Rocked by cancellation of Vienna concerts, Swifties shake it off and flock to London
By Danica Kirka, The Associated Press on August 14, 2024.
LONDON (AP) – For Herve Tram, being a Taylor Swift fan isn’t just about the music. The 28-year-old computer network engineer from Paris sees himself as part of a community, one of the Swifties as they are known. So when the pop superstar’s shows in Vienna were canceled last week because of a terror threat, Tram took a small personal step: He gave away two extra tickets to her upcoming concerts in London to two fans who missed the chance to see their guiding light in the Austrian capital. “That’s the power of this fandom,” Tram said. “We look (out) for each other.” The community of Swift fans, who have flocked to stadiums around the world to see the 3 1/2-hour shows on her Eras Tour and sing along with songs they know by heart, have been shaken in recent days. First, a knife-wielding attacker murdered three little girls at a Swift-themed dance class in northern England, touching off a week of anti-immigrant unrest across the U.K. after right-wing activists spread misinformation about the suspect. Then the shows in Vienna were canceled after police arrested three Islamic State-inspired extremists they believed were planning to attack the concert venue. But none of that has damped fans’ enthusiasm to see Swift during five shows Thursday through Tuesday at London’s Wembley Stadium that will close out the European leg of the Eras Tour. The fans want to wear Swift-inspired outfits, swap handmade friendship bracelets and, of course, dance. Take Meagan Berneaud, 30, of Columbus, Ohio, who has been a Swift fan since she was 13. Berneaud had second thoughts about traveling to London after recent events reminded her of the 2 1/2 hours she spent locked down during a 2016 terror attack at Ohio State University. But she decided to go and even set up a thread on X, formerly known as Twitter, to connect fans who missed the Vienna shows with people who were willing to sell or give away tickets to the London concerts. She’s had more than 3,000 views. “I just have to tell myself not to live in fear,” she said. “I have to put my trust … that law enforcement can do their best to keep us safe.” Some fans who had planned to see the show in Vienna were willing to overcome their anxieties to try to attend another show, taking encouragement from Swift’s song, “Fearless.”³ “And I don’t know why. But with you I’d dance in a storm. In my best dress. Fearless.” It’s a number that she belts out while swirling and twirling in an assortment of sparkly frocks in the song’s music video. Presila Koleva, 26, a design engineer from Cambridge, England, had been looking forward to seeing Swift in Vienna for more than a year, buying a copy of a green dress that Swift wears during the Folklore set on the Eras tour and making 30 bracelets to trade with other fans. She was heartbroken when the shows were canceled. But then she connected with Tram, who gave her one of his tickets. That dress will be worn. “There (are) good people that will do something nice for someone that they don’t know, just because they’ve seen that they’ve been through this really awful situation,” she said. “It could have ended in such a bad way.” The enthusiasm of Swift’s fans and a set list that includes more than 40 songs from all phases of her career have helped make the Eras Tour the biggest revenue earner of all time, with more than $1 billion in ticket sales last year, according to Pollstar Boxoffice, which collects data on the live music industry. The tour is expected to push that record to more than $2 billion before it ends later this year in Indianapolis. Demand for the London concerts shows no signs of slacking, with ticket prices hitting thousands of pounds on unregulated sites. With Swift’s tour coming to an end in Europe and youthful fans who have flexible schedules, especially during the summer, recent events won’t hurt demand for tickets to the London shows, said Rafi Mohammed, an expert on pricing strategies and founder of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based consultancy Culture of Profit. “If anything, you have three sold out concerts in Vienna that were canceled. This coupled with the end of the tour, you’ll likely see extra demand,” he said. Even so, security is a concern. London’s Metropolitan Police Service has tried to offer assurances, pointing out that it has learned lessons from the 2017 attack on an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena that killed 22 people and injured hundreds more. Organizers have promised “additional ticket checks” at the 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium, which prohibits concert goers from bringing anything much bigger than a tiny bag into the venue. Those without tickets will be moved away from the stadium. “London is a big city. We’re used to putting on all of these events,” said Tracy Halliwell, the head of tourism for Visit London. “You’ll see there is a higher police presence on the ground and that’s really just to make sure that everything “¦ runs smoothly.” For his part, Tram is focused on what the fans can do, recalling how Parisians responded after the attack on the Bataclan theater in 2015 to show that terror would not succeed. “We saw hundreds of thousands of people go out into the streets to show they are not afraid, and I think that we (will) also see that in London,” he said. “Fans will show they are not afraid. And like Taylor said, we are fearless.” 29-28
