more than 1.1 million tickets had been sold at an average price of $253.
Forbes estimated Swift herself grossed $110 million from the first 22 performances of the tour. The publication projected the Eras Tour could gross $1.6 billion.
Last month, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia credited the tour with boosting tourism in the region, and several other cities reported economic boosts when Swift came to town.
The tour made headlines before it even kicked off when the extremely high demand for tickets and faulty Ticketmaster systems led to a fiasco. Fan fans complained about extremely long wait times for tickets – with some unable to get tickets at all. Some also alleged price gauging.
A group of more than two dozen fans even sued the online ticket retailer, alleging it gave customers pre-sale codes even though it couldn’t accommodate all the ticket orders for Swift’s concerts. The suit, filed in December 2022, also alleged Ticketmaster sold a large portion of tickets to scalpers and bots, making it even harder for fans to buy tickets on the platform.
The controversy lead to a congressional hearing, where Joe Berchtold, president and chief financial officer of Tiketmaster’s parent company Live Nation, testified that the ticket seller doesn’t control capacity or pricing of tickets. He claimed the overwhelming traffic and bots led to the meltdown during the Eras Tour ticket sale.
The rush for tickets foreshadowed the massive amount of attention the Eras Tour received once it kicked off. The popularity wasn’t only shown in the long lines for merchandise at concert venues and the celebrity sightings at shows. Countless videos from the tour have gone viral on social media – security guards singing, Swift defending a fan, and videos of fans trading beaded friendship bracelets with strangers at shows.
Swift’s net worth is an estimated $740 million, making her one of the richest self-made women in the U.S., according to Forbes.
In addition to her lucrative tour and music career – during which she has won 12 Grammys – Swift also made her foray into directing. She had directed several of her own music videos and is set to make her feature film directorial debut, Searchlight Pictures announced last year.
She will embark on the international leg of the tour later this month, starting in Mexico.
