For Michelle Barroeta, a resident of Barcelona, it was like beating “the hunger games.” The reference to Suzanne Collins’ dystopian novel is due to the fact that getting tickets for the concerts that Taylor Swift gave in Madrid on May 29 and 30 required her to compete with more than a million fans of the singer. The trip to the capital of the creator of the Swiftie Club The national crowd, made up of 5,000 people, partly sums up how the city was transformed by the cyclone generated by the diva. The crowd around the Bernabéu increased by 20% (on Wednesday) and 40% (on Thursday) compared to a similar week in 2023, according to a study by Nommon, a technology company specializing in the analysis of anonymized mobile phone data. Up to 230,000 unique visitors set foot in the area, including those going to work. And the peak of attendance, with a presence 50% higher than usual, was reached before Swift’s voice began to sound in the first concert, and while her fans without tickets mingled in the surroundings with those who did have them to sing in chorus, exchange bracelets and compare outfitsAs one attendee said: “I have never seen such an impressive phenomenon even in football.”
“Taylor is no longer just a musical phenomenon, she has become a social phenomenon,” says music manager Pedro Malaver, who has closely studied the community of fans that the artist has managed to create in recent years. “Her fans are not just going to a concert, they are going to meet others who feel, think and live like them. It is almost like a pilgrimage,” he says.
Swift’s army is large, even though joining it is not exactly cheap. Take Mariana Cisneros, 29, for example. She travelled from Venezuela to Madrid just to see her idol. “It was an impulsive decision, because I don’t have any savings, but faced with the possibility of not seeing her, I didn’t care and I came to both concerts,” Cisneros told this newspaper by phone.
The Swift fan spent thousands of euros on tickets, the 1,000 euro plane ticket, accommodation on Gran Via, the clothes she made especially for the concert and the bracelets she exchanged with other fans. “I really think it’s worth it. I’ve been a fan since I was 14. I would do it a thousand times over if I had the chance, but it’s very expensive to travel,” she says.
Giselle González, 31, lives in Montreal, Canada, and came to Madrid for work. When she realised that her trip coincided with the concerts, she immediately acted. “I got a ticket on a black market and stayed in a hostel sharing a room on Gran Vía,” she says. In total, she estimates she spent around 900 euros. She says it was worth it, because the show exceeded all her expectations.
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“I had seen the film, but it was very different to be there, and to see that everything works almost like a Swiss watch. Apart from the details that cannot be seen on the screen,” he recalls.
Cisneros and González’s transoceanic trips are not an anecdote. They show the lengths Swift’s fans are willing to go to in order to see her live. And they agree with Nommon’s data, which uses the tool Population Insights to process data from mobile networks and integrate it with other sources to provide information on visitor traffic and other indicators of presence and activity.
If foreigners normally represent 5% of those present in the area, according to this company, on concert days this percentage increased to 10% of the total in the study area, which covers a radius of 750 metres around the Bernabéu and considers as visitors all those people who carry out an activity in the specified area throughout the day, but who do not reside there. Americans and Canadians multiplied their presence by twelve compared to a normal day (on which the most frequent foreign visitor is French), while Britons and Irish quadrupled their presence. In addition, women went from representing 51.5% of those present around the Bernabéu to 53.17%.
Jolbin Serrano, 20, was with them. It took him two months to glue the more than 16,000 crystals that he wore to the clothes he wore for the concert.. “When I think of Taylor, I think of sparkle and I just wanted to sparkle like her,” she says.
Serrano believes she spent more than 700 euros on the entrance fee, materials for the bracelets, accessories to make the outfit, glue, stones, fringes and food on the day of the concert. Since she lives in Madrid, she did not have to look for a hotel, as thousands of visitors did. The neighbourhood where the concert had the greatest impact was Tetuán, where some 9,500 people stayed, followed by Centro, with some 7,500, and Chamartín, with some 7,000, according to Nommon data. The area around the stadium itself accommodated some 5,000 people, who were in turn surrounded by neighbours exhausted by the noise of the mass concerts, which harm their quality of life and spoil their hours of rest.
“Taking into account the Bernabéu’s capacity of 85,000 spectators and the average expenditure per visitor, which will be at least 1,300 euros, which is the cost of the ticket plus travel, accommodation and food, in total we are talking about 110.5 million euros,” says Carlos Balado, professor at OBS Business School and director of the Eurocofín consultancy, regarding the economic impact of the concerts.
For some, a profitable business: The Madrid Hotel Business Association (AEHM) The company estimated that hotel revenues for those two nights could reach 20 million euros, which represents a profit of 7,000 euros per minute, with average fares that could triple or quadruple normal prices. At the same time, train journeys from other Spanish cities to the capital multiplied (the number of travellers from Seville tripled, and doubled from Valencia and Barcelona, according to a report by the Trainline app). Car-sharing trips also multiplied, according to BlaBlacar.
“The data indicate that, when the show started, visitors to the area gradually left, which may indicate that those who did not have tickets remained in the area and gradually left,” says Andrés Miguélez, Mobility Analytics Engineer at Nommon and author of the study. “According to telephone data, the holding of the Taylor Swift concerts altered the profile of frequent visitors to the Bernabéu area, slightly increasing the proportion of women and, above all, changing the nationality of regular foreign visitors,” he adds. And he concludes: “Understanding the visitor profile allows organizers and public authorities to design, plan and manage the services involved in holding the event so that both visitors and residents have a satisfactory experience.”
This is how Serrano sums up his experience: “The magic of sharing with thousands of fans and with such different people, from faraway countries, from different cultures, with different features, but all with the same dream, which was to see Taylor… is something we will always carry in our hearts.”
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