No tickets? No problem. Leave it to Swifties to still find a way to watch their idol’s sold-out Eras Tour in person.
An estimated 50,000 unticketed fans gathered in Munich outside Taylor Swift’s Saturday and Sunday shows to watch the singer’s concert from Olympic Hill — or, Olympiaberg — a perch boasting one of the highest elevations in the city and a perfect view of the stadium below.
“For big concerts, the seats up on the Hill are almost as coveted as concert tickets, and they’re free of charge,” a Munich travel site writes.
This isn’t the first time fans have flocked to the hill for its prime location. Earlier this year, people were seen on the hill for a Metallica concert, and last summer rock fans went over the course of a few days to see Rammstein. Swifties themselves frequently Taylor-gate (that’s like a tailgate) outside stadiums, so fans without tickets can come together and enjoy the music from outside the concert.
However, Swift may have broken the record for the most attended female concert in Munich — 74,000 in attendance — and that’s not even counting the people on the hill.
The 88-degree heat did nothing to deter tens of thousands of fans from swarming the grassy area on Saturday and Sunday. Many arrived hours before the show to get a spot, with local police reporting 25,000 people on the hill on Saturday, according to German news service DPA, via the Associated Press.
The 14-time Grammy winner thanked fans inside and outside the stadium Sunday.
“We are lucky enough to get to play this show for 74,000 beautiful people in this stadium, and if the reports are correct, about 50,000 beautiful people outside the stadium,” the “Shake It Off” singer said during the Sunday show. “Thank you for coming to the Eras Tour, whether you’re in the stadium or outside of the stadium. We are so lucky to be here with you.”
In a video posted on X (formerly Twitter) from the Saturday show, Swift said, “We’ve got people in a park outside the stadium. Thousands of people listening from out there. You have made us feel so incredibly welcome and we’re going to spend all night trying to make it up to you.”
Swift broke records — and parts of Ticketmaster — with the announcement of the Eras Tour on Nov. 15, 2023; the website sold more than 2 million tickets that day, which the platform says is the most tickets sold for one artist in a single day. Her tour also reached a record $1.04 billion in revenue in 2023 and is projected to make the same this year.
She will continue the international leg of her tour in Warsaw, Poland, on Thursday, playing three shows there before hitting Austria and the U.K. in mid-August. After a break, the tour picks up again in October with nine U.S. shows in three cities, then ends in Canada, with shows running from mid-November in Toronto to early December in Vancouver.