Costly tickets for sold-out Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna. Hundreds of euros – or more – spent on flights and hotels. Tens of thousands of Swifties, adorned with homemade friendship bracelets, were left heartbroken on Thursday after three Eras Tour shows in Austria were canceled following authorities' thwarting of an apparent attack plot.
Austrian security officials said two young men wanted to commit an attack outside the stadium, killing as many people as possible using knives or self-made explosives. Concert organizers said they expected up to 65,000 fans inside Ernst Happel Stadium at each concert and as many as 30,000 onlookers outside, where authorities said the suspects planned to strike. The venue sat empty Thursday morning aside from media filming outside.
But later in the day on Corneliusgasse – a small street just 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the stadium – fans flocked to trade friendship bracelets and commiserate about the cancelations. The beaded bracelets, typically bearing Swift's song titles or popular phrases, are usually swapped at concerts with strangers. The fans gathered on Corneliusgasse specifically because the street name echoes "Cornelia Street," the name of a contemplative synth-pop track from Swift's 2019 album, "Lover.
" The title refers to a street in New York City's Greenwich Village, where Swift rented a luxury apartment in 2016 and fans now visit to take selfies. "And I hope I never lose you, hope it never ends," she sings in the song's.