From Lemonade Stand to Taylor Swift’s London Show This Friday

South Philadelphia Taylor Swift fan Elena Flores, who just raised $3,000 at her lemonade stand to buy tickets to the Taylor Swift London show this Friday (photo courtesy Chelsea Flores)

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South Philly Lemonade Stand Proprietor Elena Flores Earns Tickets to Taylor Swift London Show

“Money doesn’t grow on trees.” It’s an old saying. A total cliche. But they’re the exact words that South Philly mom Chelsea Flores and her husband William say they’ve repeated to their eight-year-old daughter Elena time and time again.

Well, it appears that the message has been received.

Elena, who’s going into the second grade, is a huge Taylor Swift fan. She’s never been to a big concert of any kind in her life. She missed last year’s epic Taylor Swift performances in Philadelphia. But it was then she decided that she simply had to see Taylor Swift before the Eras Tour finally ends this December. There was just one problem: Getting tickets.

Taylor Swift tickets are notoriously expensive and hard to get. But Elena was determined. She asked her parents if she could run a lemonade stand this summer to try to raise the money to get to the Miami show this October. They said yes.

And so, Elena set up her lemonade stand in her Pennsport neighborhood. Then she set her sights on bigger fish: Rittenhouse Square and outside Citizens Bank Park during Phillies games. A sign explained her mission. This being 2024, there was a QR code for Venmo. Elena handled the product and sales. Chelsea managed the social media end of things with posts like these:

After 17 days of selling sweet, sweet lemonade in the hot, hot Philly sun, Elena racked up more than $3,000.

“Some people didn’t even want lemonade,” says Chelsea. “They’d just give her donations. One person even gave her $100. Other people were giving her $50 tips. It was crazy.”

Last week, Chelsea received an alert about some availability for the Taylor Swift concert at Wembley Stadium this Friday. Nosebleeds, says Chelsea. But you take what you can get when it comes to Taylor Swift tickets, and so she decided to opt in on London instead of waiting to see what happened with Miami. Chelsea explains that the $3,000 covered tickets for her and Elena and a bit of airfare.

Chelsea and William surprised Elena earlier this week with the tickets that she had earned as well as news that the family was taking a weeklong trip to London and Paris. They leave tonight from JFK. But it’s not all fun and games.

“Elena actually starts school on August 26th,” Chelsea points out. “So she’s going to be doing a bunch of summer homework on the plane.”

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