Taylor Swift hovers over Rock in Rio fans with spectacle, personality

Music festivals are all about big, but the real magic comes when they manage to be big and small at the same time.

Some people went to the Rock in Rio USA fest on Friday just for Taylor Swift, whose “1989” tour so far isn’t scheduled to come back to Las Vegas.

The 25-year-old superstar rewarded them with what appeared to be her full arena show, complete with costumed dancers, light-up umbrellas and theatrical choreography that often felt stubbornly formal, retrofitted for an open field and an outdoor party vibe — w-a-a-y more marijuana smoke than you’re likely to smell at the wholesome pop star’s indoor shows.

But then it all focused down to two people: Swift and Ed Sheeran, at the end of a long stage extension ramping out into the crowd.

Swift and the British troubadour, who had played the main stage just before her, narrowed a sea of more than 30,000 people to just two voices and an acoustic guitar on Sheeran’s “Tenerife Sea.”

“You look so beautiful in this light, silhouette over me ... And all of the voices surrounding us here, they just fade out when you take a breath.”

The take-away moment made sense of the rest of it. The waiting until 11:30 p.m. for Swift to come on, the $169 tickets, the $12 beer and the $10 quesadilla, the logistics of getting to a festival with no on-site parking,

But it wasn’t the whole reason. That ramp out from the main stage? Turns out it also also was capable of lift-off, craning up, up into the air. It elevated Swift above the masses and floated her in front of the giant video images of herself as it panned from side to side.

“Music is sometimes the only thing that makes us feel better,” Swift said from her lofty perch as a lead-in to “Clean.”

No one seemed in need of cheering up on this unseasonably cool, energizing Las Vegas night. But the patter was apparently prescripted, and we were getting it anyway: “You are not damaged goods.”

The ride on the magical bridge was capped by Swift playing a keyboard intro to “Love Story,” the rare early hit from a set packed with nine “1989” songs.

Swift’s new sound, dense with the synthesized rhythms of pop from her birth year, helped her headline set blend into some of the girl-power sounds leading up to it.

It wouldn’t be all wrong to say the “good girls” — Swift and Echosmith’s 18-year-old Sydney Sierota — were on the main stage while British “bad girls” Jessie J and new-wave firebrand Charli XCX tore up the smaller Evolution Stage.

Certainly there was sonic and visual crossover; Jessie (Jessica Ellen Cornish) danced like she’d been doing her research at the strip clubs across Industrial Road. But Swift also defied the evening chill with a bare midriff and black thigh boots.

When it came to a ’tude backed up by vocal soul power, Jessie J so belongs in Vegas that it makes you wonder why the casinos aren’t scouting some fresh blood instead of mooning over tired Mariah and Britney.

Because the finale on one stage automatically triggered the first song on the other, Jessie J’s triumphant “Bang Bang” closer was immediately followed by Sheeran strumming out “I’m A Mess” on his acoustic guitar.

The 24-year-old held his own though, rapping about his overnight success in “Take It Back,” then fading into Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” and getting his big singalong, fire-up-the-lighters-and-phones moment for “Thinking Out Loud.”

Even with the star power of Swift, the 40-acre grounds didn’t seem much more crowded than Rock in Rio’s first Friday last week, when an announced weekend attendance of 82,000 over two days left plenty of room on a site that can hold 170,000.

Perhaps Swift’s late start was a deal-killer for her younger fans. Or maybe they’re holding out hopes for a return, based on a suspicious gap in the tour schedule between San Diego on Aug. 29 and Salt Lake City on Sept. 4.

Overestimating the “24-hour town” hype may be one of the organizers’ few mistakes. Fans were flowing out of the grounds even as big, sinister beats built into “Bad Blood” as the hour creeped up on 1 a.m. (That song’s conceptual video, perhaps with live participation by Swift, also is set to kick off today’s Billboard Music Awards at the MGM Grand.)

Bruno Mars was on deck for the grand finale on Saturday, closing the four nights of music over two weekends. But even Sheeran is unlikely to argue that Friday was ladies’ night all the way.

Read more from entertainment reporter Mike Weatherford at bestoflasvegas.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Mikeweatherford