Years before canceling her Vienna Eras Tour shows, Taylor Swift previously opened up about her fear of fans getting hurt at her concerts.
“My biggest fear. After the Manchester Arena bombing and the Vegas concert shooting, I was completely terrified to go on tour this time because I didn’t know how we were going to keep 3 million fans safe over seven months,” Swift, 34, told Elle in March 2019, several months after wrapping up her Reputation stadium tour.
Swift was referring to the 2017 terrorist bombing that left 22 people dead and hundreds injured at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. That same year, a mass shooting at a Las Vegas concert resulted in 58 deaths and more than 800 injuries.
In her “30 Things I Learned Before Turning 30” Elle profile, Swift noted that she and her team put “a tremendous amount of planning, expense and effort” into “keeping my fans safe” while taking her tour around the world.
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“My fear of violence has continued into my personal life. I carry QuikClot army grade bandage dressing, which is for gunshot or stab wounds,” she revealed. “Websites and tabloids have taken it upon themselves to post every home address I’ve ever had online. You get enough stalkers trying to break into your house and you kind of start prepping for bad things.”
Despite preparing for the worst-case scenarios, Swift wrote that she tries to “remind myself of the good in the world, the love I’ve witnessed and the faith I have in humanity.” She concluded: “We have to live bravely in order to truly feel alive, and that means not being ruled by our greatest fears.”
Her words feel more poignant than ever after news broke on Wednesday, August 7, that Swift’s three Vienna shows were canceled after police arrested two suspects in connection to an alleged terror plot. The pop star was scheduled to perform from Thursday, August 8, to Saturday, August 10.
“Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour Vienna shows canceled due to government officials confirmation of planned terrorist attack,” concert organizers Barracuda Music wrote in an Instagram statement on Wednesday. “With confirmation from government officials of a planned terrorist attack at Ernst Happel Stadium, we have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone’s safety.”
Police arrested two teenagers — a 19-year-old and a 17-year-old — with suspected ties to ISIS. According to the Associated Press, one of the suspects confessed to the plan to “kill as many people as possible outside the concert venue.”
Following news of the cancellation, an eyewitness set to attend Swift’s Vienna shows exclusively told Us Weekly that people in their hostel were “shell-shocked.” A second person noted that their hotel lobby was “full of girls” who were “just standing around staring at each other in a state of total shock right now.”
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The second fan added: “I think we’d just really like to hear from her right now. There’s a level of shock and disbelief that obviously can’t be fixed but maybe could be eased by hearing from her.”
Swift has yet to address the alleged terror plot or share plans for the remainder of her tour. With Swift set to perform five nights at London’s Wembley Stadium later this month, U.K. Minister for Policing Diana Johnson said that British police will continue to monitor for suspected attacks.
“Clearly, the police will be looking at all the intelligence and making decisions, they risk assess every event that happens in this country, and that’s something for the police,” Johnson said on Thursday, per The Independent.
A spokesperson for London’s Metropolitan Police added in a separate statement that “there is nothing to indicate that the matters being investigated by the Austrian authorities will have an impact on upcoming events here in London,” noting, “As always, we will continue to keep any new information under careful review.”
