Feature writing

Is one of the biggest artists in the world secretly getting hitched to her sports star fiancé at Madison Square Garden? The idea may not be as wild as it sounds.

As ever for one of the most commercially successful artists in history, there are clues, rumours, zero confirmations and a mushrooming hoopla of hype. The first big question: is the globally renowned American singer-songwriter and billionaire Taylor Swift (14-time Grammy winner; 100 million plus albums sold and counting) about to imminently marry her fiance, Travis Kelce (for sports fans, the American footballer who helped the Kansas City Chiefs reach a record five Super Bowls in six years, winning three; for non-sports fans, a 6ft 5in, 250lb handbag)?

The second: are these nuptials planned to take place at New York City’s iconic Madison Square Garden — the venue of choice for some of the world’s biggest concerts and location of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier’s “Fight of the Century” in 1971 – and to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the most important date in America’s history, when it cemented its independence from Britain?

The New York Times certainly suggested as much on Wednesday, reporting that “a multiple-day event at Madison Square Garden” was being organised, which an entertainment industry executive said Swift had rented. Apparently, an “intimate gathering” at the Garden on July 2, with 100 people in attendance, will be followed 24 hours later by “a splashier celebration” with around 1,000 guests. A figure of $20 million has been mooted as a possible budget.

Which would be the wedding? Could it be neither, and both events are satellite knees-ups? Some wonder it the couple may marry privately somewhere else (maybe a little more conventionally pretty than a massive arena), then decamp to Madison Square Garden to party. Swift’s Holiday House mansion in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, could serve that purpose if she wanted to tie the knot in intimate surroundings, overlooking the water.

The singer, though, has built a longstanding bond with New York and, as with every love that has driven her crazy, she has previously expressed the magnetic attraction it has held over her in song, with Welcome to New York. Her one-time rental on Cornelia Street in Greenwich Village inspired a song of the same title, and she has recorded at Electric Lady Studios, also in the Village. When she was spotted there on June 15, entering at 8pm and leaving at 6am the following morning, rumours quickly circulated that she was working on music for her 13th album. (Again: release date unknown. Again: hype growing, especially if it may somehow link to the wedding.) But perhaps she was actually planning for a spectacle at the Garden — or MSG, as some prefer to call it.

A permit has been filed with city authorities to close the streets around the arena from July 2 to midday on July 4, The New York Times reported. Amtrak officers who patrol Penn Station below the arena have apparently been told to expect a Swift wedding. The New York Times also reported that people who work for Swift have been seen at a production campus where sets for major concerts are constructed, while a prominent event-planning company has sought permission to set up a tent or canopy outside MSG for the event.

No one — from Swift’s team to the various companies — has said or confirmed anything, although last week Kelce’s father, Ed, let slip to the TV station Fox 29 Philadelphia that he was “super excited. She is a sweetheart”. Kelce’s friend, the San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk, has described the anticipated ceremony as America’s version of a “royal wedding”. Is that going a little far?

As of now, the couple’s putative wedding has not been the talk of the local bodega in NYC. This past weekend, New Yorkers I spoke to were more focused on the city’s Pride march and festivities (which culminated on Sunday), World Cup fever (after England played Panama on Saturday, the subway stations rang to scattered chants of “Ingerlllaannd”) and whatever plans residents have for July 4 itself, for which a record-setting 72.2 million Americans are expected to travel. So far, there are no Taylor-Travis murals or celebratory graffiti peppering walls and sidewalks.

But events and vibes in this town turn on a New York minute. On Saturday, the New York Post reported that former Fleetwood Mac icon Stevie Nicks and country star Tim McGraw are planning to perform. All the major TV networks are buzzing with excitement, reporting every new rumour and detail. By the wedding weekend itself, expect all the hype to have done the trick, and a media and public circus to be in full swing at the Garden.

There will certainly only be one place Swift’s fans will wish to be, and there are an awful lot of them. More than 273 million Swifties follow the singer on Instagram, and since she let them know she’d finally found her match last August — posting the message “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married” along with a selection of schmaltzy images of the two now 36-year-olds loved up in a rose garden — 37.4 million of them have “hearted” their approval.

