Taylor Swift’s Vienna Eras Tour stops canceled over alleged terrorist attack plan

Taylor Swift’s three Eras Tour stops in Vienna were canceled a day before they were set to begin with organizers uncovering an apparent planned attack in the area.

The news came a day before Swift’s first scheduled show for Thursday at Ernst Happel Stadium, rattling thousands of fans — many of whom had only just arrived in the area. The Vienna stadium had been sold out for the planned arena concerts, with an estimated 170,000 fans expected in attendance, the Austrian Press Agency reported. Authorities expected an additional 15,000 to 20,000 fans outside, CNN reported.

“We have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone’s safety,” event organizer Barracuda Music said in a statement posted to its Instagram page, citing government officials’ “confirmation” of terrorist plans.

Information was still unfolding Thursday with a lot of lingering questions. Here’s what we know.

Authorities said they arrested two suspected extremists, one of whom appeared to be planning an attack on an event in the Vienna area, possibly the Eras Tour performances.

The 19-year-old main suspect was arrested in Ternitz, south of Vienna, and the second person in the Austrian capital.

Franz Ruf, the public security director at Austria’s interior ministry, said that authorities were aware of “preparatory actions” for a possible attack “and also that there is a focus by the 19-year-old perpetrator on the Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna,” the Austria Press Agency reported.

Ruf said the 19-year-old had pledged an oath of allegiance to the Islamic State group.

The Austrian citizen is believed to have become radicalized on the internet. Ruf said that chemical substances were secured and were being evaluated. In a news conference, he said explosive materials and detonators were found at the 19-year-old’s home, along with machetes, knives, and counterfeit money.

A second suspect, a 17-year-old Austrian citizen, was also arrested and a 15-year-old Turkish citizen was detained and questioned, Austria’s Directorate of State Security and Intelligence said at a news conference Thursday.

The cancellation came hours after authorities said security measures for the Swift concerts would be stepped up.

With the suspects in custody, authorities say, there is no longer an imminent threat.

It’s too soon to say. For now, tickets are being refunded.

Barracuda Music said that “all tickets will be automatically refunded within the next 10 business days.” The same wording was posted under the Vienna dates on Swift’s official website.

Vienna was scheduled to be the penultimate venue of the Eras Tour’s European leg. Swift is scheduled to perform for five nights at London’s Wembley Stadium next week before moving onto Canada and the United States for final tour dates in November and December.

U.K. Minister for Policing Diana Johnson said in a radio interview that the British police force will continue to monitor intelligence for any suspected attacks. A spokesperson for London’s Metropolitan Police said they have no indication that the planned attack in Austria is connected to anything happening in London currently.

“The Met works closely with venue security teams and other partners to ensure there are appropriate security and policing plans in place,” the statement said. “As always, we will continue to keep any new information under careful review.”

Swift has not publicly commented on the cancellations yet directly. Fans have speculated it could be for security reasons. Taylor Nation, an official fan club that acts as an extension of Swift’s marketing team, reposted Barracuda Music’s cancellation notice as an Instagram story but has not commented beyond that.

In a 2019 essay for Elle Magazine in which she reflected on her Reputation tour, Swift called these types of concert attacks her “biggest fear.”

“There was a tremendous amount of planning, expense, and effort put into keeping my fans safe,” she wrote, adding that those fears extended into her personal life with the singer carrying bandage dressing for wounds. Swift has dealt with stalkers in the past.

Earlier this month, an American man in Germany who made threats against Swift on social media was detained ahead of her shows there.

The cancellation means dashed hopes of seeing the singer live and foiled plans that, for many, took months of planning and thousands of dollars sunk into preparations ahead of the concerts. The Eras Tour has become an economy-boosting spectacle around the world.

Europe is enamored with the American superstar. The German town of Gelsenkirchen renamed itself “Swiftkirchen” before its mid-July concerts. American fans also traveled to Swift’s European shows — following a trend in “tour tourism” where tickets are sometimes cheaper abroad.

» READ MORE: Philly-area Swifties are trekking to Europe for cheaper ‘Eras Tour’ tickets

Some who posted on the social platform X lamented months of now-wasted efforts to pick out fashionable outfits for the performance and make friendship bracelets. The beaded bracelets, typically bearing Swift’s song titles or popular phrases, are usually swapped at concerts with strangers.

Other fans begged online for tickets to Swift‘s next shows. She is expected to perform at London’s Wembley Stadium in five concerts between Aug. 15 and 20 to close the European leg of her record-setting Eras Tour.

By Thursday morning, fans took to Cornelia Street in Vienna — a street with the same name as one of Swift’s songs (though she’s referring to the one in New York’s Greenwich Village) — to sing songs together and exchange friendship bracelets.

For Fredrikke Blekastad, a Swift fan from Norway, it was her second attempt to attend a concert. The first was canceled because of the pandemic.

“We had planned to get up really early, stand in line and get to the very front and see her,” Blekastad told Norwegian broadcaster NRK, but “nothing will come of it, either.”

Yes, but not to Swift at this level of severity.

Last week, three children died in a stabbing during a Swift-themed dance class in England, The attacker, a teenage boy, targeted the class offered for kids ages 6 through 11.

Swift said in an Instagram statement at the time that she was “completely in shock,” adding, “These were just little kids at a dance class.”

Concerts and music festivals in Europe have become targets for mass attacks by Islamist militants in recent years, CNN noted.

In November 2015, the Bataclan theater in Paris was attacked by ISIS gunmen while the band Eagles of Death Metal was performing, killing at least 130 people. In 2017, an ISIS suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, killed 22 people. Earlier this year in March, ISIS bombers attacked a Moscow concert hall.

This article contains information from the Associated Press.