Santa Clara rolled out the red carpet when Taylor Swift and Beyonce came to town in the summer of 2023, anointing the global pop superstars as honorary mayors before they took the stage for their respective concerts at Levi’s Stadium.
Now, after a lengthy investigation into whether Swift’s “The Eras Tour” and Beyonce’s “Renaissance Tour” broke the stadium’s notorious 11 p.m. curfew, city officials are admitting they did — but declining to issue any citations.
The curfew — 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 11 p.m. on Fridays and Sundays — has been a point of contention in Santa Clara for years, as the stadium, which opened in 2014, abuts a residential neighborhood.
As Levi’s Stadium prepares to kick off its concert series later this month — a lineup boasting Metallica, The Weeknd and Morgan Wallen — the city’s decision not to enforce curfew violations raises questions as to what kind of precedent they have set — and whether the curfew serves any real purpose.
Mayor Lisa Gillmor, an avid critic of the San Francisco 49ers — the managers of stadium events — said in an email that when curfew violations have occurred in the past, the city has fined the team.
“It’s their responsibility to manage our stadium by following all our laws, rules and regulations,” Gillmor said.
The 49ers have argued in the past that the 10 p.m. weeknight stop time has cost the stadium millions in revenue. It prompted the Santa Clara City Council in 2021 to relax the policy and allow the city manager to grant five weeknight curfew exemptions each year that would let artists perform an extra hour.
Both of Swift’s July 2023 shows, which were held on weekend nights, blew past the 11 p.m. cut off, ending at 11:38 p.m. and 11:26 p.m. by the Bay Area News Group’s measure. Beyonce received a curfew extension for her August 2023 concert, which was held on a Wednesday, but still closed out the night at 11:29 p.m. with “Summer Renaissance.”
City spokesperson Janine De la Vega told the Bay Area News Group in a statement that the city “recognizes that curfew violations occurred.” However, the only citation issued was a $2,000 fine against Pyrotek, the pyrotechnics company used by Swift, for setting off fireworks after 11 p.m.
De la Vega did not elaborate on why the city declined to enforce the curfew, instead writing in a statement that it will continue to work with the 49ers “as they manage relationships with event promoters to bring concerts and other amazing events to Levi’s Stadium. The city will closely monitor upcoming events with the goal of working toward appropriate strategies so that performers can adhere to curfew.”
The city has levied fines against the 49ers for curfew violations on several occasions, though the amount is typically no more than a few thousand dollars.
A spokesperson for the 49ers said in a statement that the team is looking forward to “another exciting line-up of events this summer.”
“The past three years have been the most profitable in Stadium Authority history, thanks to the non-NFL events booked at Levi’s Stadium,” the spokesperson said in response to questions about the city’s decision not to cite them for curfew violations.
Councilmember Albert Gonzalez, who assumed office in December and represents the district around the stadium, said the city has struck a happy medium with the curfew and the city manager’s ability to grant five weeknight extensions.
When asked about Swift and Beyonce’s curfew violations, Gonzalez said he wants to ensure that the city “deals with it in an even, balanced fashion that doesn’t negatively portray an artist or a promoter.” If the city doesn’t issue citations for well-liked, mainstream artists who violated the curfew, he said they shouldn’t single out lesser-known acts.
“How we communicate, even in times when we do have a fine, is important,” Gonzalez said. “Sometimes there are different venues (artists) can have events at, and if they’re getting a negative reception in the media it’s something they’d rather not deal with.”
The councilmember added that the city has also been looking at ways to minimize the impact of events at the stadium on nearby residents.
Councilmember Raj Chahal, who opposed the ballot initiative to build a new stadium in Santa Clara more than a decade ago, described the curfew as a “highly political issue” in an interview and said that he trusts city officials’ discretion.
Chahal said that while the curfew garners a lot of attention, a previous survey conducted by EMC Research showed that neighbors were more concerned with traffic, parking issues, littering and loitering.
“Unless we want to treat the stadium as any other business,” Chahal said, “I think fighting with the stadium on these minor issues is not financially healthy for the city of Santa Clara.”