Taylor Swift (Photo: Reuters)
The organizers have cancelled three Taylor Swift concerts in Austria following the arrest of two suspects who were allegedly planning a terrorist attack during the Vienna leg of their highly anticipated Eras Tour.
The sudden cancellation has left fans heartbroken, while drawing renewed attention to the risks large-scale concerts face as potential targets for terrorist networks and lone attackers.
Swift was scheduled to perform three concerts at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium between Thursday and Saturday. However, Barracuda Music, Swift’s concert promoter in Austria, announced Wednesday that all performances had been canceled to ensure the safety of the audience.
“Following confirmation from government officials that a terrorist attack is being planned at the Ernst Happel Stadium, we have no choice but to cancel all three scheduled concerts for the safety of everyone,” Barracuda Music said in an online post. Swift’s official website has also marked the concerts as cancelled.
Suspected of planning terrorist attack
At a press conference, Austrian police revealed that a 19-year-old Austrian citizen, identified as an Islamic State sympathiser, was arrested on Wednesday morning in Ternitz, Lower Austria. Another suspect was arrested later in the morning in Vienna.
Authorities said the suspects had been radicalized online and that the 19-year-old had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group leader in July.
Police also said the suspects had taken concrete steps to carry out a terrorist attack, suspecting that explosives were stored in the Ternitz home of one of the suspects. Chemical substances found at the residence are currently being tested, Associated Press reported.
Concerts cancelled due to threat
Authorities suspect that the attack was planned against events in the Vienna region. In response, Barracuda Music has announced that all tickets for cancelled shows will be automatically refunded within the next 10 business days.
Swift’s Eras Tour, which kicked off in Glendale, Arizona on March 18, 2023, has been extended several times since its announcement. The tour has taken Swift across the United States, South America, Asia, and Australia, and is currently in its European leg. The Vienna shows were set to be one of the final stops before the tour moves to London’s Wembley Stadium next week and concludes in North America later this year.
Swift’s tour is marred by tragedy
Just one day before Vienna’s cancellation was announced, Swift had posted on Instagram after her performance in Warsaw, Poland: “I can’t believe we have two cities left on the European leg of The Eras Tour. It’s really flown by. See you soon Vienna!”
News of the cancellation comes just days after a stabbing during a dance class in Southport, England, celebrating Swift’s music, left three children dead and others injured. Swift expressed her shock and grief on Instagram, writing, “The horror of yesterday’s attack in Southport continues to wash over me and I am in complete shock.”
“The loss of life and innocence, and the horrendous trauma inflicted on everyone who was there, the families and the first responders,” she said, adding: “These were just little kids in a dance class.”
Concerts as targets of attacks
In recent years, concerts and music venues across Europe have increasingly become targets of mass attacks by Islamist militants. Notably, in November 2015, ISIS gunmen attacked the Bataclan Theatre in Paris, killing at least 130 people. In May 2017, the group also claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, in which 22 people were killed.
Swift herself has previously expressed fears about such attacks. In a 2019 essay for Elle magazine, she admitted to feeling “completely terrified” of touring following the Manchester Arena bombing and the 2017 mass shooting at a Las Vegas music festival, which remains the deadliest attack by a lone gunman in the US to date. She wrote about the extensive planning and security measures taken to protect her fans — fears that have also played into her personal life, where she now carries an emergency first aid kit for potential gunshot or stab wounds.
First published: August 8, 2024 | 12:28 pm IS
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