A city in Germany has temporarily renamed itself ‘Swiftkirchen’ in celebration of Taylor Swift‘s shows there later this month.
Swift will be bringing her ‘Eras’ tour to Gelsenkirchen from July 17-19. The name change was suggested by a young local fan named Aleshanee Westhoff, who started a petition and wrote directly to Mayor Karin Welge.
“It’s a great idea to temporarily rename Gelsenkirchen to ‘Swiftkirchen,’ which is why I’m particularly pleased that you can experience the short-term ‘renaming’ of Gelsenkirchen live and up close in Gelsenkirchen today,” said Mayor Welge in a thank-you letter to Westhoff.
In recognition of this, Westhoff got to erect the first “Swiftkirchen” sign on a street in the town. A ‘Taylor Swift tram’ has started running through the area and the singer will also receive a stone on Gelsenkirchen’s official Walk of Fame.
#Gelsenkirchen becomes #Swiftkirchen!
Gelsenkirchen freut sich auf Mega-Star Taylor Swift und all die Swifties, die vom 17. bis 19. Juli in unsere Stadt kommen! Was Swifties erwarten können, erfahrt ihr hierhttps://t.co/DnRiDr3kZl pic.twitter.com/hLDKttpvb4
— Stadt Gelsenkirchen (@_Gelsenkirchen_) July 2, 2024
On the days of Swift’s shows, there will also be a number of ‘Taylor Town’ festivities taking place, featuring karaoke, a DJ set, a tattoo stand, marketplace and food and drink vendors.
“As mayor, I am of course very happy that Taylor Swift, currently the most successful singer in the world, will be performing three times in Gelsenkirchen,” added Welge in a statement.
Gelsenkirchen isn’t the only city to get a makeover to coincide with Swift coming to town. Liverpool renamed itself ‘Taylor Town’ to coincide with her shows there last month, with a trail of 11 art installations dotted around the city to entertain local residents and fans travelling from outside the city.
According to the local council, areas including Liverpool One, Royal Albert Dock and the Metquarter are among the eight sites across Liverpool that will be receiving decorations to reflect on various albums that the singer has shared across her catalogue.
Swift’s shows were reportedly set to boost the UK economy by a reported £1billion. She will return to Wembley Stadium for five more shows in August, which alone is expected to inject £300million into the London economy.
In other news, The National have said they have had an influx of Taylor Swift fans coming to their shows who have found themselves “bewildered” by the experience. As such, they said their gigs are now being attended by younger fans.
The National have also collaborated with Swift previously. They featured on ‘Coney Island’, a track from ‘Evermore’, while Swift appeared on ‘The Alcott’, from the band’s 2023 album ‘First Two Pages of Frankenstein’.
The National’s guitarist, Aaron Dessner, has worked with Swift a lot over the last few years – they worked together for the first time on her 2020 album ‘Folklore’, and again on ‘Evermore’ and ‘The Tortured Poets Department’.
NME asked if The National could show up at one of Swift’s ‘Eras’ tour shows, but Berninger said that it wasn’t likely. “I don’t think so. It is fun – that whole bridge has been a really, really fruitful thing for our whole band, not just Aaron,” he said. “Obviously, Aaron’s been having such a great time and making so much great stuff with her, and the Taylor Swift bridge has been there for a long time. But no, we’re not.”
He continued: “We get asked that a lot. We see a lot of Taylor Swift fans coming to shows and being bewildered by the first 25 minutes or so. We’ve been blessed with demographics that are across the spectrum.
“Then 10 or 15 years ago, a lot of younger people started coming – more and more women. The first 10 years was kind of a dude-fest at most of our shows, but that’s changed a lot. At our shows we have all kinds of old friends and they’re always different.”
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