Small businesses in Cornwall, Ont. host ‘Taylor Swift Market’

All you had to do was stay in Cornwall, Ont. to shop at the “Taylor Swift Market.”

A number of small businesses in the area hosted hundreds of “Swifties” on Saturday, selling Taylor Swift-themed merchandise.

“We thought about doing it at a venue that was open space,” said Chelsea Maylon, one of the market’s organizers. “But then I thought it may be different to allow a kind of support downtown as well.”

Three different stores on Pitt Street allowed vendors to set up a shop inside, where hundreds of fans funneled in from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m..

“I had done a Taylor Swift product on my website,” explained Maylon. "It sold out and I had to restock it about ten times, maybe even more than that. So, I knew that the launch for Taylor Swift products was there. So, I thought to myself, ‘What if I did a market that was only Taylor Swift, only Taylor Swift items?’”

Swift is a globally-recognized singer and songwriter. She was named TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year in 2023. She also dominated headlines during the Kansas City Chiefs' most recent Super Bowl run, due to her relationship with star Tight End Travis Kelce.

She is in the middle of her historic Eras tour, and some fans in Cornwall have had the chance to see her.

“We went to Detroit and saw Taylor in Detroit, and we're going to Toronto this year,” said one fan.

Swift has won four Grammy awards for Best Album of the Year, the only artist to ever do so. In total, she has been nominated for 52 Grammy’s and has taken home 14 of them.

Back in Cornwall, her superstardom was evident on Saturday, even without her actually being present.