(London) Pop star Taylor Swift resumes her monumental tour in London on Thursday. Erasunder high surveillance after the cancellation last week of his three concerts planned in Vienna, targeted by a suicide attack plot.
Nearly 90,000 fans are expected at Wembley Stadium for each of the singer’s final five European concerts, almost a year and a half after launching her mammoth US tour.
A week ago, his three concerts planned in Vienna were cancelled at the last minute after the revelation of a suicide bombing plot and the arrest of three suspects, including a 19-year-old Islamist, preventing a “bloodbath” according to the Austrian authorities.
London police have been reassuring, saying that ticket checks will be stepped up at the entrance, along with additional security measures around the stadium.
“There is no indication that the matter currently under investigation by the Austrian authorities will have an impact on upcoming events in London,” she said in a statement.
PHOTO JUSTIN TALLIS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Fans outside the stairs of Wembley Stadium decorated with a portrait of Taylor Swift.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan also assured Sky News that the city was working “closely with the police to ensure that Taylor Swift’s concerts can take place in London safely.”
Following several sold-out concerts in London in June, Taylor Swift’s return to the UK capital also comes almost two weeks after the murder of three girls in a knife attack in Southport, northwest England, which sparked a wave of xenophobic riots in the country.
The children, aged six, seven and nine, were attending a dance class themed to songs by Taylor Swift, who said she was “completely shocked” and shared her grief on social media.
The American pop star, who has a close relationship with her fan community, the “Swifties”, has not yet commented on the decision to cancel her concerts in the Austrian capital.
Ban on gatherings
On the Wembley website, ticket holders were warned that “additional checks” would take place at the stadium “prior to entry”.
Fans without tickets will also not be allowed to gather around the arena to hear the music, as they usually do at the American star’s concerts.
During her show at the end of July in Madrid, nearly 50,000 people “listened to the concert from a hill” nearby, “participating from afar” in the evening, Taylor Swift had indicated.
“No one is allowed to stand in front of an entrance or […] in front of the stadium” and “non-ticket holders will be moved,” it was indicated this time.
PHOTO ALASTAIR GRANT, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Swifties Friendship Bracelets
Some of the star’s fans, who form a very close-knit and active community on social networks, have agreed to resell or even give their tickets to other “Swifties” deprived of a concert in Vienna.
Catherine Santamaria, who was due to attend with her daughter Carla, 14, told Britain’s PA news agency that she had been offered tickets to Monday’s Wembley concert by another fan, after writing in an online group that the teenager was “devastated”.
London will conclude the European leg of the tour, which began in May in Paris. The global star will then travel to Canada for the final concerts of a global series with enormous economic repercussions.
At the end of last year, Eras became the first tour in history to sell more than $1 billion in tickets.