Taylor Swift concerts expected to draw up to 175,000 fans each night
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Are you ready for it?
Downtown soon will look and feel completely different because Taylor Swift will be in town Nov. 1-3.
Commander Chuck Deblaso of Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said Friday, “We’re expecting total every night maybe upwards of 150,000-175,000.”
As Swifties pound the downtown pavement, IMPD says they’ll be safe. IMPD Assistant Chief Catherine Cummings said, “There are officers that you will see and officers that you wont see. You will see officers on foot, on horseback, on ATV’s, in cars.”
IMPD has been working with the FBI to identify threats similar to the one that ended up canceling Taylor’s Eras Tour stop in Vienna, Austria.
Deblaso said “At this point, there’s no credible threats concerning this event. That’s an ongoing conversation that’s occurring daily.”
IMPD officers are embracing Swifty culture by wearing friendship bracelets. Anyone can come up to officers and trade bracelets. Cummings said, “It really humanizes our police officers. We have people who are fans. We might even have some officers who are Swifties.”
Tallest Taylor Swift image ever?
The magnitude of the weekend is represented on the JW Marriott Indianapolis. Swift’s image at 330 feet is the tallest ever put on the side of the 34-floor downtown hotel. Phil Ray, the vice president and general manager of the JW Marriott, said, “We knew the city and really the whole world will just love seeing that. Any time something goes on our building, the community knows it’s something special is going to go on in Indianapolis.”
Swift’s three concerts at Lucas Oil Stadium are so special that they’re being compared to the Super Bowl that the sports complex hosted in 2012.
4 of every 5 tickets sold to fans outside Indiana
Chris Gahl, a spokesman for Visit Indy, the city’s tourism arm, said, “From a tourism perspective, it’s teetering closer to a Super Bowl, a College Football Playoff national championship, certainly a men’s Final Four when you think about the density of people and the spending generated.”
Visit Indy told I-Team 8 that 81% of tickets for the Swift concerts were sold to people outside Indiana, which will multiply the economic impact of the weekend.
“The hotels are commanding two or three the rate that they would normally during a weekend like this. We know that Airbnb and short-term rentals are up 207% year over year for this weekend,” Gahl said.
On Monday morning following the concerts, Visit Indy will start talking to hotels, restaurants, and other vendors to add up exactly how much money Taylor and her Swifties brought to Indianapolis. The tally is expected to be nine figures.