JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
We don't have royal weddings in the United States, but we do have confirmation from the Associated Press that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are expected to get married tonight at Madison Square Garden in New York. They cite a city permit and local police, though NPR has not independently confirmed. Just as the pop star and the football star were set to tie the knot, NPR's Brian Mann spent some of his cruel summer outside the Garden. And he's with us now from New York. Brian, how's it going?
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: Really good, Juana. How are you?
SUMMERS: I am well. So there has been just so much secrecy around this wedding. What do we actually know about it?
MANN: Yeah. There have actually been false alarms. People thought maybe this was happening last month, but details about today's wedding have been slowly leaking out. Mayor Zohran Mamdani winked about this while warning about the city's heat wave.
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ZOHRAN MAMDANI: My recommendation to all New Yorkers is to stay inside and stay cool. And if you happen to be getting married at Madison Square Garden, you will be staying inside and you will be staying cool.
MANN: And then yesterday, the Associated Press got a copy of that city permit that detailed some of this evening's event. It's expected to continue through early tomorrow morning with up to 1,000 guests, and streets around Madison Square Garden have been partially blocked already.
SUMMERS: And I understand you have been out there. You've been talking to Swifties today. What are Taylor Swift's fans telling you?
MANN: Yeah, this was a fun day. I heard a lot of joy. The connection people have to her and her music runs incredibly deep. Here's Kennedi Kersavagh, who lives in New York, and her friend Ashlee Sevilla, who's from Utah.
KENNEDI KERSAVAGH: Yeah, I have been listening since "Speak Now" and have loved her music. She's been my No. 1 artist since I was probably in first grade. Yeah.
ASHLEE SEVILLA: Yeah, I love her. She raised me, literally. She's amazing.
MANN: And Kersavagh told me one of the things that makes this moment special is that so many of Swift's fans feel like they haven't just shared her music. They've shared their lives with her.
KERSAVAGH: I feel like she captures, like, the feminine experience really well. So as a young girl growing up, I feel like she was writing songs about things that I was going through in a way that I could really connect with. So I've kind of grown up with her, and she's kind of explained my life for me before I even get to that step.
MANN: Yeah. So I heard a lot of that love and excitement.
SUMMERS: Yeah, you can totally hear it. Now, renting Madison Square Garden, that's certainly a choice. How's that playing with fans?
MANN: You know, some pop culture critics have thrown a little shade about this. They've questioned Swift's decision to go really big with this much glitziness and apparent extravagance. But I didn't hear any of that today. Here's Lauren Gamette from Idaho.
LAUREN GAMETTE: Oh, I'm so happy for her. I feel like she's gone through so many different relationships and different experiences, and she deserves all the love. So I'm so happy for her.
MANN: And I also spoke with Lisa Benham, who's visiting from England with her daughter. They're both big fans.
LISA BENHAM: I'm thrilled for her. I love it. I love the whole story. I am so pleased for them, really pleased for them.
MANN: So people have just been following this romance closely. They described this as a really happy moment in Taylor Swift's story.
SUMMERS: OK, I've got to ask. Those of us who are fans, are we going to get to see any of this wedding ceremony?
MANN: You know, I've been looking, and I haven't been able to find any announced plans, Juana, that tonight's celebration is going to be made public. But the Swifties I talked to today, they do expect that to happen. Again, Taylor Swift has just shared so much of her life, including her romantic life, through her songs and documentaries and interviews and books. So there's a lot of anticipation and I guess I'd say hope that at some point, fans will get to see and share at least some parts of this big moment.
SUMMERS: NPR's Brian Mann in New York. Brian, have fun out there.
MANN: All right, thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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