RESTON, Va. — A Northern Virginia family touched down at Dulles International Airport Saturday night after a European vacation with a stop in Vienna, Austria where they were supposed to see a Taylor Swift concert.
12-year-old Julia Brandus planned to return home with memories of an unforgettable night.
“I was definitely disappointed, because I mean Taylor Swift is once in a lifetime. She’s one of the biggest stars on the planet right now," said Juilia. "I wanted to see her. I don’t know if I’m going to get this opportunity again, but that’s okay.”
Juilia and her mom had tickets to Thursday’s show. Wednesday, all three of Swift’s sold-out Vienna concerts were canceled after threats of a terrorist attack outside the stadium.
“The attack was supposed to be on Thursday or Friday night, which was definitely scary to think about, because that would have been my night," said Juilia. "I would have been scarred for the rest of my life and it would have changed my life.”
She missed her chance to see one of the world’s biggest stars but stumbled upon something almost as good.
"Me and my mom are walking around Vienna and we come across this giant crowd and we started recording because that’s probably something you’re never going to see in your life again," said Juilia who ran into thousands of 'swifties' singing Taylor Swift's hits in the middle of Vienna streets. “I think they were out there for five hours or six hours just singing Taylor Swift. It was loud. You could hear it from streets and streets down.”
Not the performance Juilia was expecting, but one she’ll never forget.
“It was very sweet to see people making the best out of a bad situation" she said.