I waited 10 hours in line for Taylor Swift merch so you don't have to

Tens of thousands of Taylor Swift fans will be snatching up $75 dollar hoodies and $40 tank tops from merchandise trucks for the next three days. On top of that, some are willing to wait in line for more than 13 hours to get the goods.

As a Swiftie who has never been to a Taylor concert, I knew I’d be among those willing to bring a camp chair Downtown, wrap myself in blankets and wait for merchandise trucks to open outside Paycor Stadium.

So, I figured, why not wait in line on company time? I finessed the editors to let me create an hourly rundown on what it's like to wait 10 hours for Taylor Swift merchandise.

These are the Swiftie reports.

12:05 a.m.

After parking my car, I walk past the merch truck and, unsurprisingly, find that I’m not the first person in line. I’m the eighth.

The first two people in line have been here since 8 p.m. Wednesday and declined to be interviewed. A trio of women directly behind them have games and Chick-fil-A. They got here at 9:30 p.m. and we’ll get back to them later.

For now, I pop open my blue Enquirer camp chair, introduce myself to a few people, and snuggle in for the long haul. (I’m also working on another article that feels like the opposite of whatever joy I get from writing about Taylor Swift.)

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1 a.m.

There are now 16 of us in line. I thought I was eighth in line, but it turns out I’m ninth. Someone has been saving a seat for a person who hasn’t been here for hours. That feels like cheating, but I guess it’s just one seat.

Back to the trio of women:

Lauren Wisner and Morgan Weyl, both 24, are trying to describe a carrot (without saying the word) for Kaylee Wisner. They’re playing Heads Up!, one of the games they brought with them so they can stay awake in line for almost 11 hours. For them, it’s all about the popular blue crewneck that can only be bought in-person during The Eras Tour.

“This is like our Super Bowl and so, to me, this is completely worth it. We have a whole itinerary. This is like our Taylor week and so this kicks it off,” Lauren Wisner said.

All three women are from West Chester Township, though, Lauren now lives in St. Louis and drove home just for the concert.

Elsewhere in the line, people are snacking on popcorn, making friendship bracelets and are pretty high energy.

2 a.m.

The excitement has taken a nosedive. People are dozing in chairs and a few people have fallen asleep on blankets. I forgot to count how many people are in line, but we haven’t had very much new blood in the past hour and it shows.

Michael D’Arcangelo, 19, is passing the time by painstakingly putting rhinestones on his Air Force 1s – one color for each of the 10 Swiftie eras.

“It’s a slow process. It's going to take a long time, but we’ll get there at some point,” he said.

D’Arcangelo said he has always liked Taylor Swift’s music, but he became a Swiftie after the "Lover" album dropped – the "Cruel Summer" bridge helped him fully cross into the fandom.

The University of Cincinnati student drove in from Columbus to attend the concert both nights and plans to buy some merch for friends who couldn’t brave the line Thursday morning.

Around 2:15 a.m., a Cincinnati police officer told us we couldn’t have chairs or blankets in line and we weren’t allowed to sit on the ground.

He said we’d have to stand along the railing if we wanted to wait in line. I pushed back because I, investigative reporter extraordinaire, talked to organizers earlier this week and know for a fact that fans are allowed to have chairs and blankets in line. The officer backpedaled and warned us not to BBQ or set up tents on the sidewalk because that was against the law.

Weirdly enough, the incident energized the Swifties and was a bonding moment between us. By the time everything was sorted out, it was nearly 3 a.m. and I began getting ready for my next report.

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3 a.m.

I popped open my first energy drink for a boost and remembered to count new arrivals. Exactly 30 people are now on this journey with me.

Just before 3 a.m., Tracy John, 45, started passing out friendship bracelets. She has over 300 of them and had a great story to tell.

Her daughter Abby John, 17, just graduated high school in Oak Harbor, Ohio, and got to pick a big experience as a graduation gift. The Jane Austen fan decided on a trip to London. But when The Eras Tour was announced, Abby changed her mind. A VIP Swiftie package trumps the possibility of her finding a “London Boy.”

Hear about their struggle to get tickets below and look for the mother-daughter duo in row 4 Saturday night.

The 3 a.m. hour finally broke me. I hate portable toilets and had to beg a security guard to let me use a bathroom.

4 a.m.

There are now 49 people in line and I stumbled upon the unthinkable. It shook my whole world.

Corrine Ficke, 19, has been sitting in line next to her friend for hours – and she’s not even a Taylor Swift fan. As a matter of fact, she listened to four Taylor Swift albums today for the first time ever. She thinks the music is OK and she respects Taylor Swift, but she is only in line to support her friend. She’s not going to the concert and likely won’t even buy merch.

