FASHIONABLE ALLEGIANCE
At this summer’s biggest concerts, signalling your own superfandom is as easy as dressing the part.
EARLIER THIS YEAR, a TikTok dropped into my summer-concert group chat that perfectly summed up the frenzy around Beyoncé’s upcoming Renaissance World Tour. (It might also be summed up by the fact that said group chat exists.) In the short video, @jessforfun speedily runs through the introduction to a series she calls “Road to Renaissance town halls.” “First things first: outfits. What is the general vibe here?” she asks. “Are we thinking disco, cowboy, denim, leather, all of the above? Let’s get aligned on this so we can spot each other easily because now we’re all friends.” She then runs through hair, makeup and, most importantly, hat options. “As much as we all want to wear bedazzled cowboy hats, let’s be mindful of those behind us and around us,” she says. “We all paid top dollar for these tickets, so let’s not be blocking each other’s view.” The fact that the video, which has more than 66,000 views, is so hilariously prescriptive should be of no surprise—ever since live events rebounded after the pandemic, being in the presence of our idols and throngs of like-minded fans has felt more transcendent than ever.
As such, nabbing tickets to these concerts has become a bit of a mission impossible. Last year, Ticketmaster was brought to a standstill when it was met with what it called “historically unprecedented demand” for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. Fans were outraged when they were either kicked out of the app mid-purchase or served only bloated resale prices minutes after the coveted tickets went on sale. The fiasco led to Beyoncé’s and Madonna’s tickets being offered in a myriad of ways over a period of days and even weeks—a process that left fans sweating.
There is no match for the wild, sweaty energy at a live show. At one of Harry Styles’ Love on Tour concerts in Toronto last summer, fans—mostly accessorized with colourful boas and Gucci-esque sunglasses—synced up for choreographed dances and a colour-coded flashlight mob. The vibe was at once electric and pure, stoked by outfits that reflected the heartthrob’s own colourful optimism.
With the explosion of music events like Coachella, Glastonbury and Osheaga, it seemed festival dressing was the dominant form of self-expression for music lovers during the 2000s and 2010s. While this approach to fashion hinged on homogenized ’60s-inspired hippie faves like fringe and flower crowns, superfan concert dressing taps into individualized sensibilities. “I love that you can spot a Harry fan a mile away,” my Styles seatmate told me last year.
At this summer’s big-ticket concerts, the fan-centric new approach to style will be front and centre—and I encourage you to dig in. Just make sure you remove your hat after you’ve taken all your fit pics.