We are happy to have you and don’t worry at all about traffic or Starbucks congestion. Are you jazzed? Ready to trigger seismic activity under the Rogers Centre? Ready to scream at the top of your lungs as Taylor Swift finally brings her Eras tour to town?

Here are some tips and fun facts to make your stay more enjoyable.

Rule #1: Allow enough time. If you go to the first show on Thursday and the hotel concierge tells you it should take about 30 minutes, that person is a liar. Double all estimated travel times. Due to construction, Toronto has more lane closures than Florida has book bans. The Eglinton LRT line is now expected to open when Taylor and Travis are grandparents.

Emma Schmelzle was one of the lucky ones. Last August, she and her brother bought tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras tour in Toronto for $91 each. The seats were partially blocked, but the tickets were still a good deal. A single Eras Toronto ticket now sells for almost $3,000, the cheapest price on resale markets.

For more than a year, Schmelzle believed she was safe. Then, in September, his brother received an email: their tickets had been transferred from his Ticketmaster account. Their chance to see one of the greatest tours in history was lost.

Working with Ticketmaster support over the next week, Schmelzle and his brother collected the tickets. But that scare — and another a month later, when it appeared the tickets had been stolen again — shook Schmelzle’s confidence in Ticketmaster.

When fans converge on a downtown Toronto convention center this week, they’ll talk about Taylor Swift and listen to her music, but they won’t see her name or photo in an official capacity. Instead, the event is both literally and figuratively adjacent to the pop star and her mega-popular Eras Tour.

While it may seem like a burst of Swift is blanketing the city of Toronto, only some of the hype can truly be considered a “Taylor version.”

“It’s brand-adjacent, but it’s not about Taylor,” said Bram Goldstein, organizer of the unofficial Swiftie event “Toronto’s Version: Taylgate ’24.”

A Rolling Stone may not gather moss, but the Rolling Stones certainly gather masses, especially in or near Toronto.

With Taylor Swift and her six-date Rogers Center tour approaching, what better time to take a look at the biggest concerts of all time in Toronto.

Swift’s stadium history here has been impressive — she entertained 287,220 fans during six sold-out concerts at the Rogers Center between 2013 and 2018 — and she’ll easily surpass the half-million mark with her upcoming shows.

Gracie Abrams will take the stage of the Eras Tour at the Rogers Center opening for Taylor Swift. (Maybe you’ve heard of her?)

Maybe you know Abrams so well that you threw your volume of Robert Bly poems against a wall while you angrily sing “Us,” his duet with Swift. Maybe you only know it because your Gen Z cousin refused to play anything other than “Close To You” at your last family gathering. Or maybe the first time you heard about her was when gossip account DeuxMoi posted that Abrams and actor Paul Mescal were spotted looking cozy on the streets of London this summer.

Finally, it’s almost there. On Thursday, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour — the two-year, 51-stop, 149-show, five-continent, multi-billion-dollar behemoth — arrives in Toronto. Swift will play six sold-out shows at the Rogers Center, spread over two weekends, on the penultimate stop of her career-defining tour.

Eras, the highest-grossing tour of all time, spawned the highest-grossing concert film of all time and made Swift the most famous artist on the planet.

Toronto will become the center of Taylor Swift’s universe as the international megastar plays the Rogers Center for six sold-out shows.

This has been a long time coming. Rogers spent millions on renovations. Toronto has renamed the path from Nathan Phillips Square to Rogers Center “Taylor Swift Way”. City staff even activated the emergency operations center, just in case something went wrong.

For good reason. The city expects up to 500,000 visitors during the concerts and an economic impact of more than $282 million.

The City of Toronto is clearing out tents belonging to homeless people near the Rogers Center in preparation for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour. The first of Swift’s six sold-out concerts will take place on Thursday.

“People surrounding the Rogers Center are being offered a place in the city’s shelter system to ensure their safety,” a city spokesperson said in an email.

The city said only two people lived in the area. One of them, Chris — who goes by the name Crystofur and did not want his last name used because of his situation — told the Star on Tuesday that they were going to be moved to a hotel paid for by the city.

Wearing only a black T-shirt, jeans and friendship bracelets on her wrists, Bridget Saric embraced the Canadian cold.

She had only been there a few minutes, standing at the back of the queue for Taylor Swift gear outside the Rogers Centre. Originally from Queensland, Australia, and now living in London, England, Bridget had flown to Toronto for the Eras tour – her 15th time seeing the concert – with her parents Lisa and Spock.

“It’s very cold,” said Saric, 21, in his vowel-laden Australian accent that sent steam into the early morning sun. “I don’t want to carry two sweaters, so I was like, ‘I’ll buy one here.'”

Taylor Swift is expected to cost Toronto millions in additional services such as public transit and police, but the exact amount will remain a secret – for now.

The TTC said it expects a bill of $1 million to $1.2 million for the six shows planned at the Rogers Centre.

That amount will be used to add “a significant amount of additional service,” Stuart Green, a spokesperson for the transit agency, said in an email to the Star.

Toronto Humane Society launches new Taylor Swift campaign to inspire local cat lovers

The Toronto Humane Society is celebrating the arrival of Taylor Swift with a unique cat adoption campaign inspired by the singer.

The charity welcomed seven new kittens, Kelce, Reputation, Dorothea, Benjamin, Taylor, Karma and Travis, all named after some of Swift’s famous lyrics and themes.

These kittens join 10 shelter cats, Folklore, Red, Midnights, Willow, August, Evermore, Champagne, Swiftie, Marjorie and Cornelia, who were also named in tribute to the singer.