Taylor Swift says scrapping Vienna shows over terror plot ‘devastating’, filled her with ‘fear’

“Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating,” she wrote in a statement posted to Instagram on Wednesday. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”

She thanked authorities – “thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives,” she wrote – and said she waited to speak until the European leg of her Eras Tour concluded to prioritise safety.

“Let me be very clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows,” she wrote.

In the wake of the cancellations, Swift’s representatives did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Associated Press and other news organisations and her social media pages had gone dormant.

“In cases like this one, ‘silence’ is actually showing restraint, and waiting to express yourself at a time when it’s right to. My priority was finishing our European tour safely, and it’s with great relief that I can say we did that,” she added.

Concert organiser Barracuda Music had said it cancelled the three-night Vienna run that would have begun on August 8 because the arrests made in connection to the conspiracy were too close to showtime. Authorities said a 19-year-old suspect had planned to target spectators outside the Ernst Happel Stadium with knives or home-made explosives, hoping to “kill as many people as possible.” Austrian officials said they appeared to have been inspired by the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda.