Taylor Swift’s Aussie fans crash American Express site in rush for concert tickets
Warnings about buying tickets to Taylor Swifts’ Australian gigs have been ramped up as the first window to get seats has closed. See why and tips to get your hands on some.
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The first window to buy Taylor Swift tickets has slammed shut.
The Amex Experience pre-sale, which was advertised to run for 48 hours from Monday when the Sydney box office opened, closed just five and half hours later.
An allocation of two top tier VIP packages to her five Sydney and Melbourne concerts next February were the only tickets available via that pre-sale.
The next ticket frenzy revs up again on Wednesday at 10am when the Frontier Members pre-sale opens, with all the details and tips below.
Ticketek and Frontier Touring have ramped up their warning to fans not to purchase tickets from unofficial resale sites.
Within hours of the show going on sale, resale site Viagogo was advertising an arena floor ticket to the Sydney concert on February 23 for a whopping $2329. The A Reserve and B Reserve floor seats are advertised at $379.90 and $309.9.
Tickets bought from unofficial sites are not guaranteed to get you into the gig.
“To protect fans, all ticket barcodes will be unlocked closer to the event date and will be accessible via the Ticketek App only,” Ticketek advised.
SWIFT FANS CRASH SITE AMID TICKET RUSH
Eager Taylor Swift fans have crashed the American Express website 30 minutes before the pre-sale for tickets to the star’s Australian concerts next year went on sale.
Amex cardholders had access to the first exclusive pre-sale, which offered limited access to the top tier VIP packages on offer for Swift’s five Eras Tour concerts in February.
The first lot of tickets were due to go on sale at 10am.
With Swift’s Australian promoters Frontier Touring and Ticketek bracing for a possible repeat of the technical difficulties at the next pre-sale on Wednesday and general onsale on Friday, they issued extensive instructions for stressed out Swifities.
— Ticketek Australia (@Ticketek_AU) June 26, 2023
Ahead of the Frontier Members pre-sale on Wednesday, CEO Dion Brandt urged fans not to panic.
“Our team at Frontier have been working tirelessly with Ticketek to try to ensure the smoothest process possible for these shows, but we are seeing a historically unprecedented level of demand for these concerts,” he said.
“We’re asking fans to stay calm and be kind to each other. Be prepared, read our presale tips and whatever you do – don’t refresh your browser. If you can’t get tickets during the presale don’t panic, there will be another opportunity at Friday’s on sale.”
Frontier is urging fans to get a Frontier Member presale code and bookmark the Ticketek Taylor Swift page.
When the pre-sale starts, fans should head directly to the Ticketek site and avoid opening multiple pages or using more than one device.
Australian Swifties are well aware of the ticketing chaos when the star’s American shows went on sale last November and the Ticketmaster site was flooded by 14 million visitors trying to buy 2.4 million tickets.
WHAT FANS CAN EXPECT
Music fans are not only adding hundreds of millions of dollars to Taylor Swift’s considerable wealth but injecting a much-needed economic boost to NSW and Victoria with her Eras Tour concerts.
The global pop juggernaut is projected to be one of the highest grossing tours in pop history, with ticket and merchandise sales predicted to generate up to $2 billion.
But Swift and her promoters won’t be the only ones pocketing significant profits at each stop of the world tour through 2023 and 2024.
A US research firm estimates that fans spend up to $1900 each to go to the show factoring in transport costs, accommodation, clothing, food and souvenirs.
The cash splash around the five shows she will perform in Australia will inject an estimated $36 million in economic revenue in NSW.
Business NSW predicts a third of concertgoers will be interstate and international, mostly from New Zealand, visitors.
“Visitors coming to NSW typically spend an average of $439. Swifties will be significant spenders on accommodation, dining, shopping and other entertainment,” Business NSW and Swift fan David Harding said.
“The state’s businesses have been doing it tough of late – being smashed by spiralling interest rates, rising energy prices, insurance premiums going through the roof and industrial relations changes. This economic boost will be welcome relief.”
Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Acting Chief Executive Antoinette Truda estimates “tens of millions of dollars in revenue” for Victoria.
“We are already hearing of surges in hotel and accommodation bookings before the tickets have even gone on sale,” she said.
“Add onto that ticket sales, venue takings and the job creation opportunities that will arise, Melbourne is looking at, conservatively speaking, tens of millions of dollars in revenue.”
But before all that cash gets splashed, fans need one thing – a ticket. They range in cost from top tier VIP packages at $1249.90 to nosebleed seats for $79.90 with the most popular categories going for more than $300.
Her Australian promoter Frontier Touring and Ticketek are bracing for millions of fans to swamp websites as the concerts go on sale this week, with less than 500,000 tickets available.
As well as seasoned Swifties sharing their tips of how to make it through the online queues, Ticketek has launched an education campaign.
Ticketek managing director Cameron Hoy cautioned demand will be at a “record level” with more than one million people hitting the agency’s website in the 24 hours after her shows were announced.
“We prioritise fair access to tickets for all fans and we want to ensure all fans are ready on the day,” Hoy said.
“Fans should create a Ticketek account in advance, have presale codes ready, not close or refresh their browser while waiting and keep an eye on the on-site check out timer,” he said.
“There is no doubt that there are going to be many disappointed fans given the demand for tickets.”
