Taylor Swift fans have reached out to each other in emotional gatherings across Vienna after the singer’s three-night run of concerts in the city were cancelled following a foiled terrorist plot.
Many fans traded their bracelets threaded with beads spelling out the words of their favourite Swift songs, hung them from trees in the Austrian capital’s parks, and joined in spontaneous street-side sing-alongs of tracks from her back catalogue. In a city better known for classical music than for pop idols, some Viennese looked on in bemusement, while others offered free food and drink to the visitors.
An estimated 50,000 fans were due to attend Swift’s concert at the Ernst Happel stadium on Thursday night, while a further 20,000 non-ticket holders were expected to soak up the atmosphere outside. Among them was Jasmine, 35, from Norwich, who described the atmosphere as “very wholesome” and “sweet”.
“I only found out the second I landed,” she said from a vegan cafe where she had met up with Scottish, US and Italian fans, some of whom she had previously met only on social media.
“I got to the hotel. People were devastated. There was an hour of sadness and feeling disheartened. But then the feeling of: ‘We’re here anyway, we’ll be safer than we would otherwise have been. We might as well stay and hang out with international friends,” she added.
Some fans had been drawn to Cornelius Gasse in the 6th district for solace. Named after a 19th-century Viennese painter and his composer nephew, the road was now a venue being creatively used to curate the concert fallout into a full-scale celebration.
Swift had a 2019 hit with the similar-sounding Cornelia Street, about a New York address where she had once lived. Standing on the pavement, fans hugged each other, some shedding tears, and belted out the lyrics: “And baby, I get mystified by how this city screams your name/ I’m so terrified of if you ever walk away/I’d never walk Cornelia Street again.”
Jasmine, an intellectual property lawyer, said she had been to Swift’s Wembley concert in London on 19 June, followed by the gig in Amsterdam on 5 July. “There’s a feeling of inclusivity at her concerts. There are, after all, not many spaces in the world where women can go and have a drink and a dance and feel safe. It’s mainly women, children and gay men at her concerts. And now, you can no longer guarantee that safety.”
She said she felt particularly sorry for Swift fans who had travelled from the nearby Balkan countries, “for many of whom it was the first chance to see her live”.
Jasmine had paid €560 (£480) for three nights in a hotel, €105 for a Ryanair flight and €808 for the concert ticket: “I know, it’s ludicrous; but a lot of Americans pay two grand for a nosebleed [the cheapest seats],” she said, adding that the concert ticket would be refunded, according to the organisers, “which I’m happy about”.
“I get Vienna, I get the sights, I just don’t get Taylor Swift. But I understand why I can’t have Taylor Swift,” she said, expressing full understanding for the Austrian authorities’ decision to cancel the concerts, even though the alleged terrorist plotters had been detained.
“Apparently this morning they said that one of [them] had managed to get a security guard position in the venue. So now you can’t trust security any more. And I’m not a distrustful person. But after the attack at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester [in 2017], you kind of do have to think about it now. And I just … I hate that it’s been tainted by this.”
Blake, 32, from Denver, Colorado, said she had planned to travel to Vienna with her father, Robert, “a true Swiftie”, until he died unexpectedly in February.
“My friends were all, like: ‘You need to go and do it for him and he’ll be with you the whole time.’ A bunch of my friends on Swiftie Twitter came together and got a jacket made for me with a Taylor Swift lyric on the back that says, ‘I have an excellent father.’ Some other friends made me a shirt with pictures of me and him, including from the day I graduated and got sworn in as an attorney at the supremecourt.”
Blake was at Montreal airport boarding her flight to Vienna when the news of the concerts’ cancellation came through. “At first I was going to drop out because I was like: ‘Well, this is a sign my dad’s telling me I shouldn’t be going.’” But her friends persuaded her otherwise. “They said: ‘Let’s go and see if we can’t have a good time,’ and we’ve met up with Swifties from all over the world.”
After Vienna, Blake plans to tour Europe, taking in one of Swift’s Wembley concerts next week. “On the plane there was a nine- or 10-year old girl who was hysterical after her mum told her the concert was off, so I actually gave her two of my London tickets I had spare. I couldn’t stand seeing her cry like that.”
Eleanor, a 20-year old student from Edinburgh, said: “We’re trying to make the best out of a bad situation.
“We’re upset that the concert was cancelled but comforted at the same time that it was and the city certainly does feel safe. I’m now more anxious about London, to be honest,” she said, referring to her plans to attend the four-concert Wembley leg of the tour next week.
Blake was one of a number of fans reaching out on social media, appealing to those attending the Wembley concerts to consider giving any spare tickets to fellow Swifties who had tickets for Vienna and had possibly travelled a long way.
“This community really knows how to give you a huge hug when you need it most,” she wrote on X.
Ticket prices for the Wembley concerts reportedly rose by 30% on the resale market after the Viennese cancellation, and were said to be almost 2,000% up on their face value.
Meanwhile, some hotels in Vienna and Austria’s national railway, ÖBB, were reported to be offering full refunds to concertgoers, despite not being legally required to do so.
