Taylor Swift fans are combating fear with joy following the cancellation of the pop star’s Eras Tour shows in Vienna, which had been the target of a terrorist attack plot discovered just in time by authorities earlier this week.
The first of Swift’s three previously scheduled shows at Ernst Happel Stadium had been set for Thursday (Aug. 8), which hundreds of Swifties instead spent together in the streets of the Austrian capital to sing the 14-time Grammy winner’s songs in unison. Videos posted to X show the group belting out “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” “All Too Well” and “Cruel Summer,” each of which is featured in the three-hour-plus setlist they’d been hoping to see live after more than a year of waiting for the Eras trek to come to Vienna.
Another video finds the crowd singing “Long Live.” Many of the clips are tagged with “#WeLoveYouTaylor.”
The bittersweet singalong comes just one day after Barracuda Music — the live show promoter that had been overseeing Swift’s stops through Vienna — announced that the performances were canceled out of caution for the 65,000+ fans who were expected to attend each night. Two suspects — Austrian citizens who are 19 and 17 years old — were taken into custody Wednesday (Aug. 7).
The next day, authorities revealed that one suspect confessed that the plan had been to “kill as many people as possible outside the concert venue.” The person identified as the main plotter reportedly quit his regular job and “conspicuously changed his appearance and adapted to I.S. [Islamic State] propaganda.”
Austria’s head of the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence, Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, also said the main suspect wanted to employ knives or homemade explosives to attack Swift’s fans outside the stadium in an effort to cause a mass-casualty event. Authorities added that I.S. and al-Qaida materials were found at the home of the 17-year-old suspect, who was reportedly hired earlier this week by a company that provides services at Ernst Happel Stadium. That suspect was arrested by police special forces near the stadium.
In light of the concerts being canceled, Swifties who traveled to Vienna for the occasion are finding other ways to spend their time with the help of some local establishments. Le Burger is offering free burgers to fans with tickets to the canceled shows, while some fans have reported that the Swarovski Kristallwelten Store Wien is giving out free necklaces to those affected.
Watch Swifties sing in the streets of Vienna below.
