Vienna, thousands of Taylor Swift fans invade the city's museums

Over the past few days in Vienna, thousands of Taylor Swift fans poured into the city’s museums during what was supposed to be a three-day concert event, but which left fans of the American singer high and dry. What happened? Three Taylor Swift shows were scheduled for Aug. 8-10 at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadion as part of her Eras World Tour, all of which were canceled due to the threat of a bombing, so much so that even for concerts scheduled to take place in London starting today, authorities have banned “Swifties” (that’s what the singer’s fans call each other) from gathering outside the stadium. The city, pushed by the tourism board, has therefore tried to offer alternatives to the thousands of fans who have arrived in the Austrian capital.

“As a city of cooperation and peace,” Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig wrote on social media, “Vienna firmly opposes any form of violence. Shared values of joy, life and inclusiveness unite the Swifties and Vienna, and we will continue to follow these principles. As a small gesture of comfort, all Taylor Swift cancelled concert ticket holders will have free admission to the Stadionbad public swimming pool as well as to the city museums, including the Haus der Musik, Mozart House and Kunsthaus, from August 9 to 11.” But it was not only the city-run museums that opened their doors for free to Swifties: the civic institutes were joined by the MAK, or the Museum of Applied Arts, the MUMOK (Museum of Modern Art), the Albertina (one of the city’s most celebrated art museums), and the Strauss House.

This is no small gift, given the ticket costs of Vienna’s museums: at the Haus der Musik, for example, you get in by paying 17 euros (13 the reduced), at the House of Mozart 14 euros full and 10 euros reduced for students, and at the Albertina, on the other hand, the regular ticket is 19.90 euros lowered to 15.90 for the under-26s. The initiative was a great success, according to data provided by ARTnews magazine: more than 20,000 Swifties visiting the Albertina, 2,746 at the Haus der Musik (half of the visitors registered on the three free admission dates, with bookshop sales of 4,500 euros, i.e., higher-than-normal numbers), 2.663 at the Mozarthaus, 884 at the MUMOK, 500 accurate at the Crypt of the Capuchins, while the Jüdisches Musem der Stadt did not provide exact numbers but the administrative director let it be known that the influx of visitors recorded numbers more than twice as high as normal, while the bookshop and restaurant recorded 50% higher receipts. In short, a waiver of the cost of the ticket for three days (although it should be considered that perhaps many without the free admission would not have entered) in return for several benefits: sales of museum merchandise, publicity, and, above all, an approach to art and the world of museums for many young and very young people, given the decidedly low average age of Taylor Swift’s audience.

Marked more tangible than the Swifties’ presence in the city’s museums and churches are the ubiquitous “friendship bracelets,” a kind of fetish for the American singer’s fans: they are in fact used to exchange them at every concert, following the invitation of a song, You’re on your own kid, from the 2022 album Midnights , which says “make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it, you’ve got no reason to be afraid” (“make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it, you’ve got no reason to be afraid”). Fans left them at the museum, with employees, exchanged them during their visits. And then, as they walked through the halls of the museums, they continually sang, in chorus, the songs of their favorite: some present filmed the whole thing in videos later spread on social networks, which went viral. In short, from Vienna an example of how to encourage young people to approach museums?

Pictured, Swifties in the halls of the Albertina.

Vienna, thousands of Taylor Swift fans invade the city's museums

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