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Throngs of fans lined up to purchase T-shirts and other
merchandise outside Lumen Field, where the mega-star will
perform on Saturday and Sunday.
Fresh off a flight from Salt Lake City, Utah, Ragnhild Read
waited to purchase Swift memorabilia.
"For Taylor, I would go across the world to see her," she told
Reuters.
The avid fan previously saw Swift's performance in Salt Lake
City in 2013 when she traveled there from her home in Seattle.
This time, she is doing the journey in reverse.
Swift's concerts have helped boost hotel and restaurant revenue
in cities across the world. Visit Seattle, the city's tourist
organization, hopes the same will happen this weekend.
"We're really looking for a very successful weekend as far as
hotel occupancy goes. We have a number of properties that have
already sold out, so that's a very good sign," said Visit
Seattle Senior Vice President of Community Engagement and Public
Affairs Michael Woody.
King County Council declared the week leading up to the concert
as "Taylor Swift Week" in her honor.
A gigantic friendship bracelet hangs above the entrance of the
famed Space Needle, a nod to the trend for fans to exchange the
woven jewelry during the tour, which started as a reference to
her song "You’re on Your Own, Kid" from her latest album
"Midnights".
Woody said he expects 144,000 Swift fans to descend on the city
over the two days of concerts.
Some Swift fans arrived from Canada, where Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau asked the American pop star weeks ago on Twitter to add
some Canadian stops to her tour.
"I love Taylor Swift and she’s not coming to Canada yet,” said
Katherine Archibald who is visiting Seattle from Calgary,
Alberta for the concert. "Because flights were so expensive I
had to fly all the way down to LA and then back to Seattle, that
was the cheapest flight route available."
In addition to the two sold out concerts, Seattle is also
hosting multiple sporting events, the Bite of Seattle food
festival, and the Capitol Hill Block Party music festival this
weekend.
(Reporting by Matt McKnight; Editing by Diane Craft)
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