Crowds flock to Melbourne Airport at 1am to greet Taylor Swift

If you’re not a fan of Taylor Swift, you may want to book a last-minute international holiday for the next fortnight.

Australia, we were never going to be chill about this, were we?

Omnipresent pop deity Taylor Swift landed in Melbourne in the early hours of Friday morning, her private jet touching down at the city’s Private Jet Base just before 1am.

Despite the late night arrival and chilly 14 degree temperatures, a loyal group of Swifties were there to greet her arrival, wrapped in blankets and carrying makeshift cardboard signs as they strained to catch a glimpse of Swift.

Crowds gathered for Swift’s 12:50am arrival this morning. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Photos from Swift’s arrival show teenage girls stood balanced on a nearby fence for a better view, camera phones in hand, while their parents stood below making sure they didn’t fall off.

Younger Swifties were photographed wrapped in blankets.

The early-morning crowd is surely just a taste of what Swift can expect as she spends at least the next 11 days in the country, performing three huge stadium shows at Melbourne from tomorrow night before another four in Sydney, starting next Friday.

Mum’s staying in the car with the heater on. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Touchdown. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

It’ll be interesting to observe just how much of Swift we’ll actually see outside of her seven massive, three-hour-plus shows in Australia over the coming days.

Fellow stadium-filling pop superstar Pink is also touring this country right now, and showed last week that it is possible for a globally famous person to enjoy some under-the-radar downtime in this country.

Parents provide physical (and emotional) support to precariously-balanced Swifties. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

In photos shared to her Instagram last week before her Australian tour began, the singer shared that she’d enjoyed a low-key day in Bondi with her husband and kids, enjoying lunch at pavement tables at Sydney institution Bills without making a fuss. Later, the family went full tourist mode with a cycling tour around the Opera House and Circular Quay.

But it’s hard to imagine Swift being able to get away with flying under the radar quite so easily, given the intense public interest in her movements and personal life.

BYO blankets. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

If you didn’t get concert tickets, maybe this is the next best thing. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

In the past 10 days alone, she’s dominated the news multiple times: First at last Monday’s Grammy Awards, where she announced the release of her next studio album live on stage before later winning the night’s top award, Album of the Year, for a record-breaking fourth time.

Then this Monday, Swift’s presence became the overwhelming focus of the Super Bowl, as the star raced back from her tour commitments in Tokyo to cheer on boyfriend Travis Kelce as his team, the Kansas City Chiefs, romped to victory.

Swift is arguably the most famous person in the world right now – so a relaxed day off in Bondi or St Kilda during her Australian tour may risk causing absolute chaos.

Our prediction: Swift will use the upcoming four-day break between her Melbourne and Sydney shows to jet off somewhere remote and above all, private.

Swift’s flight, to Australia originating in Honolulu, Hawaii and designated VJT993, touched down at 12.50am, local time, giving her just less than 48 hours to settle in to Melbourne before her first show tomorrow night.

The pop star travelled in a Bombardier Global 6000, a luxurious private jet with a maximum range of 6000 nautical miles, and a capacity of just 17 passengers.