Taylor Swift felt fear and guilt over Vienna show cancellation

LOS ANGELES – American pop megastar Taylor Swift revealed on Aug 21 that a “new sense of fear” came over her after the authorities

uncovered a plot to

attack her Vienna concert venue,

as well as guilt for letting down an estimated 200,000 fans by cancelling her three shows in the Austrian city.

The singer also applauded the authorities for foiling the plan to cause mass harm at Ernst Happel Stadium, the venue where she was scheduled to play from Aug 8 to 10.

“Thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives,” Swift said on Instagram in her first public comments since news of the planned attack surfaced two weeks ago.

Police in Austria arrested a 19-year-old man whom they said confessed to wanting to cause a “bloodbath” at Swift’s The Eras Tour shows.

“Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating,” Swift said. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”

The 34-year-old said she decided “all of my energy had to go towards helping to protect the nearly half a million people I had coming to see the shows in London”.

Starting on Aug 15, the London dates took place without incident and concluded on Aug 20, ending the European leg of the record-breaking tour.

Swift said she had not commented earlier on Vienna because she did not want to risk provoking harm at future concerts.

“Let me be very clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows,” Swift wrote. “In cases like this one, ‘silence’ is actually showing restraint.”

The Eras Tour, the highest-grossing concert tour in history, is now on a scheduled break. It will resume with final dates from October through December in the United States and Canada. REUTERS