'When You're With Swifties It's A Safe Space' Fans Celebrate Eras Tour

SANTA MONICA, CA — More than 100 Taylor Swift fans gathered on Santa Monica Beach to celebrate the singer's record breaking six shows in Los Angeles during her Eras Tour.

The "Cruel Summer Beach Bash" started as an excuse to hang out with Swifties after event planner Ricci McDonald wasn't able to score tickets to a Taylor Swift concert. McDonald said she decided that wasn't going to stop her from going to see her favorite artist.

"I was like, 'No, we're going.' Then started thinking about how unfair it was that unless you had money you couldn't afford to go to this concert because of resale," McDonald said.

The unfortunate inability to score an Eras Tour ticket inspired McDonald to begin the "Swiftie Suite Project," in which she would gather a group of fans to come together to buy suites at Sofi Stadium.

McDonald said she knew she wanted to host a beach party and found that Santa Monica was the perfect place to gather the Swifties. Just down the beach from the Santa Monica Pier, about 150 people enjoyed a live DJ, food and drinks and activities such as tarot reading, face painting and bracelet-making.

Swifties traveled from all over the world to attend the event, such as attendees Rachel Milne and Carolyn White who traveled from New Brunswick, Canada.

"Getting here was such a journey. We were supposed to go to Boston, but we couldn't get tickets," Milne said. "Carolyn said the cheapest resale tickets were in LA, so I said, 'How much are the flights?"

Fans participated in games, traded Taylor Swift-inspired friendship bracelets and took pictures. One photo op at the show was a custom "Cruel Summer" sand sculpture built by Archisand, which was also commissioned by Swift herself to create a sculpture for the front of Sofi Stadium.

Sculptor Greg LeBon said they build sculptures all over the world and are able to get opportunities to work with big names like Taylor Swift.

McDonald, who is from Chicago, said her favorite part of holding events like the Santa Monica beach party is the sense of community and belonging being around fellow fans.

"I think it's that people feel like they can be themselves, and be girly, and be silly, and not have it affect how people view them," McDonald said. "They know when they're amongst Swifties, they're in a safe space."