Nikki Glaser was one of the tens of thousands of Swifties who landed in Vienna this week to find out that the singer’s Eras Tour concerts were canceled due to an attempted terrorist attack. Three Swift shows were canceled in the Austria capital on Tuesday morning after three teenagers were arrested in an ISIS-connected terrorist plot against her upcoming concerts.
“I was just despondent,” Glaser says about finding out about the cancellation upon boarding her plane to Vienna on Thursday morning. Unlike many of the other fans who traveled to see the singer, however, Glaser has seen the Eras Tour concert 17 times, so despite the disappointment, she assures “no one should really feel bad for me.”
Related Stories
“I follow Taylor on tour as much as I follow myself on tour,” Glaser tells Variety over Zoom from her Vienna hotel room. “Any time I’m not touring, I find where she is and I go. It’s my favorite thing to do, I’m kind of addicted to it. So I was devastated.”
Jokes about herself aside, Glaser was deeply thankful that no one was hurt and agreed canceling the show was the right move. “I did not even think about my safety even once. I was just like ‘I don’t get to see Taylor!’ It was such a selfish thought. I’m obviously so glad everyone is safe and she made the right call.”
Like many of the fans who traveled to Austria for the concert this week, it was made worse by constant plane diversions, delays and cancellations. “I was with my boyfriend and my sister and her husband, and I was like ‘Oh my god the worst thing that could ever happen happened,’ and they were like ‘Our flight was canceled?’ and I was like ‘Worse.'”
Now, the European city is overrun with Swift fans who have taken over a variety of city centers to sing Swift songs — sans the pop star herself. Glaser attended one of the sing-alongs on Thursday, which she said was “very sweet” and plans to go to more this weekend but, of course, “it wasn’t the same.”
“Everyone was singing at different times and I was like ‘We need Taylor here to keep us on beat!'”
Glaser even thought about putting on a comedy show for the fans in Vienna with foiled plans, but says she doesn’t have “any Swift-centric material” because “I have no sense of humor about Taylor Swift, I’m so sincere about her.”
Thankfully, her concert tour outfit, which she’s been planning for weeks, won’t go to waste: “I’ll be just sightseeing around town on some double-decker bus with my ‘Tortured Poets’ clock choker with my bustier and my skirt,” she says. “I gotta get some use out of it.”
