VIENNA — Pricey tickets for sold-out Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna. Hundreds of euros, if not more, dropped on flights and hotels. Tens of thousands of Swifties, bedecked in homemade friendship bracelets, devastated by the cancellations of three eras tour shows in Austria after authorities foiled an apparent attack plot.
Austrian security officials said two young men wanted to commit an attack outside the stadium, killing as many people as possible using knives or self-made explosives.
Concert organizers said they stood behind their decision, saying they expected up to 65,000 fans inside Ernst Happel Stadium at each concert and as many as 30,000 onlookers outside, where authorities said the suspects planned to strike.
The venue sat empty Thursday morning aside from media filming outside. But later in the day on Corneliusgasse — a small street just 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the stadium — fans flocked to trade friendship bracelets and commiserate about the cancellations. They gathered there specifically because the street name echoes “Cornelia Street,” the name of a contemplative synth-pop track from Swift’s 2019 album, “Lover.”
The title refers to a street in New York City’s Greenwich Village, where Swift rented a luxury apartment in 2016 and fans now visit to take selfies. “And I hope I never lose you, hope it never ends,” she sings in the song’s chorus. “I’ll never walk Cornelia Street again.”
Swift has not spoken publicly about the plot or canceled shows. “Taylor Nation,” a verified Instagram page widely believed to be run by her team, re-posted the announcement from concert organizer Barracuda Music in a “story,” which is only visible for 24 hours. Her main account has not posted anything.
Both suspects appeared to be inspired by the Islamic State group and al-Qaida, authorities said. The main suspect, aged 19, had also posted an oath of allegiance online to the current leader of the Islamic State group, authorities said. The suspects’ names were not released in line with Austrian privacy rules.
The news rattled the superstar’s fans, many of whom took to social media to express their devastation at missing out. On the social media platform X, some lamented months of now-wasted efforts to pick out fashionable outfits for the performance and make friendship bracelets. The beaded bracelets, typically bearing Swift’s song titles or popular phrases, are usually swapped at concerts with strangers.
Other fans begged online for tickets to Swift ‘s next shows. She is expected to perform at London’s Wembley stadium in five concerts between Aug. 15 and 20 to close the European leg of her record-setting Era’s Tour.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the capital and the police had learned lessons from an attack in northwest England in 2017, when a suicide bomber killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena, and the shows will go on.
Karoline Pedersen of Norway already saw Swift in May at a show in Sweden. She’d planned to go to her London concert but now has second thoughts even though police there say the Austrian plot has no link to the UK
“It is not pleasant to have to look over one’s shoulder. It angers me that a concert like this, where millions of girls have said they actually feel safe, should be turned into a place of fear,” Pedersen told NRK.
Some North American fans have traveled abroad in “tour tourism ” — a pattern that emerged during Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour — after noticing that tighter restrictions on ticket fees and resales in Europe made it no more costly — and potentially cheaper — to see Swift perform abroad rather than closer to home,
Andrew Strauss, 34, and his mother, Alison Strauss, 62, heard about the plot Wednesday while they were having a glass of wine at the airport bar in New Jersey when his phone “started blowing up.”
“I was like, ‘wait, why are all these people texting me broken heart emojis?'” he told The Associated Press from Vienna on Thursday. “And then I went on Twitter and I looked at my mom and I was like, ‘I think the concert is cancelled.'”
The pair were on a direct flight to Austria and “you could see it, like, ripple through people finding out,” he said.
While he has already seen Swift in concert, his mother has not. The show was the start of a European vacation with other family members so they decided to go ahead with their plans anyway. Still, they knew of another fan who got off her plane at a New York airport instead.
“I’m actually heartbroken,” Alison Strauss said. “I actually want to write to her and tell her: ‘This was a great mother-son event. Can you get me tickets in the US for one of the concerts?’”
The pair said they still support Swift and believe the concert organizers did the right thing.
“It’s not in her nature to put anybody in danger,” Alison Strauss said. “And to play three sold-out concerts is probably way too much to risk.”
Norwegian fan Marie Hov Aanæs told Norwegian broadcaster NRK she was disappointed but understood the reasoning.
Still, she said “we must ‘Shake It Off,’” to quote Swift’s 2014 hit.
“Actually, we are just very grateful that security was tightened enough for them to unravel this,” Aanæs told NRK.
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Dazio reported from Berlin and Kirka reported from London. Associated Press writers Geir Moulson and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin; Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark; and Maria Sherman in New York contributed to this report.
