Swifties in Vienna find community and strength amidst canceled concerts

Vienna, Austria (CNN) — Lisa Miller thought she’d be dancing alongside her three daughters at a Taylor Swift concert on August 8. Instead, she found herself on the streets of Vienna, hugging a stranger in the street, united in a kinship formed by disappointment and a determination to fight hatred with harmonies.

Miller and her family had their European adventure on the books long before their Swift detour was baked into the plans, she told CNN via email. When she and her husband realized the superstar singer’s Eras Tour would be stopping in Austria at just the right time on their itinerary, they jumped at the chance to surprise their daughters, ages 8, 11 and 13.

“My girls were ecstatic when we told them, and have been talking about it for months,” the Austin, Texas resident said.

On August 7, the Millers became one of the thousands affected when Swift’s three nights of concerts in Vienna were canceled after police in Austria said they foiled plans for a terror attack at one of the shows.

Three teenagers have been detained in connection with the investigation and are suspected of plotting the suicide attack.

Investigators found a stockpile of chemicals, explosive devices, detonators and €21,000 (about $22,944) in counterfeit cash at the home of the main suspect, a 19-year-old ISIS sympathizer who had been radicalized online, according to authorities.

The young man – who was arrested Wednesday morning in the eastern town of Ternitz – planned to kill “a large number of people” in a suicide attack, according to the head of the domestic intelligence agency, Omar Haijawi-Pirchner.

Swift has not commented on on the situation. CNN has reached out to her representatives.

Economic impact

The canceled Eras Tour stops in Vienna have resulted in effects that are both intangible (broken-hearted fans) and tangible.

On the latter, the Austrian capital’s economy could miss out on a boost – but other countries could benefit, as Swifties search for other concert dates to attend.

Jason Squatriglia, a luxury travel concierge at Embark Beyond, said that he has clients who have made changes to their Vienna trips because of the cancellation and concerns about the thwarted terror attack that led to it.

The affected clients, which include a couple in their mid-50s and a mother-daughter duo, spent more than $40,000 in airfare, car services and hotels for their trips, he said. The mother-daughter duo are now planning to attend a concert at London’s Wembley Stadium later this month.

Austrian Airlines, the country’s leading airline, said it had received “a number of enquiries” about refunds from disappointed Swifties who’d booked flights to Vienna for the now-canceled concerts and that it would make an exception to its usual refund policy.

“As this is a very special situation, we offer our passengers a special goodwill solution,” a company spokesperson said Friday.

The airline, which is part of the Lufthansa Group, will provide affected customers with a voucher equal to the cost of their flights to and back from Vienna, valid for one year from the date of issue, the spokesperson said, adding that customers must enclose a copy of their concert ticket in their request. Only those with unused return tickets to the city between August 7 and 11, and who have booked directly with the airline are eligible for the voucher, the spokesperson noted.

Attendants of Swift’s UK concerts are expected to inject a total of £755 million (about $953 million) into the UK economy, according to a Barclays report in May.

It’s unclear what the exact economic impact of the cancellations in Vienna will be. Swift’s economic power, so tangible it has been dubbed “Swiftonomics,” has helped boost local economies as fans spend on transportation, food, themed outfits and accommodations to see the pop singer.

In Europe, Swifties caused a spike in air travel. Many, like Miller, discovered it was more affordable to attend the show overseas than try to score tickets for shows in the US for inflated prices.

United Airlines said in May that bookings to European cities where her concerts were scheduled, including Lisbon, Madrid, Edinburgh and Dublin were surging.

The tour, which began in Glendale, Arizona in March 2023, has been extended several times.

Swift is next set to play five shows at London’s Wembley Stadium starting on August 15, before returning to the US for dates in October and November. The tour is set to finish in Canada in December.

The shows in London are expected to move forward with Mayor Sadiq Khan saying the city would “carry on” with the scheduled events, according to an interview with Sky News.

It’s nice to have a friend

Speaking of carrying on, though it’s not the only fan community that preaches positivity, if good vibes were craft beads, the Swiftie community could make a friendship bracelet that circles the globe.

This was fully on display in Vienna in light of the cancellations.

Social media is flooded with videos, images and stories of generosity and support, especially locally.

Businesses are giving out free goods and services to ticket holders who were affected. On the streets, fans are breaking out into impromptu singalong and trading bracelets, a nod to the Swift concert tradition that was responsible for the empty shelves at your local craft store last year.

A tree on Vienna’s Corneliusgasse — or Cornelia Street, as in the title of a Swift song — had been earmarked by fans as a place to exchange friendship bracelets prior to the shows, and it has now become an epicenter of sorts for Swiftie bonding.

There on Friday, young girls, writing with colored chalk on the pavement, scrawled “we are fearless” in large yellow letters. Groups broke into impromptu sing-alongs of Swift songs.

Everyone at these gatherings, Miller observed, “has a different story for why they’re here, how long they’re here (and) what her music means to them.”

In one crowd, she met a woman who said she was from Israel.

“I came from one terrorist situation to another,” Miller said the woman told her tearfully.

Miller started to cry, too.

Hamas’ surprise attack on October 7 saw at least 1,500 Hamas fighters pour across the border into Israel, in an assault that killed at least 1,200, and some 200 others taken hostage, more than 100 of which remain unaccounted for.

Israeli strikes in Gaza have since killed more than 39,000 Palestinians, according to the Ministry of Health there, and sparked a humanitarian catastrophe in the densely crowded strip.

“I just held her, a perfect stranger, as the crowd around us sang ‘Champagne Problems,’ which is really what these are for many of us,” she said. “At the end of the day, it’s a concert; it’s so disappointing, but of course, our safety is more important and I feel beyond grateful to have the ability to be here at all.”

For many people, Miller said, the canceled shows meant losing thousands of dollars in savings, months of planning, vacation days from work. For others, “this was supposed to be a safe place where they could forget about the terror in their own countries, or the dark, hard stuff of their lives, and experience a moment of unbridled joy.”

“All of that was taken from them, yet here they (were), undeterred in the streets, singing together around a single bluetooth speaker in the absence of their Queen (or “Mother” as Swifties call Taylor),” she said.

In many ways, it reminded her of the end of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” with all the Whos singing together in the square.

“Good was triumphing over evil; people were choosing joy and love over fear and bitterness,” she said.

This was not the experience they came for, she said, but “with all the obvious relief and anxiety of narrowly avoiding a terrorist attack, something beautiful came about today in the streets of Vienna, and I wonder if we are leaving with something richer and more memorable in its place.”

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