The staff at Maple Ridge's Vanilla Bean Bake Shop have won a pair of Taylor Swift Eras tour concert tickets.
"Everybody started freaking out and jumping for joy," said bakery owner Taylor Livesey.
She is a huge fan, already had Swift tickets for this Sunday night, so she held a random draft to pick two of her staff members to take the tickets.
They are valued at $8,000 to $10,000 in resale value, Livesey estimates, but she wanted to show appreciation to her hard-working staff at the Bakery at Haney Place Mall. They have been running at full speed during a busy season, and then she asked them to get behind the contest with new recipes on top of that. But they got on board.
"They girls are working so hard, and they deserve this," Livesey said. "They have excellent seats – way better than mine on Sunday."
Everyone who works at the shop is fan, more often than not they have Swift's music playing there, and they were naturals to enter a contest to promote the Eras Tour stop in Vancouver, which was put on by Destination Vancouver.
"It wasn't hard to sell them on," said Livesey. "As a team, we earned those tickets.
"We all did this together."
They had a special Swift-inspired menu, and a life-size cutout of the performer in the shop.
"People have been taking pictures with her, sharing them online, and tagging us," she said.
They got into the spirit of the Eras Tour with chai sugar cookies, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and other recipes Swift is known to love.
They also have Kelce brothers cupcakes. Named for her pro football boyfriend Travis Kelce, and his brother Jason who was also in the NFL, the vanilla cupcakes are topped the Kelce Mix cereal that has the brothers' faces on the box. It's an indulgent blend of Reese's Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Lucky Charms to satisfy the lineman in you.
If customers buy one of the Kelce cupcakes this weekend, they will get a friendship bracelet while supplies last. Friendship bracelets are another Eras tour trend, inspired by her lyrics.
The bakery staff's efforts caught the eye of the contest organizers from Destination Vancouver, and they were picked as winners.
Livesey is a Swiftie with lyrics included in one of her tattoos, and artwork on the walls of her home that includes more words to Swift songs. She loves what her favourite song writer has to say.
"I've been a fan since forever," Livesey said. "I think she's a lyrical genius."
But she's also an entrepreneur who appreciates that the Eras Tour will bring an estimated $157 million to Vancouver through the three shows.
"People are travelling from all over the world to be part of this."
