Swiftie makes 120 friendship bracelets for Edinburgh concert to trade with fans

A Taylor Swift superfan said she has made 120 friendship bracelets to take with her to the record-breaking Eras tour in Edinburgh so she can “swap or give away as many as possible”.

Kayleigh Gore, 33, from Teesside, Middlesbrough, said she started to create her vast collection of bracelets in November ahead of Swift’s second show in the Scottish capital on Saturday.

Ms Gore, who will be attending the highly anticipated tour with three friends, said the concert will mark the first time she has seen the superstar singer perform despite being a fan since Swift released her debut album in 2006.

The fan-established tradition of making and trading friendship bracelets for the Eras tour was prompted by a lyric from Swift’s hit track You’re on Your Own, Kid, where she sings: “So make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it, you’ve got no reason to be afraid”, sparking a global trend.

Ms Gore, a lecturer in psychology at a sixth form college, told the PA news agency: “I started making the bracelets around November, December because I’d seen a lot of the people, when she was on tour in America at the time, were doing it there.”

“Because it was months and months away, I was making them every now and then but over the last two or three months I’ve been making them two to three times a week.

“So far, I’ve got about 120.

“As we’ve got closer to the date, I’ve started to do very simple ones because I was trying to get as many as possible so I can swap or give away as many as possible on Saturday.”

Ms Gore added that she has made bracelets with beads spelling out song lyrics and titles associated with each of the artist’s 11 albums.

“I realised when I started making them that I was making a lot based on my favourite songs and my favourite albums but because I’m wanting to swap them with fans and we all have different favourites, I then made a list of songs from each album and worked my way through,” she said.

“I’ve got some from every album that she’s done.

“I’ve seen a couple of people on TikTok who haven’t had time to make any, so if they can’t trade and they just want to take some of mine, I’m perfectly happy with that.”

Ms Gore said she will be enlisting her three friends to help her carry the bracelets into the venue, as well as attaching clips to her bag to hold them all.

“Because I’ve got so many, I’ve already told my friends they are going to have to carry some for me,” she said.

“I think I could get at least half of them on my bag with the clips.”

Ms Gore added that she has been “tearing up” with excitement at being able to attend her first Taylor Swift concert.

“I’m very excited, I’ve been a fan since her debut, so about 2006, and this is the first time I’m going to get to see her live,” she said.

“I’m getting more and more emotional as we get closer to the date and I’ve been listening to the set list in my car.

“Every time certain songs come on which are my favourites I start tearing up because I’m so excited to see it live.”