A white tent went up in seconds. One moment commuters were walking toward Penn Station on 31st Street in midtown Manhattan. The next, a privacy tarp blocked the sidewalk entirely, and they turned around, confused, looking for another way through.
That was the scene Thursday evening outside Madison Square Garden, where Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce held a rehearsal dinner for roughly 100 guests ahead of their wedding Friday. The thermometer read 101 degrees. Fans and local television crews waited on the street anyway.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Swift's rehearsal dinner was set to begin a little after 5 p.m. Thursday. The NYPD had deployed officers in packs along Seventh and Eighth Avenues. A white tent was extended directly from the VIP entrance of the arena, creating a sealed corridor so that arriving guests could move inside without being seen from the street. A second curtain, reportedly red, went up around the corner near the main entrance.
The Wrap reported that an NYPD memo confirmed the event details, including a main wedding celebration Friday with as many as 1,000 guests. Production crews had been working inside the arena for days. Workers were photographed driving lifts while wearing brown T-shirts reading "Taylor Swift's Carpenters." By Wednesday, barricades had already gone up around the surrounding blocks, with more added Thursday.
A permit obtained by the Associated Press confirmed the schedule for the two-day event. Police deployment for the festivities was not expected to match the scale used during the NBA Finals, when thousands of officers monitored fans during the Knicks' victory parade, according to the New York Times.
Among those spotted arriving at the rehearsal dinner were Jack Antonoff, Lena Dunham, and Greg Olsen, according to People. Sabrina Carpenter and Graham Norton were also seen in New York City ahead of the celebrations, according to the BBC.
Swift spoke about her wedding plans in an October interview on The Graham Norton Show. She said she wanted a large guest list specifically to avoid putting people through the anxiety of being on the edge of an invitation.
"I think the only stressful weddings are the ones where you have a small amount and people are on the bubble," she said at the time. "And you have to evaluate or assess your relationship with them to see if they should be there. I'm not going to do that."
A camera commander told press on the street Thursday that they would be moved across to the Eighth Avenue corner, away from the main entrance, but still on 31st Street. "We'll keep that side of the street open," the commander said, "unless it really gets crazy."
Two women from Idaho, Gigi and Shelley, stood near a Taylor Swift billboard on the sidewalk looking for any glimpse of activity. It was Gigi's first trip to New York City. "We just want to see…something," she said. The security apparatus in place was designed to make sure that she could not.
The main event Friday is expected to include a concert. According to a report cited by The Hollywood Reporter, arena video waivers have been circulated that could allow footage from the concert to be released publicly.