Yahoo News Taylor Swift mania grips London as superfans queue for days for star's Wembley shows
A family of Taylor Swift “superfans” from the US have been queueing at Wembley since Tuesday for her concerts this weekend.
They are among the more than half-a-million people expected to watch the superstar in her series of London gigs which start with a trio of performances on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Brian Wood, 56, who described himself as a “Swiftie dad” has been queuing on his fold up chair round the clock ahead of Friday’s gig.
He and his daughter Caitlin,16, are going to the all three London dates and will follow Swift to Dublin, Amsterdam and Milan.
Mr Wood, 56, a corporate tax lawyer from Philadelphia, told the Standard: “We are the first in the queue I can’t believe it, where is everyone else? You have to put in the effort and we want to be at the front.
“My daughter loves Taylor Swift and we are following her around Europe this summer. She’s just fantastic and it’s worth all the sitting around to be at the front. At least it’s sunny!”
Mr Wood even had a “Swiftie dad” T-shirt made up for the occasion.
He added: “You’ve just got to put in the effort. Why aren’t the teenagers queuing yet? They need to get here, I can’t believe I’m the first. We just love London and come here every summer. What a place.”
Wembley security guard Jimmy Ruffle said: “Fair play to the guy from the US, he is the first. We are expecting big queues - we’ve had it all here, Harry Styles, all the big names. Taylor Swift is the one of the moment, she is huge.”
Swift will return to London in August for a further five dates with the sold-out shows attended by a total of nearly 640,000 people.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he was "delighted" Swift was playing more shows in the city than anywhere else in the world during her Eras Tour.
He said the gigs would be "a huge boost to our hospitality industry and [provide] further proof that London is the greatest city in the world to watch live music."
To celebrate her arrival in the capital, murals, a special Tube map, a Taylor trail and a series of events have been created to entertain the Swifties.
The fans set to attend the Wembley shows are estimated to spend an average of £471 when they come to the capital, according to a reportby the Greater London Authority.
The estimated £300 million total boost to London’s economy was calculated using data from UKInbound’s Tourism Statistics for 2018, which showed each domestic and international tourist to the UK generated about £396 to the UK economy that year, with the individual spent figure then adjusted to bring it in line with inflation.
