INDIANAPOLIS — The mayor of Indianapolis officially declared it will be "Taylor Swift Weekend" for the Eras Tour concerts in a couple of days.
The Circle City is transforming downtown with new signage, streets renamed and theme parties planned. Plus, we'll also have live music all across downtown from local performers through something called "Swift City Sessions."
The soundtrack for Taylor Swift Weekend in Indy includes more than the megastar herself at Lucas Oil Stadium.
On street level outdoors, you'll see and hear around 130 local musicians and spoken word artists all three concert days, Friday through Sunday afternoons.
"Swift City Sessions" are pop-up performances curated by the Indy Arts Council, Inspired Music Collective and Musical Family Tree.
"It's all local music, all original music," said Kati Taylor with Musical Family Tree, who co-curated the project along with Richard "Sleepy" Floyd, from Inspired Music Collective.
And the performances will be all over downtown, from the Artsgarden to the Convention Center to Monument Circle and more.
"13 locations, in fact, which is Taylor's magic number. As folks are walking around and checking out the city, they'll be listening to local music while they do that. Indianapolis really is a music city and we wanna show the out-of-town guests what it's like here," Taylor explained.
So the 200,000 people descending downtown over the weekend will get a taste of local talent, too. The concerts are free for the audience, but importantly for the artists — they will get paid.
Funding for this program is provided by the Capital Improvement Board of Managers of Marion County.
Singer-songwriter Remington Hill will be performing right by the JW Marriott and that life-sized Taylor Swift sign.
"The impact of Taylor Swift coming to Indianapolis is probably one of the biggest things that's happened here in a very long time," Hill said. "We're getting with the biggest artist of all time, which is just a special experience. It's a really cool opportunity and I'm gonna play some original music that I think will get people grooving, get people clapping, get people nodding their heads. I hope they have a good time."
Singer-songwriter Molly Milton is performing, too.
"I just hope the audience feels the energy when we perform," Milton said. "It means a lot to us that Musical Family Tree, Indy Arts Council came together to give us this opportunity. They're investing in us, which says a lot about their commitment to incubating local talent. It makes us all feel really good about that. That our city's behind us."
And the musicians say you never know — exposure through the Eras Tour could lead to a big break.
"It could just be me up here playing and then the next thing you know, you're up there and you're playing on stages like Taylor Swift," Hill said.
For a complete list of performers, times and locations for Swift City Sessions, click here.