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Jenna Schoenefeld

On a warm night in early July, Ashton Jacklyn belted out lyrics with thousands of others in a Toronto stadium, his black sequined outfit shimmering and omg, omg, omg running through his mind as Beyoncé performed onstage.

It was the 14th time that 33-year-old Jacklyn, a self-described superfan, had seen Beyoncé in concert — but it was the first since before the pandemic.

“I waited to see her again for years since covid locked us down,” he wrote the next day on TikTok, “and last night was like a spiritual awakening.”

The summer’s major cultural phenomena — which also include Taylor Swift’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2023/03/16/taylor-swift-eras-tour-openers-setlist/" target="_blank">Eras Tour </a>and the “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2023/07/23/barbenheimer-shatters-expectations-box-office-records/" target="_blank">movies </a>— have attracted audiences ready to go all out. Thanks to a wide range of social, cultural and economic factors, it’s a season of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/07/20/barbie-mattel-marketing-movie/c1fb280e-26b4-11ee-9201-826e5bb78fa1_story.html" target="_blank">hype </a>as well as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/07/21/barbie-movie-fashion-designers-trends/" target="_blank">dress-up</a>, fun and freedom.

For some, it’s also tied up with the pandemic, perhaps another chance to check off a post-covid “first,” to feel as if they’re living life to the fullest or to celebrate that they’re okay with screaming lyrics in a crowd of 70,000 people again. Though many Americans have long since abandoned covid-era precautions and fans’ excitement far transcends the pandemic, the summer of hype offers release and relief for people looking for fun.

“We’re seeing this major desire to connect with other people,” said Naomi Torres-Mackie, a clinical psychologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. “Coming out of a very difficult, isolative, scary time, that’s all really built up, … and I think that’s part of why it’s getting expressed in such a strong, heightened way.”

Moviegoers have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/2023/07/23/barbie-oppenheimer-barbenheimer-box-office/6eb39cde-296c-11ee-a948-a5b8a9b62d84_story.html" target=_blank>bought out</a> shows and traveled long distances to see “Oppenheimer” in Imax theaters. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/07/24/how-these-movie-fans-gamed-barbenheimer-won-weekend/" target=_blank>One couple</a> flew from Maryland to Oregon to see “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” with their family. Swifties have gone to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2023/07/27/taylor-swift-eras-tour-fans-venue-jobs/" target=_blank>extensive lengths</a> to secure tickets for her tour.

“Taylor helped us get through some of the worst moments during the height of the Covid pandemic. Finally seeing her live healed something for us, and we are forever grateful,” wrote one TikTok user who said she was an ICU nurse, posting a video that combined her emotional concert experience with pandemic-era hospital photos.

The frenzy has <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/07/29/1190701793/economy-fed-earnings-barbie-taylor-swift" target=_blank>boosted Americans’ spending</a>, aiding hotels, airlines and movie <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/barbie-oppenheimer-pay-big-amc-theatres#:~:text=The%20worldwide%20box%20office%20gross,data%20from%20the%20IMDb%20site.&text=The%20Mattel%20and%20Warner%20Bros,Ryan%20Gosling%20as%20%22Ken.%22" target=_blank>theaters</a>, making this summer another landmark one — just as 2021 was “hot vax summer” and 2022 saw a return to travel (but also <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/09/04/covid-summer-vacation-travel/" target=_blank>the rise of omicron subvariants</a>). Though the virus is still circulating, this is the first summer since the covid public health emergency<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/05/04/covid-public-health-emergency-end/" target=_blank> formally ended</a>, and many Americans <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/06/25/covid-precautions-summer-vaccines-deaths/" target=_blank>have relaxed further</a> over the course of the year.

Some people are “desperate to make up for lost time,” said Jessa White, a Seattle-area therapist who has seen shifts in her clients’ behaviors since the pandemic.

“People who used to be penny savers are more willing to splurge,” she said. “People who never caught on to mainstream fads are buying in.”

Hannah Beier

Rachel Wisniewski

Jonathan Nackstrand

Corinne Van Ostrand, 30, reunited with friends she hadn’t seen much since before the pandemic to attend Swift’s concert in Seattle last month. Though Van Ostrand wasn’t too worried about covid last summer, this summer feels like “another level” of post-pandemic life, she said, because “a lot of iconic things are happening.”

“I kept repeating to the group of girls we went with, like, ‘This is a great time to be alive,’” she said. “It’s like coming out of a depressive season where, all of a sudden, now you have things that you can enjoy with friends, things to live for.”

Corinne Van Ostrand

The enthusiasm for figures such as Swift and Beyoncé far predates and transcends the pandemic. Researchers noted that there’s not enough data yet to draw conclusions about whether people’s post-pandemic attitudes influenced their hype levels this summer.

