IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) — Taylor Swift herself may not be taking the stage in Idaho Falls, but a touring tribute show is giving local Swifties a chance to experience some of the spectacle closer to home.
Taylorville, an unofficial live Taylor Swift tribute band, is performing Friday at the Colonial Theater as the Idaho Falls Arts Council continues working to bring a wider variety of touring entertainment to Eastern Idaho.
For Arts Council Executive Director Gray Augustus, performances like Taylorville are about more than filling the theater for one night.
Augustus said bringing different types of touring acts to Idaho Falls can introduce people to the arts who may not otherwise think about attending a show at the historic Colonial Theater.
“If we can bring acts like Taylorville that are going to be geared towards a demographic of even 9-, 10-, 11-, 12-year-olds, we’re offering a gateway for someone who may have not given us a shot or wanted to come to the theater before,” Augustus said.
He said those first experiences can lead audiences to come back for other performances and explore more of what Idaho Falls’ arts community has to offer.
The demand for arts and entertainment has also grown alongside the city, Augustus said.
The Idaho Falls Arts Council was formed in 1999, and Augustus said interest in the arts has steadily increased since then. He pointed to the growth of the region, improved access to Idaho Falls and the expansion of local entertainment options as factors helping the community attract more performers.
“Our airport has done a fantastic job and our city is growing at a great rate,” Augustus said. “We’ve grown up a little bit over the years, and that’s made it easier.”
Rising costs still make touring in more rural areas challenging for performers, Augustus said, but growing demand and additional venues are helping create more opportunities throughout the region.
“Right now we have a really vibrant art scene in Idaho Falls,” Augustus said. “And it’s just at its infancy. It’s really starting to take off.”
For Taylorville lead singer Sinead Angele, smaller communities can provide something that larger venues sometimes cannot: a closer connection between performers and their audience.
“The small towns are really fun,” Angele said. “The smaller the stage, the closer it is to the people, the better for us.”
Angele said smaller shows allow the band to interact directly with fans through high fives, heart hands and even friendship-bracelet exchanges during performances.
That connection can be especially meaningful for some of Taylorville’s youngest fans.
Angele said children as young as 4, 5 and 6 attend the shows dressed as their favorite Taylor Swift era, and for some, Taylorville becomes their first concert.
“We are a lot of people’s first concert,” Angele said. “So it’s cool to know that we’re that core memory.”
Angele is also an indie singer-songwriter and said the performers behind tribute acts bring their own musical backgrounds to the production.
She said Taylorville has invested heavily in lighting, a video wall, costumes and other production elements. Angele herself has classical and jazz training, and the band rehearsed twice a week for about three months before its first show. She now makes eight or nine costume changes during a performance.
The goal, she said, is to give audiences the feeling of experiencing the different eras of Swift’s career — particularly those who never had an opportunity to attend Swift’s Eras Tour.
“I hope that it takes them back to that because it was such an iconic concert,” Angele said. “To be able to keep that alive is really cool.”
The production is an independent tribute and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Taylor Swift or her affiliated entities.
And if the growing demand is any indication, Idaho Falls may be becoming Taylor-made for the arts.
