Taylor Swift will not be playing the first of three Gelsenkirchen concerts until Wednesday – but a few fans are already waiting for their star outside the arena. Camping on the grounds is prohibited, however.
The first fans are already waiting for US megastar Taylor Swift in front of the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen. The singer will play the first of three concerts in the Ruhr area city on Wednesday – but they want to see the venue and secure the best seats possible. Around a dozen people were milling around in front of the entrances on Monday or sitting in the shade under the trees.
Brian Wood had a particularly long journey. The 56-year-old is from New York and is spending the whole summer following Swift. He has seen many of the performances with his daughter, but is currently traveling alone. By the end of the musician’s “Eras Tour,” he will have attended 17 shows, he says. He was in Milan at the weekend, and in Gelsenkirchen he has tickets for two of the three concerts.
“Swifties are the best people”
“My daughter has been listening to it for five or six years now. And every time I turned around, it was on the radio, in the car, in the house,” he says of his first encounters with Taylor Swift’s music. “At some point I started to like the music myself. Some people say they are a Swift father or a Swift mother. I now simply consider myself a ‘Swiftie’ because I like the music myself.” He says he is spending around 25,000 euros on the “Eras Tour”.
“The Swifties are the best people I know,” Wood enthuses. “This may sound like a cliche, but I think their music, in terms of the vibe and the messages and all that, attracts really good people. And my daughter and I now have friends that we’ll probably have for the rest of our lives.”
Camping is not permitted
Ronja (27) and Lisa (25) had a much shorter journey – they come from North Rhine-Westphalia. Like Brian, they also wanted to spend the night outside the arena. Since that is not possible, they are sleeping in Lisa’s apartment in Bochum and want to try camping again the next day.
The goal is to be as close to the stage as possible during the concert. “It’s really worth it to be at the front for Taylor because the show is superb. And she’s simply one of my absolute favorite artists and gives me a lot back,” says Lisa.
The organizer FKP Scorpio points out on its website that camping on the grounds is not permitted. Fans without tickets should not come to the arena at all if possible.
Gelsenkirchen is expecting around 200,000 fans for the three Swift concerts on July 17, 18 and 19. Further German shows will take place afterwards in Hamburg and Munich.
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
