Santa Clara is renaming itself — and making Taylor Swift honorary mayor — for concert weekend
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Taylor Swift is coming to Northern California next weekend, and if you’re in full-on prep mode, you’ll be happy to hear that the city of Santa Clara is treating her visit with just as much anticipation as your calendar countdown.
To mark the occasion, the Santa Clara City Council passed a proclamation on Tuesday renaming the city to “Swiftie Clara” from July 28 to July 29 while The Eras Tour is hosted at Levi’s Stadium. The chart-topping music star will also be named as the honorary mayor for the Friday and Saturday of her show.
Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor said in the statement that naming Swift as the honorary mayor is meant to “celebrate the cultural impact” of Taylor Swift. As for the economic impact on the city of Swiftie Clara? We’ll just have to wait and see.
This isn’t the first time that Swift has performed in Santa Clara, also stopping in the city for The 1989 World Tour in 2015 and The Reputation Stadium Tour in 2018.
And it’s not the first city to do something special to commemorate her most recent tour, either:
Glendale, Arizona, was renamed to Swift City for her show dates in March
Arlington, Texas, and Bellevue, Kentucky, renamed streets for her.
The governor of New Jersey declared the official state sandwich to be the Taylor Swift Ham, Egg and Cheese Sandwich
Nashville, Tennessee, installed a bench in Centennial Park dedicated to Swift with a plaque referencing her song “invisible string,” which includes a lyric that references the park.
Many of the city leaders who have encouraged recognition of Swift’s tour stops have cited the potential for a boost to their local economy as a result of the influx of people buying hotel rooms, food and transportation in the city.
Research analysis company QuestionPro released a report in June estimating that The Eras Tour could generate $4.6 billion in consumer spending by the end of the tour, which is more than the GDP of 35 countries, according to Colorado research organization the Common Sense Institute, although the exact numbers are difficult to confirm because of the unknown ways locals might have spent their money that weekend were they not at the concert.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia also noted the economic impact of the show in its “Beige Book,” saying that despite slowing recovery for tourism in the area overall, “May was the strongest month for hotel revenue in Philadelphia since the onset of the pandemic, in large part due to an influx of guests for the Taylor Swift concerts in the city.”
Chicago’s official tourism and marketing organization, Choose Chicago, announced that during the weekend of Swift’s three sold-out shows, the city set an all-time record for occupied hotel rooms. It was attributed it in part to the concerts, as well as other events being held in the city that weekend.
If you’re a Sacramento resident attending the shows and you don’t have a getaway car of your own to get there, the Capitol Corridor train is adjusting its schedule for the concert to offer rides from Sacramento to Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara and back.
“Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ has garnered unanimous critical acclaim, praise for its exceptional concept (and) production,” reads the statement from the city of Santa Clara announcing the temporary name change.