Her friend Jahla Wilson, 19, is deep in Swiftie fandom. Like, really deep.

She is carefully putting rhinestones onto a pink cowgirl hat for her mom, something she has spent 15 hours working on. She’s not stopping there. She’s also spent about nine hours putting rhinestones on a black cowgirl hat for herself. The mother and daughter are representing the Lover and Reputation eras respectively.

Neither of the hats is done, yet. But Wilson has Saturday tickets for the show, so she’s got some time to keep working.

Now that I think about it, I’m not sure if I’m more blown away by Ficke making friendship bracelets for a fandom she’s not even a part of or Wilson essentially working a part-time job to get those cowgirl hats done.

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5 a.m.

The line is stretched for nearly the whole block and people are starting to scoot closer together. Sixty-four people are queued up.

At this point, I decided to stop making this all about the fans. You always hear about the fans.

So, for this video, I wanted us fans to give a gift to Taylor Swift.

I asked fans to recommend one restaurant to the superstar. She’s for sure in town Friday and Saturday, and you never know, maybe she’s looking for a good place to eat.

I'm now taking a break from tweeting and getting to work on writing this article.

6 a.m.

There’s no more counting the people in line. Fans are here in hordes. There are well over 100 people in line.

To keep things mixed up, I conducted a very scientific poll to see which eras fans in Cincinnati are representing (Nobody question my science.). Here are the results:

I took a lunch break at 6:30 a.m. and ate a pizza Lunchables I bought from a gas station at 11:45 p.m. It held up and serves as a reminder that this job is glamorous all the way.

7 a.m. AKA The Chaos

I did not see the chaos coming from my luxurious spot near the front of the line. But it has arrived.

Hundreds of people are in a line stretching all the way to Carol Ann's Carousel (and growing as I write this). These fans have not been waiting in line for over seven hours and are on a completely different level than the front-of-the-line bourgeoise.

A woman in a "Reputation" T-shirt is blasting Taylor Swift music for the fandom. Groups of people are making friendship bracelets. The excitement is palpable again. But there’s also a twinge of fear near the back of the line: Will I get the merch I want in my size?

Lyn Price, 19, is worried she won’t get the blue crewneck everyone wants. She got in line around 6:45 a.m. and will settle for any size at this point. But you can’t feel too bad for her. She has concert tickets for both nights and floor seats Friday. (But seriously, I hope you get that crewneck, Lyn.)

By a show of hands, a group of half a dozen people who lined up behind her said they’re worried the merch they want will be sold out by the time they make it to the front. And they should be worried. I’ve asked around. People are buying for friends.

I would have recorded the show of hands, but my phone finally croaked.

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8 a.m.

A serious note first: Swifties, please stay off the Roebling Bridge. Wind the line back up toward West Freedom Way.

We're starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. We can see workers unloading merchandise boxes and a lot of people have packed up blankets and folded up chairs.

We're expecting to get into the official queue any minute now.

The excitement level is at a 10 and the Cincinnati Fire Department played some Taylor tunes for us.

On a personal note, I finally caved and used a portable toilet. I'm not proud.

My laptop also died and I was able to charge it in the merch truck. That's right. My laptop has been in the merch truck.

9 a.m.

Workers are now hanging T-shirts and other merch under two sunshade tents and the merch truck has slightly opened its sales windows.

But the excitement has died down over the past hour because the line didn't move at all at 8 a.m. as we expected. But we're still hopeful, exhausted and hopeful.

Beckett Shultz, 11, has been waiting for merch directly behind me since just past midnight. Her two brothers (non-Swifties) have waited in line with her the whole time and her mom dropped off donuts, coffee, and hot chocolate for the trio around 7 a.m.

Her must-have item? You guessed it – the blue crewneck.

10 a.m.

This will be my final update.

Everything happened so fast. We went from sitting in chairs to waiting in the official queue within minutes. Then, merch sales started at exactly 9:59 a.m.

Here's what you need to know:

There are limits on two items: the popular blue crewneck and the gray quarter-zip. Each person can only get two of each of those.

The truck has most of what you've seen online but not everything. They did not have the bracelet or the poncho as of about 10:30 a.m. But a person at the merch truck said they'll be available sometime during this weekend.

If you aren't in line now and want the crewneck or gray quarter zip, it's not too late. Get in line now, not tomorrow, because once they're out of those items they won't be restocked.

Good luck out there, Swifties!

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Inside the line for Taylor Swift's concert merch truck in Cincinnati