Amsterdam ready for three Taylor Swift shows

Taylor Swift is performing in the Netherlands again after just over nine years. From Thursday, the singer will perform for three consecutive evenings in front of around 55,000 people in the Johan Cruijff ArenA in Amsterdam. Public transport will make extra stops. The municipality of Amsterdam warned fans that they are not allowed to camp around the ArenA for the best spot near the stage.

The stadium roof will be closed during the concerts, so there is no point in coming to the ArenA if you don’t have a ticket, the municipality said. Besides the fact that it is prohibited, flying a drone over the ArenA will also not yield anything. “You won’t hear or see anything from Taylor Swift or the concert,” Amsterdam said.

Thursday’s performance is the 110th show of Swift’s much-acclaimed Eras Tour and the first in the Netherlands since her last visit in June 2015. The singer then performed in the Ziggo Dome. Swift’s status has since changed completely. She is now the biggest artist on earth. The 34-year-old singer’s latest albums broke every record and reached number one almost everywhere in the world. Swift has nearly a hundred million monthly listeners on Spotify. Only The Weekend has a tiny bit more.

To even have a chance of getting a ticket, Swifties in and near the Netherlands had to register last year already, after which there was a draw. So, fans had to depend a bit on luck. Attendees are coming to the capital not only from within the Netherlands but also from Belgium, for example. The American artist will not perform there. Flixbus has reported an increase in the number of trips booked from Brussels around the concert days.

A shuttle bus from Oldenzaal in Twente will take fans to the ArenA and back home, making several stops along the way. NS trains will make an extra stop at the stadium, and the Amsterdam public transport company GVB will run three extra metros.

The Eras Tour's 152 concerts have already raised more than a billion dollars worldwide. Cities that Swift visits also receive a significant local economic boost. For example, analysts calculated that concerts in London alone generated 1 billion pounds for the British economy.