But what people get out of activities such as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/07/24/how-these-movie-fans-gamed-barbenheimer-won-weekend/" target=_blank>dressing up</a>, being in big groups and feeling part of something bigger than themselves is exactly the type of social connection they were starved of during the pandemic, experts said. In addition, though many Americans have long since ditched pandemic-era precautions, people are still recovering psychologically from the period’s trauma, Torres-Mackie said.

“This is, I think, an attempt — and probably pretty successful, too — at releasing some of that pain and stress from the past few years,” she said.

Jacklyn recalled watching Beyoncé make a <a href="https://www.essence.com/entertainment/beyonce-disney-family-singalong/" target=_blank>surprise appearance</a> at a 2020 Disney television special, where she told the audience: “We’re going to get through this.”

Three years later, he was watching her sing and dance live for thousands.

“I just felt like it was almost full circle: We made it through,” said Jacklyn, of Truro, Nova Scotia. “We got through it. We’re here.”

Ashton Jacklyn

‘Barbenheimer’ shatters expectations — and box office records

Big events offer an outlet for a still-pent-up desire to connect and for a renewed motivation to engage with life, both things psychologists have seen among Americans coming out of the pandemic. Things such as movies also provide escapism, which people use to deal with stress, and anything nostalgic triggers positive memories, experts said. Dressing up or doing something else to make an activity feel special also contributes to a sense of social identity and belonging.

“People draw strength from being around other people,” said Christian Waugh, a psychology professor at Wake Forest University. “The very fact that you’re there … is a great way to just feel like you belong and your life is meaningful and everything is going to be okay.”

White, the Seattle-area therapist, said her clients have commonly described something after seeing “Barbie” that she never heard about before the pandemic: the sense that everyone in the theater was there to watch the film together.

“It was hard to miss that it seemed bigger for people than a normal movie outing. It was like they were part of a community again,” White said.

What’s unclear, White said, is whether people are reveling in the ability to go to a movie theater or hyping themselves up to cope with the social anxiety she has frequently seen in clients after the pandemic.

Researchers who are studying the pandemic’s effects on mental health may see answers in future data. For now, “anything that tries to tie the pandemic to the current summer activities would be speculative,” said Roxane Cohen Silver, a professor of psychological science at the University of California at Irvine who is conducting research on the psychological state of the country during and after the pandemic. “There’s no way to draw a direct link.”

In some ways, the summer’s biggest events embody the things covid took away: sitting with a crowd in a tightly packed theater; singing, without a care for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/choral-groups-silenced-pandemic/2020/11/06/d1d1c2c0-1d65-11eb-ba21-f2f001f0554b_story.html" target="_blank">droplets</a>, in public; trading <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2023-08-01/trading-friendship-bracelets-at-a-taylor-swift-concert-heres-what-to-know" target="_blank">friendship bracelets</a> with as many people as possible — an activity far from “contactless.”

Going to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour? Play our bingo card!

At concerts, it’s also a chance for fans to connect with songs and artists that kept them company throughout the pandemic. Swift <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2023/03/19/taylor-swift-glendale-concert-scene/" target=_blank>tells her audiences </a>she wrote and released <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2020/10/26/taylor-swift-folklore-million-copies/" target=_blank>music in 2020 </a>as a way to connect with them despite isolation.

“This tour is a chance for fans to spend time with someone who felt like a friend during covid,” said Pamela Rutledge, a psychologist who focuses on digital behaviors.

For Van Ostrand, a social worker, it was difficult to think about the future during the pandemic, particularly during a period when she worked as a crisis counselor.

Now, she wants to try new things, reflecting on how the pandemic has changed her mind-set. She’s daydreaming of buying tickets to see Swift perform in Spain next year and making plans to learn to rollerblade.

“We only have one life,” she said, “and everything was on pause for such a long time that it’s like, we shouldn’t waste a day.”

Keystone State Press Awards, first place in personality profile, 2019

Society of Professional Journalists Keystone Spotlight, first place in environmental reporting, 2018

Associated Press Sports Editors Top 10 Breaking News Award, 2017

Keystone State Press Awards, first place in special projects, 2017

University of Puget Sound, BA in Foreign Language (French) and International Affairs

University of Maryland, Master of Journalism

Justine McDaniel is a general assignment reporter who joined The Washington Post in 2022. She spent eight years at the Philadelphia Inquirer, covering topics including the coronavirus, environmental issues and breaking news, and has reported in D.C., Seattle and Northern California.

Justine McDaniel

Barbie, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift fuel summer hype after pandemic isolation

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Barbie movie premiere

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Barbie-Taylor-Beyoncé summer offers a release of pandemic emotions

Jenna Schoenefeld for The Washington Post

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