Taylor Swift’s devoted fans, known as “Swifties,” braved temperatures of about 40 degrees Celsius on Friday outside Madison Square Garden in New York, hoping to catch even the smallest detail of their idol’s wedding to football player Travis Kelce.
“This only happens once in a lifetime—it’s our royal wedding,” Sarah Key, a young intern whose face was glowing with excitement and the heat, told EFE as she and two friends scrutinized every vehicle with tinted windows heading toward the stadium at 4:00 p.m., when the evening’s festivities were scheduled to begin.
The massive security operation was reminiscent of that at the UN General Assembly, with streets closed to vehicles and pedestrians starting at noon and an impenetrable perimeter manned by dozens of police officers protecting the wedding festivities, which the cream of American pop culture will attend this afternoon.
“I haven’t seen anything yet, but I want to see it all!” said Sam, a “Swiftie” for the past decade, wearing a “The Eras Tour” T-shirt and convinced that there’s a Swift song “for every moment in life.”
The young man managed to make his way to the corner across from the Garden on Eighth Avenue—an area accessible almost exclusively to the press—and revealed that he had seen singer Benson Boone and comedian Nikki Glaser walk by.
The fact is, as a couple of tourists point out, the chance of spotting a “cool celebrity” in downtown New York has become more of a reality since last night, when Swift and Kelce hosted a dinner for 100 of their close friends—a number that will swell to 1,000 at this afternoon’s event— at which it’s unclear whether there will be a ceremony or if it has already taken place in private, as local media have reported.
“My friend saw Bradley Cooper leaving dinner yesterday,” said Shauna Roark, who admitted she had no expectations since the event “is very private and very well organized,” but she was enjoying seeing Swift’s “happy ending” with Kelce “after going through public breakups and major life changes.”
Swifties Cause a Stir at Taylor Swift’s Wedding
Another “Swiftie” named Anou, who, like the young woman mentioned earlier, said she had idolized the singer since she was nine or ten years old, had seen actress Mariska Hargitay—known for playing Olivia Benson on “Law & Order”— as well as designer Tommy Hilfiger and his wife, “who rolled down their window and waved to us.”
Cecily Hall and Laurie Powers, two “big fans,” spent five hours behind a fence speculating whether “a garden or a castle” had been set up at the Garden, but they agreed that the “visionary” artist would make the space her own with a party worth remembering—and they hoped some photos from it would make the rounds.
However, for some, Swift’s wedding wasn’t news—or at least not positive news—in the bustling Big Apple, where this weekend marks the Fourth of July, the 250th anniversary of U.S. Independence, and the World Cup, and which is also experiencing record-high temperatures not seen in over a decade.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democrat, urged residents to exercise caution if they went out to watch the festivities, and Republican Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis demanded that the couple reimburse the city for the “130 police officers per day needed to keep their multimillion-dollar wedding safe.”
Near the corner where the guests’ vehicles were arriving at the stadium, amid a crowd of onlookers ready to take pictures of the passengers, dozens of people remained oblivious to Swift’s life, engrossed in the Australia-Egypt game being broadcast on a public screen.
Standing next to them, a young woman wearing a mask held up a sign calling Swift a “monster” for “hoarding electricity during a deadly heat wave,” while another young man, wearing a Knicks jersey—the team that sent the city into a frenzy a few days ago by winning the NBA title—asked, “What’s all this about?” reported Agencia EFE.
Here you can watch the video of Taylor Swift’s fans receiving dessert from the food service.