Traditionally, Manhattan is something of a ghost town on July 4 weekend (apart from tourists and doughty stay-at-homes), with residents heading home to family or chichi boltholes like the Hamptons. On Independence Day for the 250th anniversary itself, though, the annual Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks will flare into spectacular life on both the Hudson and East Rivers, as well as the Brooklyn Bridge. If the wedding goes ahead, it would certainly give New Yorkers another reason to stay in town.

It would also add to the epic summer the city has been experiencing. As well as the influx of football fans for the World Cup (the final takes place across the Hudson, at New Jersey Stadium on July 19), at the start of the month, the city’s “comeback kings”, the Knicks, won basketball’s NBA finals for the first time in over 50 years. New Yorkers celebrated in grand, loud and gaudy style, and Swift was seen cheering them on at their home – yes, they play at Madison Square Garden — for game four of the NBA Finals on June 10, alongside Mariska Hargitay, the star of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and the singers Alana and Este Haim. Could she have been scoping out the joint as well as cheering on the home team?

“Taylor is a genius,” Este told People afterwards. “She was the one that came up with the idea and Alana was the one that executed it. I just was the body, the vessel that housed the shirt.” The tops she’s referring to were custom-made fan T-shirts: Swift’s read “Stevie Knicks”. As someone who loves to drop coded messages about her life into songs, the pun now reads like an inside joke for her wedding band and guests.

Talking of which, Page Six reports that these will include Ed Sheeran, Gigi Hadid, the Haim sisters, Suki Waterhouse, Cara Delevingne and the Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid. None has flashed gold-embossed invitations on social media.

They are either sworn to secrecy or, as some reports suggest, the event is so clandestine that guests will only be told the exact location by phone to prevent leaks. Several members of the Chiefs team are reported to have rooms booked at the Marriott Marquis just off Times Square, which is barely a five-minute subway ride from the Garden.

Here is some advice from a local for Taylor, Travis and their guests: book out The View, the revolving bar atop the Marquis — as you drink cocktails (recommended: the vesper and popstar martinis) and munch on wagyu pigs in blankets and prime rib sliders this chic and fun bar spins a full circle, revealing midtown Manhattan in its nutty neon, 360-degree splendour. The internal elevator that whooshes you skyward from street level to the apex of the hotel is its own Charlie-and-the-Chocolate-Factoryjoy. Not that Swift and Kelce need my advice. They eat out in the city a lot; their favourite spots have included Torrisi, San Vicente West Village, Lucali and Via Carota, and are such ubiquitous diners that Vogue penned its very own “Taylor Swift Restaurant Guide to New York City”

While many scoff that a giant arena in the middle of New York couldn’t possibly be the wedding venue for one of the world’s biggest pop stars, it wouldn’t be the legendary sports and entertainment venue’s first headline-making nuptials. In 1982, it was the site of an extraordinary “Moonie wedding” during which 4,000 followers of the Rev Sun Myung Moon were married in a bumper ceremony, with images showing rows of brides in billowing white dresses standing alongside their grooms.

Who will get the privilege of designing Swift’s gown? Like everything else, this remains a tight-lipped secret. According to Vogue, there are several contenders. If she wants to go all-American for a July 4 wedding, she’ll opt for Ralph Lauren, the magazine says, noting she wore the label’s black-and-white halter dress for her engagement photos.

Other possibilities include Vivienne Westwood (which she has worn to watch the Chiefs play and at the Grammys), Schiaparelli (“to bring the drama”), Wiederhoeft (to support an up-and-coming New York-based brand) or two designers she has worn many times before — Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia, in their helming of both the Oscar de la Renta and Monse brands. (Particularly memorable was the sky-blue floral cutout De la Renta gown Swift wore to the premiere of The Eras Tour concert film.) Page Six reports that Swift will wear multiple outfits for the celebration, with Kim and Garcia the “top contenders” to design “the dress” itself.

Such speculation is entirely in keeping with the air of mystery Swift has long fostered around her life and work. And who knows? By providing a showstopping, quintessentially American spectacle in the middle of New York on the weekend that America marks its 250th anniversary, she could bring some joy to what has become a divided and fraught country.

As for the icing on the wedding cake, it would also knock whatever hopes Donald Trump has to own the headlines on this historic holiday, stoking the longstanding enmity between the pair. The president famously said, “I hate Taylor Swift”, after she declared her opposition to him. Is revenge a slice of wedding cake served cold?