Meet the girls who started an Eras Tour craze with some balloons and got a Swift shoutout

Thousands of fans illuminated the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg, Germany, on Tuesday with a new Eras Tour trend, 10 shows in the making.

As soon as lightning flashed and thunder roared following “Marjorie,” Taylor Swift smiled into the stadium cameras and waltzed to the back of the stage to begin the “Evermore” chant: “Wait for the signal, and I’ll meet you after dark.”

Swifties from every section of the stadium blew up orange and yellow balloons and started their phone flashlights to create their own “Willow” orbs, mimicking the dancers’ light-up props onstage. Rain pattered down from the open-roofed arena.

How the ‘Willow’ trend began
Life was a willow and it bent right to the breeze of three Amsterdam Swifties.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

Coralisa Meijer, 22, Charlotte Lanser, 24, and Samantha Davelaar, 25, walked into the Johan Cruijff Arena on July 4 with three yellow balloons and a bright idea. As Swift sang “Willow,” they bobbed and waved their dollar-store orbs in the nosebleed section high above the throng of screaming fans.

“We had some extra space in Amsterdam,” said Lanser over Zoom. “We were like, it will just be a fun little thing for us to do.”

“Then we thought let’s put our flashlights on,” added Meijer. “And it just kind of happened, and people started filming us from the other side of the stadium, and it went viral.”

Little did the trio know their novel idea would receive a shoutout from Swift seven shows later in the Veltins-Arena of Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

“There have been people bringing balloons to the Eras Tour to make their own orbs for ‘Willow,'” Swift said to the crowd during her acoustic set. “I was cracking up the whole time. You guys are so thoughtful.”