Taylor Swift was forced to disappoint many of her fans on Friday when she announced that her remaining Lover Fest tour dates would be canceled.
The 31-year-old singer-songwriter shared the bad news with a statement posted on her website and her social media accounts.
She had originally postponed some of her summer 2020 dates until 2021 in hopes of still performing, but the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has made that impossible.
Canceled: Taylor Swift, 31, sounded downbeat in a statement posted Friday on social media announcing that her remaining Lover Fest dates had been canceled; seen in 2019
‘I love coming on here to tell you good news, or to share a new project with you,’ Taylor began her statement. ‘It’s not my favorite thing in the world to have to tell you news I’m sad about.
‘I’m so sorry, but I cannot reschedule the shows that we’ve postponed. Although refunds have been available since we first postponed the Lover Fest shows, many of you hung onto your tickets and I too hung onto the idea that we could reschedule,’ she continued.
‘This is an unprecedented pandemic that has changed everyone’s plans and no one knows what the touring landscape is going to look like in the near future.
‘I’m so disappointed that I won’t be able to see you in person as soon as I wanted to. I miss you terribly and can’t wait til we can all safely be at shows together again,’ the songstress concluded.
Not happening: ‘I’m so sorry, but I cannot reschedule the shows that we’ve postponed. Although refunds have been available since we first postponed the Lover Fest shows, many of you hung onto you tickets and I too hung onto the idea that we could reschedule,’ she wrote
New world: ‘This is an unprecedented pandemic that has changed everyone’s plans and no one knows what the touring landscape is going to look like in the near future,’ she continued; seen in 2018
Many other performers have canceled their shows through 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, though some have followed Taylor’s original path of merely postponing dates.
In the early months of the pandemic, Ticketmaster only provided refunds to events that were canceled, while people with tickets to postponed shows were out of luck.
The ticket seller relented later in the spring and allowed some venues to choose to offer refunds for postponed shows, though not all venues have been willing to give people their money back for delayed events.
Some day: ‘I’m so disappointed that I won’t be able to see you in person as soon as I wanted to. I miss you terribly and can’t wait til we can all safely be at shows together again’; Taylor pictured in 2019 in NYC
Tricky: Some artists merely postponed shows rather than canceling in order to delay giving refunds to fans; seen in 2018 in Dublin
Quite a bit has changed for Taylor musically since she originally planned out the Lover Fest dates.
The tour was to have promoted her then-new album Lover, which was released in August 2019 and swiftly topped the Billboard 200 chart.
Amid her pandemic isolation, Taylor changed course with the stripped down album Folklore, which took a more consciously stripped down and folky approach to songwriting than her recent pop records.
She followed it up with the surprise sister album Evermore, which doubled down on her art-pop leanings.
Big hit: The tour was to have promoted her then-new album Lover, which was released in August 2019 and swiftly topped the Billboard 200 chart
Surprise! Amid her pandemic isolation, Taylor changed course with the stripped down album Folklore, which took a more consciously stripped down approach than her recent pop records
Feeling good: Prior to her disappointing news about her Lover Fest tour, Taylor joyously celebrated passage in the House of Representatives of the Equality Act by a vote of 224 to 206; seen in 2019 in Newark, New Jersey
Prior to her disappointing news about her Lover Fest tour, Taylor joyously celebrated passage in the House of Representatives of the Equality Act by a vote of 224 to 206.
If it passes in the Senate, the bill would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to add sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes, in addition to race, religion, sex and national origin.
‘YES!!! Fingers crossed and praying that the Senate will see trans and lgbtq rights as basic human right,’ Taylor tweeted optimistically on Thursday.
The entertainer has previously spoken out about state laws that enable discrimination against people in the LGBTQ community.
Fingers crossed! ‘YES!!! Fingers crossed and praying that the Senate will see trans and lgbtq rights as basic human rights,’ wrote the 31-year-old singer-songwriter, who shared a post from GLAAD announcing the House’s decision
