Taylor Swift excitement eclipses security fears for London fans

[August 16, 2024]  By Sarah Mills

LONDON (Reuters) -Fans arriving at Taylor Swift's concert in London on Thursday said solidarity among fellow Swifties was helping to dispel any security concerns they had after her Vienna concerts were cancelled last week.

The U.S. singer-songwriter is back in London for five dates before her record-breaking Eras tour returns to North America.

"Fancy meeting you here at Wembley Stadium, London," she told 92,000 cheering fans at the stadium, according to video clips posted on social media.

Her three shows in Vienna were cancelled after a planned attack was foiled by authorities, leaving some 195,000 fans grappling with sorrow, anger and disbelief.

Some of them rushed to buy tickets for the London dates, which are available for about 690 pounds ($886) on resale sites.

Iggy Wilde, 28, said she had never considered selling her ticket after the security scare in Vienna.

"I think there's a concern. Obviously, it's worrying," she said. "The main thing that I've felt is that Swifties have come together and there's a real sense of solidarity between us that I think makes me not afraid."

Salsha Radiandina, a 24-year-old student from London, said she had researched the venue's security, and she was reassured by the additional measures put in place.

"For Swifties, we have our own connections and we have fan groups and everything," she said. "So we made sure every single one of us feels safe while watching Taylor Swift."

Fans arriving in Wembley, dressed in sequins and cowboy hats, had their forearms covered in friendship bracelets ready to swap with other Swifties.

Security staff checked their tickets before they could start queuing to enter the stadium.

While British police have said there was nothing to indicate the events in Vienna would impact the shows at Wembley, tight security was visible at the stadium.

Tay-gating, the practice of gathering outside a Swift show without a ticket, as thousands did in Munich last month, will not be allowed, as authorities try to reduce harder-to-control risks outside the venue.

Fans make their way towards Wembley Stadium for a Taylor Swift concert, following the cancellation of three Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna because of a planned attack, in London, Britain, August 15, 2024. REUTERS/Toby Melville

Fans will enter through metal detectors and are only allowed to bring one small bag. Glass and metal containers, laptops and umbrellas are all banned.

Swift has not commented publicly on the incident in Vienna, but in the past she said her biggest fear was the risk to her fans following the Manchester Arena bombing in northern England after an Ariana Grande concert, and the Las Vegas concert shooting in 2017.

Fans have travelled around the world to see the Eras tour, the most lucrative in history.

Pamela Wever, 43, an industrial engineer, was flying from Guatemala via Miami to London with her husband and two daughters to see Swift.

"I'm not sure if I would do it for anybody else," she said before boarding her second flight.

"We have friends that have travelled to Argentina, to Brazil, to different countries just to go to the concert, because in Guatemala there's no concert."

She bought the London tickets from a friend after failing to find affordable tickets anywhere else. Resale tickets for Miami in October were around $2,000 each, she added.

The tickets were a Christmas present for her daughters. "When I gave it to my little one, she cried. She was so excited ... she knows every single song, like all the lyrics of every single song," she said.

($1 = 0.7785 pound)

(Reporting by Sarah Mills and Conor Humphries, Writing by Paul Sandle; editing by Barbara Lewis and Jonathan Oatis)

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