Fort Frances Swifties get ready, your time is now.
Taylor’s Story–A Live Concert Experience will take place tonight at the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship tent.
The show will be a tribute featuring a live band and a Taylor Swift impersonator. Embodying the pop legend whose Eras Tour swept the world from March 2023 to December 2024, is Shannon Beresford, a performer from Aurora, Ont.
The Times reach Beresford by email amidst a busy touring schedule between the tribute act and a country duo she performs in with her brother called the Beresfords.
It was through music contacts with the duo that she ended up in the tribute show.
“My brother and I are the music duo The Beresfords, and I have been writing and performing for over a decade with him,” she wrote.
“The music world is pretty small, so through mutual friends I got asked to join the tribute.”
The show makes an effort to evoke the Eras Tour by playing songs from the different stages of Taylor Swift’s career.
“We try to bring a nostalgic experience to our show by revisiting many of her songs that she has written over the last 17 years of her career,” Beresford said.
“Very similar to the Eras Tour, but we perform songs from her albums in chronological order. I think this has been such a fun thing to do, as fans that have loved her from the beginning (like myself) can have their throwback moments, while her newer fans can enjoy the newer songs.”
The tribute act has taken Beresford into the U.S., as well as across the world to New Zealand, where they recently performed 10 dates across the country. Beresford says she was kind of surprised the tribute show has taken her so far around the world.
“I did not expect this to take me internationally,” she said.
“I have always been a fan of Taylor and her music, so I had a fairly good idea of the impact her music has had all over the world, but I never thought I would be gifted the opportunity to also travel across the world to share her music with fans. It has been a crazy journey, but one that I will never forget and never take for granted.”
While not affiliated with Taylor Swift in any way, the tribute act does give fans who were not able to attend a show on the phenomenon that was the Eras Tour a chance to get a bit of a feel for what it was, and for a fraction of the price.
“The cost to attend our show is definitely cheaper than the Eras Tour, and we try to encourage the promoters of the events we play to keep the show as financially accessible for everyone as possible,” Beresford wrote.
“I know that as a band we aim to bring Taylor’s music to her fans that either didn’t get to go to the tour, or fans that just want to sing and dance to her music and we want to put on a show that people feel happy to have spent money on to see.”
Beresford says her favourite part of any performance is connecting with the audience and partaking in their shared love for Taylor Swift’s music.
“The thing that I have always enjoyed doing while performing is interacting with the audience. Even when I am performing with The Beresfords, we have always made an effort to make sure people know that we are so happy to be playing and that they are there with us, and that we aren’t just there to play a show and leave to the next city like it was just another gig,” she said.
“With the Taylor shows it is much the same, but I try extra hard to make her fans feel like we are sharing in the excitement and love of Taylor’s music. This has always felt like more than a tribute to me. Honestly, the concept of tribute acts is still very strange to me, so when I get up there, of course I am taking on the persona of Taylor, but in my mind, I am just a girl singing songs that I grew up with and love to a group of fans that love the songs just as much as I do. We get to sing and dance and laugh and share in that experience together for 90 short minutes. It’s pretty magical. I think whether you are a fan of Taylor’s music or not, this show brings an infectious joy that you can’t shake off, (see what I did there?).”
Taylor’s Story–A Live Concert Experience is an all-ages show starting at 7:30 p.m. at the big tent at the Sorting Gap Marina. Tickets are available online until 5:29 p.m. this evening and at the Fort Frances Times and Ski’s Variety for $20. They will be $25 at the door.
