I’ll Remember It All Too Well

It was rare, I was there

Aug 11, 2024

Content note: I’m writing about terrorism and violence against women this week. If you’re not up for reading that, that’s fine, and I’ll see you next week - look after yourself <3

This Tuesday, I was standing in the hot mid-afternoon sun at Innsbruck main train station, waiting for my second train of the day, when I thought to myself, “what a great trip to be on, but I wouldn’t be doing it in peak summer temperatures if it weren't for the date of Taylor Swift’s concert in Vienna this week.”

Well.

As you’ll all have heard, the concerts were cancelled due to a terrorist threat that was uncovered. I’ve done my best to avoid hearing the details, but have been unable to escape hearing some of the broad-brush goals of the plotters: they were going to attack the crowds outside the stadium at some point during Thursday or Friday’s concert, trying to kill or hurt as many people as possible.

‘People’, right? Well, maybe it’s just top of mind at the moment because of the stabbing in Southport last week, and the volume of violent men across the streets of the UK since then (though I can’t ignore that some of the key misinformation-spreading was done by a woman), and the powerful episode of the New Statesman podcast I listened to about the fact that it all surrounds violence against women and girls… but I was left feeling that it’s always angry men with some twisted version of ideology who want to hurt women.

Screencap of a tweet from Lucy Easthope at 11.07PM on August 8th: “Why is it always girls that have to stop doing things?” Big questions from my little girl when she saw that Taylor’s concert was cancelled. — Good point, well made, from the fabulous Lucy Easthope on The Site Formerly Known As Twitter

The New Statesman’s associate political editor, Rachel Cunliffe, wrote a fantastic piece about this week and how disappointingly unsurprising it was that it was a Taylor Swift concert and not, say, the upcoming Coldplay concert at the same stadium that was cancelled:

Austria’s general director for public security has said the suspects “became radicalised via the internet”. Radicalised against what, we might well ask. Against one of the most successful women in the world? Against women dancing to pop music somewhere they feel safe? Against women in general, having the audacity to enjoy themselves in a way that isn’t about men?

(P.S.: I’m not sponsored by the New Statesman… I promise!)

Obviously I’m so, so, relieved that they found out about the plot in time to cancel the concerts and prevent the tragedy that would have come. But I wish this wasn’t a world we live in.

I’m reminded of the aftermath of the murder of Sarah Everard in 2021. I was part of the Reclaim These Streets group in Edinburgh that formed - and that was told by police we couldn’t hold a small, outdoor, masked vigil due to Covid restrictions. At the same time, the mostly-male fans of Rangers football club were partying all over the middle of Glasgow. Make it make sense.

The mood in Vienna was odd this week. Unheimlich, even, to use a word much-explored by one of Vienna’s most famous historical residents. Especially on Thursday, the day after we’d all gone to sleep struggling to process the news that the concerts we’d been looking forward to for over a year wouldn’t be happening, there were ashen faces and red eyes all over.

A friend of mine who lives in Vienna had tickets for the Thursday night - she and her friends gathered for a Taylor Swift party in the apartment of one of the group, and they were kind enough to invite us (while I’d arrived in Vienna by train on Tuesday evening, a friend of mine had flown out on Thursday morning to come to the concert with me). It was an utter expression of girlhood in a way that made me sadder about what we’d missed, but even more of a fan of what Taylor and her fans have created.

Grainy photo showing a group of women in an apartment with the lights switched off, each holding a yellow balloon with their phone torch shining through it to look like a glowing orb. — Taken on my CampSnap

As the week went on, there were spontaneous gatherings of Swifties in public squares and along Corneliusgasse (Cornelia Street is one of the fandom’s most-loved songs); to me they felt like an open target and I’m so relieved we got to the end of the week without there being any violence at them. Many of the city’s museums opened their doors for free to Swifties; there were free chocolates and ice-creams and discounts on tours and in bars.

I really hope many of those first-time visitors will go home with Vienna living in their hearts in the way it does in mine.

The thing that’s missing (at the time of writing, Sunday morning)? Any sort of statement from Taylor Swift or from Taylor Nation, even to say ‘we can’t say anything more but we are sorry not to be able to celebrate with you all in Vienna.’ The cancellation took a long time to filter out on Wednesday evening, eventually just being posted by Barracuda Music, the local promoter, on Instagram. The post was shared to Taylor Nation’s instagram stories (inherently ephemeral) and mentioned an updates page on the OETickets (the local ticketing merchant) website - which wasn’t actually updated for the next few hours. When an email came through from OETickets, it was entirely in German, despite the huge number of international Swifties who wouldn’t have understood that.

While it’s great that Vienna and the Swifties have pulled together to make this week unforgettable for better reasons… it just feels like there’s a big gap there.

Taylor… Vienna waits for you.