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Isabella Ernsberger, a senior at Butler University, traveled to Lucas Oil Stadium on Monday with a few dozen classmates to check out the massive tear-down and setup for the three days of Taylor Swift concerts this weekend in Indianapolis.
The students, taking a special “pop-up course” to learn about the hospitality and civic engagement of hosting a massive concert, got a behind-the-scenes look at the stadium the night before the stage arrived in dozens of semitrailers.
Ernsberger captured the activity on her phone to share with a few friends. Then, on a whim, she uploaded the material to Tik Tok in a 50-second video and went to bed.
When she woke up a few hours later on Tuesday morning, the video had already racked up 13,000 views. By late Thursday, it had raced its way to 130,000 views, with hits from around the United States.
“I wasn’t really expecting anything to come of it,” said Ernsberger. “It was just kind of, like, a hot-button topic right now and Indy is (Swift’s) last U.S. leg of the tour and people are talking about it.”
More than 200,000 people are expected to pour into Indianapolis this weekend to attend Swift concerts or related events and activities.
Around downtown, about 100 student volunteers from Butler and Indiana University Indianapolis will serve as street-level ambassadors, wearing pink hoodies and helping visitors find food trucks, bathrooms, pop-up entertainment and other destinations.
They will also be promoting Indianapolis on social media platforms and helping the weekend run smoothly.
For many students, the classwork and the field activity will be a way to learn the logistics behind mega-events, and how they affect host cities on everything from restaurant and hotel booking to street restrictions and crowd control.
“We are presenting this course as a hospitality and civic engagement course, giving students the opportunity to get firsthand experience,” said Robert Schultz, lecturer in strategic communication at Butler and senior vice president of marketing and communications for Downtown Indy Inc., a nonprofit focused on improving downtown. “It’s a resume builder and an extraordinary educational opportunity.”
Students at IU Indy are getting a similar opportunity, taking a course this fall led by Andrew Newport, director of operations for Live Nation Entertainment, a company that operates and manages ticket sales for events.
Newport was invited to teach the course, along with guest speakers, by a faculty team led by Erica Shonkwiler, a senior lecturer in the Department of Tourism, Event and Sport Management.
“Indianapolis was loaded with international, huge-scale events this year, from the NBA All-Star Game, the U.S. Olympic swimming events and now Taylor Swift,” she said. “This is such an incredible opportunity for our students to get involved in these events and learn from them and have resume experiences.”
Some IU Indy students said they are learning about the business basics of huge events, from watching the huge-scale logistics to managing different venues to helping visitors get around town.
“I am really enjoying it,” said Syd West, a senior at IU Indy majoring in tourism, convention and event management. “I hope to work in the music industry when I graduate, so this was a really cool class. There aren’t many tours like [Taylor Swift’s] Eras tour, especially that come through Indiana.”
Alena Reed, a student at IU Indy, said the class was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” The class meets five Fridays throughout the semester, along with field trips and volunteer work, wearing pink hoodies and pointing visitors in the right direction.
“And then at the end of the weekend, we will all write reflections and post them on our LinkedIn accounts,” Reed said.
Drew Ellis, a Butler senior from Connecticut, said he took a similar course last semester covering the NBA All-Star Game. He said he wasn’t “much of a Swiftie,” but enjoyed helping.
“It was a really great experience,” Ellis said. “And it will help my resume.”
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