A small street in Vienna became a place of "healing" for hundreds of fans of US mega-star Taylor Swift on Thursday, after organisers cancelled her shows because the authorities had uncovered an Islamist attack plot.
Hundreds of Swifties gathered at Vienna's Corneliusgasse - dear to Swift's fans for its resemblance to her hit Cornelia Street - to chant the pop star's songs.
They wanted to lift up their spirits after missing out on their idol's concerts, which some of them had been waiting for all year.
On Wednesday, Austrian officials announced they had foiled a suicide attack by an Islamist, who confessed he had planned to kill "a large number of people" at one of Swift's concerts this week.
"I didn't believe it at first, but when I realised it, I was devastated," Veronika Doubkova told AFP.
The 23-year-old student, who had travelled from the Czech Republic to attend a show, was hanging some of her friendship bracelets onto the branches of a tree located on the street.
Doubkova said she felt she "didn't come here for nothing" after experiencing the "uplifting" vibe and strong sense of "community" among the fans, some of whom were donning sequined dresses and cowboy boots - just like Taylor Swift.
Dilyara Joldassova, a 23-year-old engineer, and two of her friends had travelled all the way from Kazakhstan for the concert.
They learned about the cancellations while strolling through Vienna's Prater amusement park late on Wednesday.
"My heart is really broken. Everything went grey," she told AFP.
But "safety comes first", she added. She was relieved "everyone is safe" and could gather to feel the "healing atmosphere".
Despite the disappointment, all Swifties interviewed by AFP said they understood the organisers' decision.
"I can't even imagine what it would have been like if the attack had happened and I'd ended up telling the story of how we'd survived - if, in fact, we had survived," Bernadett Bordas told AFP in Budapest.
The 26-year-old Hungarian employee, who had planned to travel to the concert by bus with her sister, said she had been looking forward to the event "for more than 10 years".
"I was counting down the days, playing all the concerts over and over again on the internet," she said.
Hungarian David Banyai had already arrived in Vienna after a six-hour train ride and was gearing up for the concert - just to find out that it would not happen.
"I admit I was a bit scared because I've heard of other attacks on concerts by Islamists," said the recent university graduate.
He was thinking of the deadly November 2015 attack on the Bataclan concert hall in Paris during a show by Eagles of Death Metal and the 2017 fatal bombing in Manchester after a show by pop star Ariana Grande.
As Taylor Swift looks set to wrap up her sold-out European tour in London on 20 August, her fans do not know whether they will ever be able to see their idol on stage again.
In the meantime, Vienna businesses have been trying to soften the blow. One restaurant chain provided hamburgers and drinks to anyone with a concert ticket and several museums offered free admission until Sunday.
Source: AFP
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