Taylor Swift Fans Are Divided Over Her Nonresponse to the Vienna Concert Cancellations

As Taylor Swift prepares for a five-night run at England’s Wembley Stadium—the last shows of the European leg of her massive Eras Tour—fans are tempering their excitement with unease over the superstar’s nonresponse to the cancellation of her three shows in Vienna, Austria.

To recap: just before Swift was set to play three shows in Vienna, authorities discovered a planned terrorist attack organized by Austrian teenagers who had become radicalized online.

From what’s been revealed, the plan was to attack not the concert itself but the crowd of fans who typically gather outside of the stadium to “TayGate,” a.k.a. tailgate, and aren’t subject to security measures like the fans who go inside.

The venue made the decision to cancel all three shows with less than 24 hours before the first concert was set to start, and promised to refund all ticket holders. But fans who had traveled for the show, taken time off work, and booked hotel rooms wouldn’t be getting their money back for those expenses.

Basically everyone in the fandom agreed that canceling the shows was the right move and made the best of it, gathering in the street to sing songs, trade bracelets, and collect the free trinkets Swarovski gave to ticket holders. The Eras Tour movie was broadcast on Austrian TV for one night, giving fans without access to Disney Plus a chance to at least see what the concert would have been (minus the TTPD set).

Amid all of this, Swift herself has said nothing. Taylor Nation, the star’s official fan account, only reshared the initial announcement about the cancellations, and information about where to get merch at Wembley given that there’s now no TayGating allowed.

Since then, there hasn’t been a word from Swift, in the media or on social media. Not even a “source” sharing a quote with an outlet. Nothing. And then she was pictured in London throwing a party for her staff, which is a nice gesture, if not what the fans wanted from her.

To say Swifties are divided is an understatement. Swift herself has comments turned off on Instagram, but the latest Taylor Nation post, about her VMA nominations, is a mess.

“It’s absolutely outrageous that there’s not a single word about the canceled shows in Vienna. Ignoring your fans like this while continuing to milk them for more money through merch and the 30th version of the same album is just disrespectful. You may have lost many fans who once saw you as an idol and now can’t listen to your music without the bitter taste of betrayal. Such unprofessional behavior—such a shame!” reads a typical comment.

Another: “I was hoping the silence was *maybe* because they were in part working on a rescheduled date / additional London date. After reading these comments and some of the Reddit comments, I don’t actually think it’s fair to expect one! And I say that as a N2 Vienna Swiftie, whose only chance to see her ever was Vienna!”

She has the occasional defender, like one who wrote, “we can’t ask her to post something when it’s not the moment, Taylor is probably dealing with her feelings and her fears rn and probably thinking about the security of the next shows, i know some of you are sad but please be respectful for what happened and think about taylor and her team, they are the most directly affected by this, please act like swifties to encourage them and not just think about yourselves. <3”

At first, some fans cited “security concerns” as her reason for not making a statement, though that justification has been criticized in the days since. As one put it, “To everyone who says that she is not allowed to say something due to safety reasons, this is simply not true. She threw a party in London yesterday, she is going to play in London 5 times this/next week. She is obviously not in a lockdown. There is also no investigation that forbids her to talk about it, as Austrian presenters openly talk about that on social media and in the news.”

“Taylor is a brand as well as a person, who has a PR team behind her trained on crisis communication,” wrote one person. “And what they’re doing right now is heart-shattering and honestly disrespectful to all of us who have had tickets for over a year. There’s people who flew in from across the world for this concert, luckily I only travelled through Austria. But Taylor’s team doesn’t even have it in them to post a broken heart emoji? We don’t need a perfectly crafted statement. We feel left alone, it’s not too much to ask for some reaction.”

For context, Taylor Swift is usually pretty on top of it when it comes to addressing fan concerns, at least those that make the news. She posted after the TicketMaster debacle, she posted when a fan died and even met with her family, she posted after the tragic stabbing incident, and she posted when a concert had to be rescheduled.

At that time, she wrote on Instagram, “I’m writing this from my dressing room in the stadium. The decision has been made to postpone tonight’s show due to the extreme temperatures in Rio. The safety and well-being of my fans, fellow performers, and crew has to and always will come first.”

For better or worse, her own actions have made it so her fans have come to expect a bit more communication, and if she takes the stage in London without having said a word, it could be a little awk.