Fourteen-year-old Ariya Prasad had been looking forward to the Taylor Swift concert at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles all summer. But when an important conflict fell on the same day as the show, she knew what she wanted to do.
She wasn’t going to sell the hottest tickets in town for a tidy profit.
“She said, ‘How do we give them to somebody in need?’” Ariya’s dad, Ranjan Prasad, recalled. “She thought maybe we could give them to a kid who is really a Taylor Swift fan but can’t go for medical, economic or whatever reason."
And that’s how 13-year-old Bree Nash got to have her first-ever concert experience at one of the most popular shows of the summer.
“We always talk about going to a concert,” said Bree’s mom, Tina Nash. “So I thought it was awesome that we got a chance to experience not just a concert, but Taylor Swift’s concert. It was special, too, because a lot of people spent a lot of money for those tickets and we were blessed to get them for free.”
Ariya researched how she could donate her tickets to a child who might not otherwise have the chance to see Taylor Swift. She ended up making contact with UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital, where Bree is receiving ongoing cancer treatment.
Nash says they got a phone call in the afternoon of Aug. 3 with an offer to attend the show that night.
For Bree, it wasn’t just a chance to see Swift perform, but to be among the excitement of tens of thousands of fellow Swifties singing and dancing along.
“To actually be in a crowd of people — because we keep her in, like, a bubble — that was exciting for her, too,” Nash said.
Bree even got VIP treatment at SoFi. Because she was having some trouble walking, workers ushered her through secret elevators that aren’t generally available to the public, Nash said.
“We stayed until the show was almost over, because I couldn’t have her walking through the crowd,” Nash said. “But we stayed and watched the show and it was real good. I danced the whole time.”