Toronto residents brace for uncertainty of city’s Taylor Swift Era

By David Friend, The Canadian Press on November 13, 2024.

Taylor Swift arrives before the start of an NFL football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the New Orleans Saints, in Kansas City, Mo., Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Charlie Riedel

TORONTO – Will Taylor Swift bring chaos or do we all need to calm down?

It’s a question many Torontonians are asking this week as the city braces for the massive fan base of one of the world’s biggest pop stars.

Hundreds of thousands of Swifties are expected to descend on downtown core for the singer’s six concerts which kick off Thursday at the Rogers Centre and run until Nov. 23.

And while their arrival will be a boon to tourism dollars, it could further clog the city’s already gridlocked streets. The shows are also competing with other scheduled events, including a Toronto Maple Leafs game on Saturday night.

Some locals say they’re changing their plans to avoid the area ““ companies with offices downtown are encouraging staff to work from home, while people are shifting their going-out plans to later this month.

Toronto Transit Commission spokesperson Stuart Green says the public agency has been preparing for over a year to handle the influx of people, adding dozens of buses and streetcars to the transit routes to account for a phenomenon he says might only compare to the Beatles in the 1960s.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.