This city, which has long struggled, is so happy with its temporary good fortune that it has put up yellow signs reading “Swiftkirchen” – literally, the churches of Swift.
“We look forward to sharing the experience with Taylor Swift fans,” said Mayor Karin Welge. “I think there will be many positive encounters that will also be contagious for the locals.”
She also hopes that the attention will be useful for the city.
Gelsenkirchen is part of Swift’s tour because of the stadium. Normally home to a professional football team, Schalke 04, the venue has a retractable roof and is one of the few arenas in Germany that can hold more than 50,000 people.
“You could say that the spiritual centre of the city is actually the stadium,” says local historian Daniel Schmidt.
About 60,000 fans are expected to fill the arena each night of Swift’s shows. During the first concert, on Wednesday night, Swift thanked stadium workers. “The incredible crew in this stadium is with you so quickly, so quickly, helping you make sure you have water and that you’re taken care of,” she said.
Gelsenkirchen is located just under an hour’s drive from the Dutch border and can therefore also be reached from the Netherlands and Belgium.
But before this week, the Germans, Dutch and Belgians who actually knew Gelsenkirchen might not have thought much of it. The city has the country’s highest unemployment rate, the highest child poverty rate and the lowest wages.
Gelsenkirchen was once a major European coal mining centre. A sign at the train station still greets arrivals with “Glück auf!” — a traditional miner’s expression, used to wish colleagues a safe return to the surface.
The city, however, has never recovered from the decline of its main industry. When it was chosen as one of 10 venues for the 2024 European Championship last month, a Sky News reporter told viewers: “There’s not really much left in Gelsenkirchen.”
Economic frustrations and concerns about immigration have led to increased support for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, which won 21.7 percent of the vote in last month’s European Parliament elections.
But the Swift shows offer everyone a brief respite. The anticipation was so great that the local newspaper Rheinische Post published a regular newsletter in May, “Waiting for Taylor.”
This week, a tram that runs between Gelsenkirchen and neighboring Bochum is plastered with images of the singer. Taylor Swift club nights are taking place in and around the city. And a three-day “Taylor Town” market is underway on Heinrich Koenig Square.
The July sun bounced off sequined dresses and jackets on Wednesday as fans danced and sang along to a Taylor Swift-inspired DJ set in Taylor Town. Some Swifties posed for selfies in front of images from their favorite albums. Others exchanged friendship bracelets as they browsed merchandise and snacked on bratwurst.
At one of the covered stalls, Pauline Rosenstock, a 23-year-old nurse from Uelzen, northern Germany, opted for a more lasting souvenir: a tattoo.
“These are the ‘falling autumn leaves’ that Taylor sings about in ‘All Too Well,’” she said, pointing to the design etched near the crease of her left arm.
The three concerts will be particularly profitable for the region’s retail trade, restaurants and hotels, according to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK) for the North-Westphalia region. The estimated 1,000 hotel rooms in Gelsenkirchen — which cost up to three times the usual price per night this week — have long been fully booked.
According to figures based on the spending habits of festival-goers, Swifties spend an estimated $110 to $220 per day on food and drinks alone, according to Jochen Grütters of IHK, responsible for the Gelsenkirchen region.
“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 holiday activity,” said Grütters.
Graziella Dell’Aquila, 58, owner of an ice cream parlor, created a Swiftkirchen special in honor of the singer. The mixture of strawberry, cream and white chocolate, garnished with edible glitter, gold and butterflies, is a hit.
“We sold five containers the day before the first concert,” she said. “Our ice cream machine is going crazy in the back.”
Among the people wandering the streets of Gelsenkirchen this week are American fans who have planned their summer vacation around Swift’s European concerts. They think that airfare, hotels and a few hundred dollars for a ticket here are still more affordable than the astronomical prices for Taylor Swift tickets in the United States.
“Our tickets were much cheaper here than in the U.S. and we love traveling in Europe,” said McKenna Waldman, 29, a customer service manager from Wisconsin, as she waited outside the arena with a friend on Wednesday.
Brad Davis, 51, a real estate agent from North Carolina, traveled 4,200 miles (6,770 kilometers) with his wife and two teenage children to Gelsenkirchen for Swift’s second concert there before spending time in Germany and France.
“This will be an introduction to Europe for my kids,” Davis said, adding that the family was looking forward to sharing their experiences with fans from around the world.
German Swifties Bernd Gerwing, 20, and Sabrina Munck, 35, who ran a Facebook group to connect fans in the run-up to the three concerts, had a considerably shorter trip. Munck is a born-and-bred “Gelsenkirchenerin,” and said she was proud to see her hometown stand alongside cities like London, Paris and Milan.
“It’s definitely one of the least attractive corners of the Ruhr,” she said, referring to the bleak swaths of the city’s architecture that emerged from the rubble of World War II. “But I’m from here. I don’t know it any other way.”
Julia Meya and Marius Rupieper, both 31, helped organize the Taylor Town market. “There is some truth to the negative comments about Gelsenkirchen,” Rupieper said. “The city is not doing well in many ways, and that is something we have always struggled with. We have both seen a lot of the world and still want to make a difference here.”
“But the response from the locals has also been overwhelmingly positive,” Meya said. “When I looked around and saw how much joy this brought to people, I almost had a tear in my eye.”
Swift is certainly not the first world star to perform at the city’s Veltins Arena. The Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and Metallica have all been here.
“What’s different this time is the fan base,” Rupieper said. “Maybe this is the start of something where the city can really host when international stars come here.”
Gelsenkirchen may be the ultimate test of whether Swift, as she sings, “can make the whole place shine.”