Swifties Outdid Beast Quake During Taylor Swift’s Seattle Show

Taylor Swift was featured on the front page of every news outlet for her recent engagement to Travis Kelce. The announcement of her engagement to the NFL star sent shockwaves through the Taylor fan community.

Did you see Taylor Swift on her Eras Tour 2023 in Seattle? I was lucky to attend her first night on Saturday, July 22nd. Taylor Swift and the 72,000 Swifties truly brought Seattle to life.

After her second song, Taylor shared with us: 

“Now. I’m gonna tell you a secret. Not all crowds are the same. We have been incredibly lucky on the Era’s Tour, we have been incredibly lucky to have people show up and dance and jump and sing and shriek and scream and bounce…we have been very very lucky. Especially on this tour. But I’ll say to you, in the past, we had a stadium tour that we had called the Reputation World Tour. (crowd erupts) And I had made a diary entry, when I was on that tour that just said: ‘Seattle Washington is the best crowd I have ever played for in my life.’ (crowd erupts) And so - no pressure, but all pressure. And - I know you got this, we just played a couple of songs for you - you are absolutely as out of your minds as I remember and it is an absolute honor to play here” 

Taylor's Seattle mention starts at the :16 mark below.

The Seattle Swifties jumped, shrieked, and sang for 3½ hours! This duration does not include the warm and enthusiastic reception they provided to opening acts Haim and Gracie Abrams.

During the concert, there were moments when I felt the Ground vibrating beneath Lumen Field.

Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, a seismologist and geology professor at Western Washington University, told CNN that the concert produced a 2.3 magnitude earthquake.

How? Many fans are singing, jumping, and losing their minds.

I’ve only experienced that level of excitement at Sounders and Seahawks games. Seahawks fans, known as the 12s, can be as loud as a jet engine, making it difficult for the opposing quarterback to change plays at the line of scrimmage. They are also famous for the "Beast Quake," which refers to Marshawn Lynch’s epic touchdown run against the New Orleans Saints in the 2011 NFL Playoffs, an event that registered a 2.0 magnitude earthquake.

I don't really want to get into a snickering match between Seahawks fans and Swifties (pause) but I will say the Swifties have it in the bag.  -Jackie Caplan-Auerbach (Seismologist/Professor at Western Washington University)

 

Much of the credit goes to the enthusiastic Seattle crowds, and the innovative design of the Lumen Field roof also plays a significant role. The roof's curved architecture is specifically engineered to provide the Seahawks with a substantial home-field advantage. It effectively focuses and directs the crowd noise towards the opposing offensive unit on the field, or even towards the current most popular music act.

After two shows in Seattle, Taylor Swift’s ears had to be ringing for days.