Taylor Swift Will Continue With London Shows at Wembley Stadium Despite Vienna Terrorist Plot
The show must go on! Despite Taylor Swift’s three Eras tour shows in Vienna, Austria, being canceled due to a terrorist threat, the “Karma” singer will return to Wembley Stadium in London as planned.
“Many lessons were learned after the awful Manchester Arena attack,” London mayor Sadiq Khan said to Sky News on Thursday, August 8, referencing the 2017 attack that left 23 people dead at Ariana Grande’s concert.
“The police work really closely, not with just City Hall, but with those who host concerts like those with the Taylor Swift concert coming up over the next couple of weeks,” Khan continued. “I’m sure Vienna’s got its own reasons for deciding to cancel the Taylor Swift concerts. We’re going to carry on so that the Taylor Swift concerts can take place in London safely.”
The “Paper Rings” artist’s three shows were canceled in Vienna after government officials confirmed there were plans for a terrorist attack outside of Ernst Happel Stadium on Wednesday, August 7. A 19-year-old was arrested as the main suspect in Ternitz, and a second suspect was taken into custody in Vienna.
On Thursday, August 9, The New York Times reported that a third teenager had been arrested in connection with the planned attack. According to the publication, the third suspect “was not part of the plan but had been in touch with the plotters and had recently sworn allegiance to the Islamic State.”
Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, head of Austria's Directorate of State Security and Intelligence, stated that the 19-year-old had “fully confessed” to the attack plans during a press conference, according to ABC News. The outlet revealed that the suspect was "clearly radicalized in the direction of the Islamic State" and allegedly planned to kill himself along with “as many people as possible” using knives and homemade explosives.
“Taylor Swift | The Eras tour Vienna shows canceled due to government officials confirmation of planned terrorist attack. 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 from Barracuda Music read that was shared via Instagram on Wednesday, August 7.
All those who had purchased tickets to the shows would be “refunded within the next 10 business days.”
However, Swifties came out in full force to make the best out of a bad situation on Thursday, August 8. Hundreds of fans came together in Vienna’s streets as they sang several of the Grammy winner’s songs and exchanged friendship bracelets with one another. Despite the disappointment of not seeing Swift, 34, in concert, many of the gatherers said they were grateful to the authorities who managed to thwart the attack ahead of time and likely save the lives of concertgoers.
"It's a really strange situation and I think the ultimate thing we feel is just grateful that we're safe and that everyone else is safe," one fan told BBC News. "A bit of a mixed bag of emotions."
The fan named Becky said that while the show’s cancellation resulted "probably the most disappointed about anything [she’s] ever been in [her] life," she felt that the decision had been made “for the right reasons.”
