The most unlikely city on Taylor Swift’s Europe tour: Gelsenkirchen

A “Taylor Town” market under way in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, to coincide with Taylor Swift's concerts this week. Photo / Ksenia Kuleshova for The Washington Post

It stands out on Taylor Swift’s European tour schedule. Sandwiched between concert stops in Milan and Hamburg, it is the one city most people have never heard of.

But an estimated 180,000 Swifties have descended on Gelsenkirchen this week for three sold-out shows. Never before have so many cowboy boots trod the paving stones of the market square.

This long down-on-its-luck city is so pleased with its momentary good fortune that it has hung yellow signs declaring itself “Swiftkirchen” – literally, the churches of Swift.

“We’re looking forward to sharing the experience with Taylor Swift fans,” said Mayor Karin Welge. “I think there will be a lot of positive encounters that will also be contagious for locals.”

She also hopes the attention will be helpful for the city.

Gelsenkirchen is part of Swift’s tour by virtue of its stadium. Normally home to a professional; football team, Schalke 04, the venue has a retractable roof and is among the few arenas in Germany that can accommodate more than 50,000 people.

“You could say that the spiritual centre of the city is actually the stadium,” said local historian Daniel Schmidt.

About 60,000 fans were expected to fill the arena for each night of Swift’s shows. During the first concert, on Thursday, Swift made a point of thanking the stadium workers. “The incredible crew at this stadium are so quick getting to you guys really, really fast, and helping out to make sure that you have water and make sure you’re cared for,” she said.

Gelsenkirchen is just under an hour’s drive from the Dutch border, so it’s also accessible from the Netherlands and Belgium.

The mayor agreed to signs promoting the city as Swiftkirchen. Photo / Ksenia Kuleshova for The Washington Post

But before this week, the Germans, Dutch and Belgians who actually knew about Gelsenkirchen may not have had high opinions of it. The city has the country’s highest unemployment rate, highest child poverty rate and lowest wages.

Gelsenkirchen was once a major European coal-mining hub. A sign at the train station still greets arrivals with “Glück auf!” – a traditional miners’ expression, used to wish colleagues a safe return to the surface.

The city, though, has never recovered from the decline of its main industry. When it served last month as one of 10 locations for the Euro 2024 football championship, a Sky News reporter told viewers: “There’s not really much left in Gelsenkirchen.”

Graziella Dell’Aquila showcases her Swiftkirchen icecream special. Photo / Ksenia Kuleshova for The Washington Post

Economic frustrations and concerns about immigration have bolstered support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which won 21.7% of the vote here in last month’s European Parliament elections.

But the Swift shows have offered a brief reprieve for everyone. The anticipation was such that local newspaper Rheinische Post starting published a regular newsletter, “Waiting for Taylor”, back in May.

This week, a tram that runs between Gelsenkirchen and neighbouring Bochum has been plastered with images of the singer. Taylor Swift club nights were taking place in and around the city. And a three-day “Taylor Town” market was held in Heinrich Koenig Square.

The July sun reflected off sequined dresses and jackets Thursday, as fans in Taylor Town danced and sang along to a Taylor Swift-inspired DJ set. Some Swifties posed for selfies in front of images of their favourite albums. Others exchanged friendship bracelets as they perused merchandise and ate bratwurst.

Inside one of the covered stalls, Pauline Rosenstock, 23, a nurse from Uelzen, in northern Germany, opted for a more permanent souvenir: a tattoo.

“These are the ‘autumn leaves falling’ that Taylor sings about in All Too Well,” she said as she pointed to the design being etched close to the crease of her left arm.

The three concerts will be particularly profitable for retail, restaurants and hotels in the area, according to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK) for the North Westphalia region. The estimated 1000 hotel rooms in Gelsenkirchen, which this week cost up to three times the usual price per night, have long been fully booked.

Figures based on the spending habits of festivalgoers suggest Swifties could spend an estimated US$110 ($183) to $220 per day just on food and drink, said IHK’s Jochen Grütters, responsible for the Gelsenkirchen area.

“The state of North Rhine-Westphalia is on summer vacation at the time of the concerts and many families without tickets will certainly visit Gelsenkirchen and Taylor Town as a vacation activity,” Grütters said.

Icecream shop owner Graziella Dell’Aquila, 58, created a Swiftkirchen special in the singer’s honour. The strawberry, cream and white chocolate concoction, topped with edible glitter, gold and butterflies, has been a hit.

“We already sold five containers on the day before the first concert,” she said. “Our icecream maker is working like crazy in the back.”

Among those wandering the streets of Gelsenkirchen this week were American fans who have planned summer vacations around Swift’s European concerts – figuring that airfare, hotels and a few hundred dollars for a ticket here is more affordable than the astronomical prices for Taylor Swift tickets in the United States.

“Our tickets here were much cheaper than in the US, and we’re happy to travel in Europe,” said McKenna Waldman, 29, a customer service manager from Wisconsin, as she waited outside the arena with a friend Thursday.

Brad Davis, 51, a real estate broker from North Carolina, travelled 6780km with his wife and two teenage children to Gelsenkirchen for Swift’s second concert there, before spending time elsewhere in Germany and France.

“This will be an introduction to Europe for my kids,” Davis said, adding the family was looking forward to sharing their experience with fans from around the world.

German Swifties Bernd Gerwing, 20, and Sabrina Munck, 35, who ran a Facebook group connecting fans in the run-up to the three concerts, had a considerably shorter journey. Munck is a native “Gelsenkirchenerin”, and said she was proud to see her hometown listed alongside the likes of London, Paris and Milan.

“It’s definitely one of the least-attractive corners of the Ruhr region,” she said, referring to the dreary parts of the city’s architecture erected out of the rubble of World War II. “But I come from here. I don’t know it any different.”

Julia Meya and Marius Rupieper, both 31, helped organise the Taylor Town market. “There’s some truth to the negative comments about Gelsenkirchen,” Rupieper said. “The city’s not doing well in many areas, and that’s something that’s always troubled us. We’ve both seen a lot of the world and still want to change something here.”

“But the response from locals has also been overwhelmingly positive,” Meya said. “Looking around and seeing the joy this is bringing people almost brought a tear to my eye.”

Swift is by no means the first global star to perform at the city’s Veltins Arena. The Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and Metallica have all come through here.

“The thing that’s different this time is the fan base,” Rupieper said. “Maybe this is the start of something where the city can really be a host when international stars come here.”

Gelsenkirchen is perhaps the ultimate test of whether Swift can, as she sings, “make the whole place shimmer”.