Taylor Swift excitement eclipses security fears for London fans

LONDON – Fans arriving at singer Taylor Swift’s concert in London on Aug 15 said solidarity among fellow Swifties was helping to dispel any security concerns they had after her Vienna concerts were cancelled last week.

The US singer-songwriter is back in London for five dates before her record-breaking Eras tour returns to North America. 

Her three shows in Vienna were cancelled

after a planned attack was foiled by the authorities, leaving some 195,000 fans grappling with sorrow, anger and disbelief.

Some of them rushed to buy tickets for the London dates, which are available for about £690 (S$1,200) on resale sites.

Ms Iggy Wilde, 28, said she had never considered selling her ticket after the security scare in Vienna.

“I think there’s a concern. Obviously, it’s worrying,” she said.

“The main thing that I’ve felt is that Swifties have come together and there’s a real sense of solidarity between us that I think makes me not afraid.”

Fans arriving at Wembley, dressed in sequins and cowboy hats, had their forearms covered in friendship bracelets ready to swop with other Swifties.

Security staff checked their tickets before they could start queuing to enter the stadium.

While British police have said there was nothing to indicate the events in Vienna would impact the shows at Wembley, tight security was visible at the stadium.

Tay-gating, the practice of gathering outside a Swift show without a ticket, as thousands did in Munich in July, will not be allowed, as the authorities try to reduce harder-to-control risks outside the venue.

Fans will enter through metal detectors and are allowed to only bring one small bag. Glass and metal containers, laptops and umbrellas are all banned.

Swift has not commented publicly on the incident in Vienna, but in the past, she said her biggest fear was the risk to her fans following the Manchester Arena bombing in northern England after an Ariana Grande concert and the Las Vegas concert shooting in 2017.

Fans have travelled around the world to see the Eras tour, the most lucrative in history.

Ms Pamela Wever, 43, an industrial engineer, was flying from Guatemala via Miami to London with her husband and two daughters to see Swift.

“I’m not sure if I would do it for anybody else,” she said before boarding her second flight.

“We have friends that have travelled to Argentina, to Brazil, to different countries just to go to the concert, because in Guatemala, there’s no concert.” 

She bought the London tickets from a friend after failing to find affordable tickets anywhere else. Resale tickets for Miami in October were around US$2,000 (S$2,600) each, she added. 

The tickets were a Christmas present for her daughters.

“When I gave it to my little one, she cried. She was so excited... she knows every single song, like all the lyrics of every single song,” she said. REUTERS