Taylor Swift isn’t coming to Hampton Roads. One cover band brought the Eras Tour anyway.

Thirty preteen Taylor Swifts fidgeted by the stage in glittering dresses, forming a sequined mob.

The tribute show was about to start and the fans — Swifties — were ready. Across the room, Black, white and Asian-American Taylor Swifts, kindergartner to middle-aged, bobbed and whispered with anticipation for the Taylor Swift cover band, Midnight Rain, to hit the stage.

Two middle schoolers in tight T-Swift-style red dresses jostled for position in the third row. Three brunettes in their 20s stood in line at a bar booth that was selling Swift-inspired cocktails — the Shake It Off margarita, Lovers lemonade, and Red Scarf refresher.

Blondeness, whether by natural color, dye or wig, abounded everywhere.

Then lead singer Janice Chandler took the stage. The lights went up, reflecting off her sequined gold dress. The guitars kicked up the volume and Chandler began Swift’s 2021 hit “State of Grace.”

The venue — the Half Moone center next to Norfolk’s Nauticus — was packed. Swift herself has no Virginia shows planned, so the Swifties of Hampton Roads came out July 14 for this “Swiftie Summer Night.”

Chandler formed the band — naming it after a Swift song — late last year, around the time the real Swift announced plans for her worldwide Eras Tour. Tickets sold out within hours and then prices on secondary markets soared into the thousands.

Chandler thought, “Let’s do this ourselves and create that vibe for the Swifties here who want to see Taylor but can’t see real Taylor.”

A longtime Swiftie herself, the Norfolk musician remembers singing along in her car when the pop star’s 2007 country song “Our Song” reached No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100. She followed Swift’s career and found that taking on her persona for performances came naturally.

Melissa Moser, 40, of Norfolk, who swayed to the band’s rendition of “State of Grace,” was one of those Swifties who tried to get a ticket to the tour to no avail. The morning they became available, she hit the refresh button on her computer’s keyboard time and again without even making a waitlist for a U.S. show. She then teamed with a friend to preregister for a pre-sale on European concerts. They got on the waitlist but there was still a small problem: 77,000 people were ahead of them.

“I mean we tried Dublin, Madrid, London, Lisbon and Amsterdam,” Moser said, looking at her friend, 38-year-old Rosalyn Singer of Virginia Beach.

“Now that is true Taylor Swift fandom,” Singer said.

“We weren’t as lucky as you,” Moser said.

Singer managed to see Swift in Philadelphia earlier this year, and wished Moser could have been there, because, while the Philly show wasn’t the best night of her life, it was “definitely Top 10.”

“I’d say we’re like Dungeons and Dragons dudes, except we’re for Taylor Swift,” Singer said. “That’s how into it we are.”

Midnight Rain played “Getaway Car” and “Picture to Burn” and then, as the two women sang along, “Anti-Hero”:

I wake up screaming from dreaming

One day I’ll watch as you’re leaving

‘Cause you got tired of my scheming

For the last time …

About 20 minutes into the show, Chandler stopped singing and lunged with one leg forward, arms thrown skyward, in a perfectly dramatic Warrior I yoga pose to keep the crowd’s attention.

“You guys look so good out there tonight!” she said, “and all this sparkling stuff!”

She looked out at pink light bulbs adorning purple cowboy hats. Thin bracelets glowed with multi-colored lights. Headbands flickered like Christmas lights, red to blue to green, atop girls staring up at her.

Swifties create their looks from the different “eras” of Swift’s career, typically corresponding to album releases.

Jen Swets and Courtney Epps stood in a circle of women watching their daughters dance. Swets’ purple dress was from Swift’s “Speak Now” album, while Epps’ “dark and stormy” sleek green dress was for Swift’s “Midnights” album. The “cute, pink, sexy” tight dress that stopped above the knees of their friend Rebecca Danchise was, Epps explained, all about Swift’s album “Lover.”

About an hour into the show, the lights dimmed and the first strains of the “Lover” title track began to play. A clique of teenaged girls in nearly matching frilly blue dresses, much like one Swift wore during her Midnights tour, sprinted for the front row. A little boy — wearing pink cat ears on top of his backward-facing ball cap — ran after them and then stopped. He stood in his camo shorts, looking lost, not knowing what to do as Chandler sang “There’s a dazzling haze, a mysterious way about you dear” and the older girls slowly rocked from foot to foot, their shoulders swaying.

The little boy looked puzzled, brow furrowed. Then he started to sway to the ballad, too, before giving up and putting his hands in his pockets.

Fifteen feet from the oscillating crowd, stepsisters Abbi Adams, 13, and Maddi Linn, 11, sat on a metal table.

Maddi, wearing a pink cowboy hat, said she’s only a fan.

“A fan knows some songs but are not completely obsessed,” she said, turning to look at her sister. “Sheee’s a Swiftie.”

Abbi nodded, then suddenly stopped and tilted her head in contemplation.

“I’m not juuust a Swiftie. I’m a die-hard Swiftie.”

Maddi rolled her eyes.

“The difference between a Swiftie and a die-hard Swiftie is a Swiftie might go to a Taylor Swift concert and be like really, really excited,” Abbi said. “But if I saw her, in real life, I’d just, die.

“I’d, just, DIE!”

Maddi rolled her eyes, this time arching her brows higher.

After “Lover” ended, Chandler disappeared behind a large umbrella on the stage and emerged wearing a black hood for Swift’s song of heartbreak “Midnight Rain.”

Out in the crowd and trying not to bump into any fellow Swifties, Emma Jenkins maneuvered her way through, veering past clusters of girls dancing. The skin of her wrists was barely visible underneath a near sleeve of dozens of friendship bracelets — a key ingredient in Swiftie culture.

Swifties neeeeeed the iconic friendship bracelets, which have small charms and colorful lettered beads spelling out Swift songs, album titles or lyrics. Jenkins had been making friendship bracelets all week to give them out to strangers at the show.

“The Swiftie community is a safe place where you always know you’ll have friends,” she said.

The band began banging out the up-tempo beat of Swift’s “Ready for It?” and the dance floor became a forest of white leather boots.

Tim Moore of Newport News stood at a muscular 6 feet 2 inches tall. His “Reputation” era T-Swift look included a super-cropped tank top and massively heeled go-go boots.

In the heels, he said, he’s 6 feet 8.

He danced and some of the girls shuffled closer to get a better look at his moves.

“I’m not a Swiftie,” he admitted, “it’s just that I’ll take an excuse to dress up for an event. But don’t tell anyone. They’ll rip me to shreds.”

Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8139, colin.warrenhicks@virginiamedia.com