Taylor Swift has officially made moves in Canada.
After touching down in Toronto on Thursday, the pop star and her team were greeted with an extravagant escort service led by the Toronto Police Department. Despite the excitement surrounding her upcoming six-show “Eras Tour” lineup at Rogers Centre, the motorcade stirred controversy among locals who were stuck in major traffic delays.
“This is what is seriously wrong with Toronto,” one user wrote on X. “Its wonderful that so many people are excited with Taylor Swift’s concerts but seriously. We have very serious traffic issues that are impacting the lives and economic well being of so many, but don’t let a celebrity wait in traffic.”
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Taylor Swift touched down in Toronto on Thursday. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)
“6 night Taylor Swift concert in Toronto means a week of even worse traffic than normal,” another wrote.
The Toronto PD had its reasons for such an excessive motorcade, given the fact that three of Swift’s concerts were canceled in August as a result of a terrorism threat in Vienna.
In early August, Swift canceled three of her Austria shows at Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna after she was made aware of a planned bomb.
On Aug. 7, authorities arrested a 17-year-old male and a 19-year-old male for allegedly plotting terror attacks on Swift’s Vienna shows, which were set for Aug. 8-10. An 18-year-old male was arrested on Aug. 8.
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Swift is scheduled to perform six shows in Toronto. (John Shearer/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
Later that month, the deputy director of the CIA confirmed that the intended terrorist plot at Swift’s shows in Vienna intended on killing “a huge number” of people — including Americans.
Because of this, heightened security in Toronto is necessary, said Toronto Police spokesperson Nadine Ramadan.
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“Taylor Swift attracts a large following that are very actively engaged, and for public safety reasons, we are facilitating her movements in the city,” Ramadan told Fox News Digital in a statement. “To be clear, we supplemented with some scout cars and motorcycles, but the rest belonged to her own security team. For operational security purposes, I can’t share the exact number.”
Concertgoers embraced the bumper-to-bumper traffic after Swift’s first show in Toronto. (John Shearer/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
“There were never complete closures at any point,” Ramadan added. “The highways were not closed. There were only rolling closures on the Gardiner [Expressway] and Highway 427 that took a total of 20 minutes.”
After her first show concluded in Toronto on Thursday, Swifties fully embraced the bumper-to-bumper traffic.
“Instead of road rage, we had Swiftie smiles and sparkles,” a concertgoer wrote in an essay published on The Star. “Some came dressed in cowboy boots or hats or in costumes taken from a song lyrics, like a fridge or traffic lights… It turned out to be one of the sweetest traffic jams possible, largely because of what it means to be a Swiftie.”
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Fox News Digital’s Janelle Ash and Elizabeth Stanton contributed to this report.
