How Much Did Taylor Swift Pay to Close NYC Streets for Her Wedding? Mayor Mamdani Reveals the Full Cost

Taylor Swift paid New York City more than $160,000 to cover the permit and police costs tied to closing streets around Madison Square Garden for her wedding to Travis Kelce, Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed Friday, addressing days of criticism over the use of city resources for the star-studded event.

Swift and Kelce married July 3 in a ceremony at Madison Square Garden attended by roughly 1,000 guests, transforming the Midtown Manhattan arena for the multi-day celebration. The wedding required street closures and crowd-control measures in the surrounding blocks, prompting complaints from some New Yorkers who argued the event disrupted traffic and diverted police attention at a time when officers were already stretched managing Fourth of July holiday festivities across the city.

Mamdani addressed the criticism directly Friday during a press conference after a reporter asked whether Swift would reimburse the city for police overtime connected to the wedding. "Taylor Swift will be paying, has paid already, the cost of the permit that was lodged, which was over $160,000 for that event, and for the response to that event," Mamdani told reporters. "And that was a permit that was finalized, I think, in just the days before the event itself."

The mayor's comments confirmed that the fee had already been paid before he was asked about it publicly, resolving at least part of the controversy that had built up in the days following the wedding. When a reporter pressed further, asking Mamdani to clarify whether the figure covered only the permit itself or also included separate NYPD overtime costs, the mayor said the payment was specifically for the permit, leaving open the question of whether additional policing costs might still fall to the city.

The New York Police Department confirmed it deployed dozens of officers to manage street closures and crowd control in the blocks surrounding Madison Square Garden during the wedding weekend. Ahead of the event, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch had addressed the department's role during a security briefing, saying officers would "have a detail in place" to support the wedding.

Road and street closures for large-scale private events in New York City typically require a special event permit issued through the city's Street Activity Permit Office, with organizers generally responsible for covering associated costs, including police staffing needed to manage the resulting disruption to public streets. Mamdani indicated that the permit application for Swift and Kelce's wedding had moved through the city's approval process on an unusually tight timeline, telling reporters the permit was "finalized... in just the days before the event itself."

The wedding's overall price tag dwarfed the permit fee itself. Media reports have placed the total cost of the multi-day celebration anywhere from roughly $15 million to more than $30 million, a figure that included an elaborate transformation of Madison Square Garden into a secret-garden-themed venue for the ceremony. In the lead-up to the wedding, Swift and Kelce were reported to have donated approximately $26 million to a range of New York-based charitable organizations, including groups focused on hunger relief, food banks, education and music programs, a gesture some observers interpreted as an effort to offset goodwill amid the disruption caused by the event's scale.

The guest list for the ceremony read like a cross-section of Hollywood and professional sports. Attendees included Gigi Hadid, Bradley Cooper, Dakota Johnson, Selena Gomez, Mariska Hargitay, Peter Hermann, Ed Sheeran and Cherry Seaborn, alongside actors Hugh Grant, Ethan Hawke and Jason Sudeikis, singer Benson Boone, retired soccer star Abby Wambach, and NFL players Chris Jones and Cooper Kupp, many of whom were photographed arriving at the arena in black-tie attire ahead of a cocktail hour.

The ceremony itself broke from several wedding traditions. Comedian Adam Sandler officiated the vows, and the couple forwent a traditional bridal party of bridesmaids and groomsmen. Instead, Swift's brother, Austin Swift, served as her "man of honor," while Kelce's brother, retired NFL center Jason Kelce, stood in as his best man, according to a representative for the couple.

The road-closure controversy is not the first time a major celebrity event in New York City has drawn scrutiny over public resource use, though the timing added to public frustration in this instance. The wedding weekend overlapped closely with Independence Day, a period when the NYPD is typically already operating under heightened staffing demands to manage citywide holiday crowds, fireworks displays and related security needs across the five boroughs.

Swift and Kelce's relationship first became public in 2023, after the NFL tight end revealed he had unsuccessfully attempted to give the singer a friendship bracelet bearing his phone number during a stop on her Eras Tour. Weeks later, Swift began attending Kansas City Chiefs games, a habit that continued through subsequent seasons as she became a regular presence cheering Kelce on from the stands. She publicly confirmed the relationship in December 2023 and made it Instagram official in June 2024. Kelce, in turn, frequently attended stops on Swift's record-breaking Eras Tour in a show of support. The couple announced their engagement in August 2025, roughly eleven months before their wedding.

Representatives for Swift had not issued a public response to Mamdani's remarks as of Friday. A representative for the couple has previously confirmed select wedding details to media outlets, including the roles of Austin Swift and Jason Kelce in the ceremony and the scale of the guest list, but has not directly addressed the road-closure permit or the broader public debate over the city's police response.

Whether any additional costs beyond the initial $160,000 permit fee, including specific NYPD overtime expenses tied to the multi-day security operation, will ultimately be billed separately to the couple remains unclear based on Mamdani's comments, which specified only that the figure disclosed Friday covered the permit itself. City officials had not announced plans as of Friday to release further financial details connected to the event, and Mamdani's office did not immediately provide additional comment beyond his remarks at the press conference.