American Express customers will have first crack at tickets with their pre-sale opening on Monday – 10am for Sydney shows 2pm for Melbourne concerts – with all details via www.Amex.com.au/Experiences.
The Frontier Members pre-sale is on Wednesday from 10am for Sydney gigs and 2pm for Melbourne, with all details at frontiertouring.com/taylorswift.
The general on sale via Ticketek on Friday also starts at 10am for Sydney shows and 2pm for Melbourne concerts.
There are other options for fans who miss out via the official sales. Radio networks Nova, Hit and KIIS all have ticket giveaway competitions.
From Saturday and running for six weeks, the KIIS network is giving 20 listeners the chance to win a “row of tickets” for them and five friends.
Across its metro and regional stations, Hit is giving away tickets and trips to the five concerts.
And then there’s Taylor-gating where those without tickets hang outside the concert for the vicarious thrill of it all.
WHICH ERAS TOUR TICKET TO BUY
MCG – February 16 and 17.
Accor Stadium, Sydney – February 23, 24, 25.
A limit of four tickets per person.
A Reserve $379.90
B Reserve $309.90
C Reserve $239.90
D Reserve $199.90
E Reserve $159.90
F Reserve $119.90
G Reserve $79.90
It’s Been A Long Time Coming Package $1249.90
Karma Is My Boyfriend Package $899.90
I Remember It All Too Well Package $749.90
Ready For It Package $599.90
It’s A Love Story Package $399.90
We Never Go Out Of Style Package $349.90
WHAT’S THE BIG SURPRISE?
It’s not easy being an Aussie Swifty.
When your idol is a powerful and popular Global Pop Star and announces the “international dates” for her 2024 Eras Tour, with a cute “EXCUSE ME HI I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY” post, it drops at 2am here because Taylor Swift is all things to all people in all time zones.
Then there is the week-long, pre tickets on sale anxiety to manage. And shout out to the mums and dads too who will suffer associated stress.
It is predicted there may be more than two million fans and their family members trying to log on to pre-sales and the general on sale this week.
The president of the University of Melbourne’s Swifties’ Society Azalea Rohaizam said she had asked her parents and brother to create their own Ticketek accounts to shore up her chances of scoring the coveted tickets to her five Australian shows.
“In the group chat, they were giving out tips to make sure your families help,” she told the ABC last week.
So far there are five concerts in Melbourne and Sydney in February – fans are crossing fingers she may add one more show in Victoria.
That of course is of little comfort to the Swifties in other capital cities who have been left off the schedule because it is impossible for the mammoth Eras Tour stage and production to be shipped around the country in between the Japan and Singapore legs which bookend her Australian visit.
But perhaps the greatest test to the devotion and enthusiasm of Aussie Swifties is the show itself.
Since the Eras Tour opened in March in Glendale, Arizona – renamed Swift City for the occasion – there have been hundreds of millions of clips posted on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube capturing almost every second of the 44 songs performed over more than three hours.
Fans have marvelled at her lightning quick costume changes. There’s the glittering silver Atelier Versace bodysuit and blazer and Christian Louboutin boots. The fringed gold Roberto Cavalli dress and the red snake adorned long-short bodysuit. The Nicole + Felicia Couture gown. The sparkling red Ashish coat. The ruffled Alberta Ferretti gown. And the fluffy lavender Oscar de la Renta coat and sequined dress. More T-shirts, shorts, skirts and boho dresses.
One of the concert’s highlights which went viral on TikTok after her opening shows earlier this year was that jaw-dropping stage dive. Swift launches herself head first and fearless into a hole in the stage just before the final Midnights set to “swim” across the vast space.
Fan videos have captured how she pulls off this amazing feat, right down to the red light cautioning to hold her position before a green light signals the crew are ready for her to jump and presumably land on a crash mat.
So after watching all those clips, what does Swift keep up her sleeve so the Eras Tour concerts in Melbourne and Sydney don’t feel like you’ve seen it all before?
It’s the surprise songs acoustic set.
The mammoth production, its enormous screens and graphics matched to each chapter of her Eras require that the bulk of her setlist remains the same.
So Swift built in a small section where she could change things up each night and give fans something they would only see at that show.
Fans are well aware her surprise song has been a “tradition” since the Red Tour a decade ago but she also delighted with the assortment of different covers she played during the Speak Now world tour in 2011 and 2012.
Counting out the 42 songs which stay locked in the setlist, Swift has more than 180 other recorded tracks to choose for each night on tour and has flagged she will try not to repeat any of them.
As of her June 17 concert in Pittsburgh, she has performed 13 from Red (Taylor’s Version), 12 from Fearless (Taylor’s Version), nine from Taylor Swift, eight from Midnights, eight from 1989, seven from Speak Now, five from folklore, three from evermore, three from Lover and two from Reputation.
One glaring omission from The Eras Tour compared to her previous world jaunts is the meet and greet.
Swift was famous for her lavish grin-and-grips with a clutch of radio and television personalities and lucky fans, who either paid for the privilege or won radio station competitions, for a chance to tour the backstage area with Swift’s mother Alison and score a photo opportunity in an often lavishly decorated room within the stadium or arena.
But meet and greets are no more in the Covid Era. With the tour scheduled at this stage to run until August when she performs at Wembley Stadium in London and the show requiring the same stamina and energy output as an elite athlete, Swift cannot afford to get sick.
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