Taylor Swift fans cope with terror
Taylor Swift fans from around the world, who had swarmed to Vienna with friendship bracelets on their wrists and the pop star’s lyrics etched in their minds, were left heartbroken after an averted attack derailed their plans.
Expletives and sobs filled the hallways of Kristi Hovington’s Swiftie-packed hotel in Vienna when the news broke this week that all three shows in the city would be canceled, after two suspects with alleged Islamic State links had been arrested and accused of plotting to kill a large crowd of concertgoers with explosives and other weapons. Hovington and her daughter Esme had come from Barcelona to celebrate the teen’s 14th birthday at a show. Esme cried all night instead.
“The happiest that we had ever seen her was when we told her last year that we got the tickets,” Hovington said. “And the saddest we have ever seen her was when we told her last night that the shows were canceled.”
The Eras Tour - the highest-grossing concert tour in history - is scheduled to resume Aug. 15 with the first of five shows in London’s Wembley Stadium. The canceled shows in Vienna were a disruption to a tour that also had a November show in Rio de Janeiro postponed following extremely hot temperatures that led to a fan’s death.
The threat in Vienna came to light days after a stabbing attack at a Swift-themed yoga and dance class in the town of Southport in North West England left three girls dead, and coincides with a wave of terrorist threats against large events in Europe.
Austrian authorities announced Wednesday that a 19-year-old who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State was arrested. Explosive devices and Islamic State propaganda were discovered in the suspect’s house, Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, the head of Austria’s Directorate for Security and Intelligence, said in a news conference Thursday.
In interviews with law enforcement, the man said he wanted “to kill himself and a large crowd at the concert,” Haijawi-Pirchner noted. Two Austrian officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, identified the suspect as Beran Aliji. A 17-year-old was also arrested, officials said, and a 15-year-old was being questioned.
The incident left parents with a dilemma. Emily Best, a 40-year-old Swift fan from Brussels who had snagged tickets to all three Vienna shows, found herself wondering how she would explain what had happened to her 7-year-old son.
“I think I would tell him that there are bad people who want to ruin things,” she said, and added: “They can’t see the beauty and joy of what the Eras Tour represents. It’s sickening.”
Swift herself has admitted to having a fear of an attack at one of her shows.
“I was completely terrified to go on tour this time because I didn’t know how we were going to keep 3 million fans safe over seven months,” she told Elle Magazine in 2019, following the Manchester Arena attack and the Vegas concert shooting two years prior. “There was a tremendous amount of planning, expense, and effort put into keeping my fans safe.”
Many Americans planned vacations to see Swift perform overseas, where the flight, hotel and ticket can cost less than admittance to once of her U.S. shows.
Autumn Allen of Columbus, Ind., said she and a friend had bought some tickets to attend multiple shows at Wembley Stadium this month. But now they have decided to give the tickets to fans who couldn’t see the show in Vienna.
Allen, who runs a Swift-related Facebook page, said news of the terrorist plot sent many into an “emotional spiral.” But she noted that fans stranded in Vienna didn’t stay despondent for long. A swath of videos and pictures posted to social media show Swifties singing in the city. Fans in Vienna gathered on Corneliusgasse, a small street close to Happel Stadium, to celebrate the 14-time Grammy winner. The street’s name echoes a song on Swift’s 2019 “Lover” album, “Cornelia Street.”
“Our friends that were supposed to be attending a concert are dancing in the streets of Vienna; they are creating their art on sidewalks with chalk … and trading friendship bracelets,” she said. “Our friends in Vienna seem hopeful and unafraid.”
As Hovington and her daughter walked through Vienna on Thursday, they discovered Esme’s birthday plans were not entirely ruined. On their way from the Austrian National Library to a shopping district, the teen heard Swift’s music being sung in a church. They went in.
“There were people in their Taylor Swift concert outfits … with their arms around each other, holding hands, taking pictures, taking videos,” Hovington said. “We sat through a couple of songs, just everybody was singing quietly. It wasn’t like at the concert - where people are screaming and dancing - it wasn’t like that. It was more of a somber, reflective, but really kind of cathartic moment. It was really beautiful, just completely unexpected.”
“It was really sad,” Esme said. “But knowing that other people felt the same way I did … made me feel better.”
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Anika Seth and Souad Mekhennet contributed to this report.
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