Taylor Swift on Vienna Cancellations, Terror Threat: Grateful to Be Grieving ‘Concerts and Not Lives’
After canceling three concerts in Vienna, Austria, amid terror threats, Taylor Swift is speaking out. Following the conclusion of the European leg of the Eras Tour, the artist took to social media to share her gratitude to her crew, authorities, and fans.
Swift thanked her team for being able to “physically perform that show and build our massive stage, take it apart, and make magic with so few days in between for recovery and travel,” and then addressed the Vienna cancellations, calling them “devastating.”
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“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,” she wrote. “But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives. I was heartened by the love and unity I saw in the fans who banded together. I decided that all of my energy had to go toward helping to protect the nearly half a million people I had coming to see the shows in London.”
The singer added that she and her team “worked hand in hand with stadium staff and British authorities every day in pursuit of that goal.” Swift also explained why she decided to speak on the terror threat now, and said, “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.”
She continued, “In cases like this one, ‘silence’ is actually showing restraint, and waiting to express yourself at a time when it’s right to. My priority was finishing our European tour safely, and it is with great relief that I can say we did that. And then London felt like a beautiful dream sequence.”
Swift ended her statement by praising fans that filled each of the five sold-out nights at London’s Wembley Stadium, and said that the energy “was like the most giant bear hug from 92,000 people each night, and it brought me back to a place of carefree calm up there.”
Following the foiled terror plot, ticketing agent oeticket announced the Vienna cancellations of the concerts, which were to take place between Aug. 8 and 10, in an Instagram post on Aug. 7. “With confirmation from government officials of a planned terrorist attack at Ernst Happel Stadium, we have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone’s safety,” a statement said.
Viennese police initially reported that they had arrested two men who plotted to carry out attacks around the city. The two men, one of whom is 19, allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS and had become radicalized over the internet. Authorities discovered chemical substances after taking the 19-year-old into custody. They were allegedly stolen from his workplace for the purposes of building a bomb. Officials also reported at the suspect planned to drive his vehicle into the crowd outside of the stadium while armed with knives and machetes.
Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, Austria’s head of the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence, stated: “His goal was to kill himself and a large crowd of people.” The 17-year-old suspect is reported to have been employed by a company providing services to concerts at the Ernst Happel Stadium. He was near the venue at the time of his arrest.
A third teenage suspect was also later arrested in connection with the terror plot. Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner confirmed that an 18-year-old was taken into custody on Aug. 8. The suspect was allegedly in contact with the previously arrested 19-year-old. The arrest, Karner shared, coincided with investigators beginning to look into the “networks” of the involved suspects.
The three concerts were initially scheduled to continue following the alleged planned terrorist attack, but hours after the foiled attack, the venue announced the shows would not go on over safety concerns. In Vienna, on the day of the first cancelled show, hundreds of fans took to the streets to sing along to Swift songs and trade friendship bracelets. Although the unregulated gathering raised safety concerns, Swifties saw it as a way of fighting back against hate and violence.
“I think this is a powerful message to send out to the world: we won‘t change ourselves or what matters to us, we won’t change our values and our favorite artist,” one fan present at the gathering told Rolling Stone later that day. “We won’t let this discourage us. We show the world that we come back stronger in unity and love by supporting each other through these tough times.”
Security experts saw the decision to cancel all three shows as being uncomplicated. “There was a credible terrorist threat, related to ISIS. The guy who was arrested had the means of committing mass carnage,” Steve Adelman, an attorney who serves as vice president of the Event Safety Alliance, told Rolling Stone. “That’s more than enough to warrant a cancellation.”
Swift previously spoke about concerns over terror attacks in a 2019 interview with Elle. “After the Manchester Arena bombing and the Vegas concert shooting, 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 said at the time. “There was a tremendous amount of planning, expense, and effort put into keeping my fans safe.”
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