Yahoo Finance Taylor Swift fans force backpackers out of city: 'You've got to leave'
The pop megastar will perform four back-to-back sold-out shows in Sydney, but these two travellers aren't happy with the A-lister's arrival.
As Taylor Swift mania sweeps the nation, backpackers in one Aussie state have revealed they've been driven out of their beds and to the outskirts of the city with "crazy expensive" accommodation spaces drying up, as fans from all over jet in.
Much to the disappointment of those living outside the country's two biggest cities, the pop megastar is only performing shows in Sydney and Melbourne, meaning everyone else has either had to travel interstate or miss out entirely.
With that in mind, it's probably unsurprising there's a shortage of hotel and hostel rooms, with hundreds of thousands of people from all over the county flying in to see the 14-time Grammy Award winner.
Backpacker Elsa James, who has been in Sydney since January 1 after arriving from the UK, said she'd been comfortable in her Northern Beaches hostel for more than a month, but was given the boot ahead of this weekend's shows.
Speaking to Yahoo Finance, James said she was forced to either fork out a pretty penny for a bed or leave the city entirely — an ultimatum that saw her eventually choosing the latter, booking accommodation in the Blue Mountains.
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"We've been here in Manly for over a month and we were trying to book accommodation for this weekend but were told we couldn't stay here — despite trying to book two weeks in advance," James said. "Everywhere is just crazy expensive, the prices have all gone up massively."
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James said that rather than resorting to an exorbitantly priced "shitty bed and breakfast", she and her friend, Nina, decided they'd leave the city entirely.
"We've got friends that have just arrived in Sydney, and they're having to crash at family friends' houses. Finding the loosest connections that they have. So, yeah, it's not just us, everyone seems to be stuck.
"Our friends arrived literally yesterday and are staying at Central. They'd been in Melbourne, and their hostel said 'No, you've got to leave', ahead of this weekend. So, now they're being picked up by a random aunty and staying with her."
Though James said visiting the mountains "was always on my bucket list", being forced out of the city had also meant losing income.
"We do want to go there anyway, but it meant I had to give up my shift at work because I literally had no accommodation. Like, I cannot stay here," she said.
The English national said she paid about $70 per night at the Manly hostel but, after Swift-mania descended on Sydney, that rate "grew significantly more expensive".
"It's crazy. Everybody's talking about it," she said.
"Everyone's saying, 'F**k Taylor Swift'. Like, I love her but f**k her," she joked. "We get back on Sunday night from the mountains and there's still no accommodation then, so we're having to bunk up with some friends. There's nowhere for us."
Taylor Swift is set to rake in millions while she’s Down Under, with the superstar playing a total of seven sold-out shows on the Aussie leg of her Eras Tour across Sydney and Melbourne.
Swift played to a crowd of 96,000 fans each night for her three-concert run at Melbourne’s MCG over the weekend. These were the biggest shows the star has ever played on tour, prompting her to call the Aussie city “the love of my life”.
Swift will this week perform another four sold-out concerts to a crowd of 80,000 fans each night at Accor stadium in Sydney.
According to reports by News Corp, the US singer is making a whopping US$27 million per three-hour show, which equates to US$150,000 per minute or US$2,500 per second.
As to how much Swift actually pockets herself, one industry insider previously estimated she would earn about $5 million for each of her seven three-hour concerts in Australia - or $35 million in total.
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