While there has been no official confirmation, it’s been widely reported by several outlets that Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs superstar Travis Kelce will officially tie the knot on Friday, July 3, in New York City’s Madison Square Garden. However, this seems to come at a massive inconvenience to the actual New Yorkers, and people are not happy.
Ahead of the massive “private event” that has still not officially been confirmed as Swift’s wedding, the city announced that significant portions of the area around Madison Square Garden will be closed to the public with “access restrictions” announced to Penn Station, one of the city’s busiest train stations.
Needless to say, people are not happy about this happening for a private event during what is already a busy Fourth of July weekend in the city.
NYC Announces Closures
On Thursday evening, City Hall reporter Chris Sommerfeldt of Politico shared information from New York City regarding the closures for Swift’s apparent wedding on Friday.
As Sommerfeldt points out, the impact might even be greater than the swathes of the city that were shut down to the public during the New York Knicks’ run in the NBA Finals last month – a move which received widespread criticism.
“NYPD just released details on the street closures around Madison Square Garden tomorrow for Taylor Swift’s wedding. This reads like it might shut down an even bigger slice of the area around MSG than the NYPD did during the NBA Finals,” Sommerfeldt wrote in a post on X.
The closure is also
Over 100 NYPD Officers
The event will force well over 100 NYPD officers and detectives to be deployed for the event at a time when they have already been working overtime as a result of last month’s NBA Finals and the ongoing 2026 FIFA World Cup.
This also comes amidst a massive heatwave in New York City and on the Fourth of July weekend, which is notoriously busy for the city already.
Scott Munro, the president of the city’s detectives union spoke out against the move.
“They should have their wedding in Pennsylvania or wherever she’s from,” he said via the New York Times, citing high levels of exhaustion among officers who have already worked extraordinary amounts of overtime.
“Can we take anything else on here?” he said. “I think Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift should be thanking every officer standing out there in the heat, away from their families and working.”
‘Genuinely Embarrassing’
Needless to say, people are not necessarily happy with the impact that this wedding is causing on the average person and the burden that it is placing on the city, and many have taken to social media to express their disgust at Swift and Kelce.
“She’s just another psychotic billionaire. On a holiday weekend. Amidst all this worldwide suffering, the ultra-wealthy still have no compunction. Unreal,” prominent sports commentator Emma Vigeland wrote in a post on X. “This is a private event!!! Impacting our public transit!!! No one goes to the beach on Long Island over July 4th weekend, right?”
“This is genuinely so embarrassing and I don’t know how you justify it,” another commented in a post on X.
“Cannot believe Taylor Swift saw how Trump killed the vibes by doing exactly this only to go ‘great idea’ No matter the political ideology they follow, they’re all a bunch out of touch, self-absorbed morons at the top. Imagine being the guy who gets fired for being late for this,” someone else wrote.
“She’s a billionaire making people’s lives unnecessarily difficult for her own pleasure – on 4th of July of all weekends. Why isn’t there any ‘anti-billionaire’ sentiment towards Taylor Swift?” another commenter added.
“That’s way too many closures. If you can’t have an event without closing down more than is needed for a regular MSG event, you should go somewhere else,” someone else pointed out.
“This should never happen for a private event. No one private citizen, no matter how wealthy, famous, and/or popular, should have the power to shut down this much of a city for a private event. Billionaires are a policy failure, tax the rich. All the rich,” another added.
The wedding festivities appear to be set for Friday, July 3 at Madison Square Garden.
About Dave Kelsey
Contributing author to The Comeback.