Taylor Swift ticket frenzy surprise discovery
As thousands of heartbroken Swifties miss out on presale tickets to her Aussie tour, the pop star has made a major announcement.
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As thousands of heartbroken Taylor Swift fans wipe away their tears after missing out on presale tickets to her Australian tour, the pop star has made a major announcement and it’s the news all fans wanted to hear.
The American star will be adding two more shows to her The Eras Tour in two states, locking in an extra show in both Sydney and Melbourne.
Ticketek shared the “huge news” with fans on Thursday morning at 6am.
“After a record-breaking pre-sale, additional shows have been added to Taylor Swift The Eras
Tour in both Melbourne and Sydney! All tickets will be available to purchase during tomorrow’s General Public On Sale.”
Swift will now perform a three-day run of her stage show in Melbourne with a new show added on Sunday, February 18 and four shows in Sydney with the final show on Monday, February 26.
Tickets for the two additional shows are set to go on sale on Friday from 10am AEST via the Ticketek website.
HALF A BILLION BOTS BOOTED IN SWIFT FRENZY
Taylor Swift and her Australian promoter and ticketing agency have struck a major blow against opportunistic scalpers.
A Ticketek spokesperson said “more than half a billion bot attempts were repelled during the Frontier Members pre-sale as more than four million people were trying to secure tickets”.
After decades of fan frustration at missing out on tickets to major tours and sporting events only to see them offered for hundreds of dollars more on resale sites, Frontier Touring and Ticketek made another change which may have made a big difference.
— Ticketek Australia (@Ticketek_AU) June 28, 2023
Lucky Swifties who made it through the hours-long queues to buy any of the 450,000 tickets on offer this week now have to wait until the eve of the gig for them to be delivered.
They will only be available via the Ticketek app in February so scalpers do not have a ticket to sell now.
Some tried to offer “tickets” on Viagogo and Tixel, among others, on Monday after the Amex pre-sale, but searches on Wednesday as the Frontier Members pre-sale launched returned no results.
Frontier Touring appears to have delivered another blow to unofficial resale sites by buying search ads to direct traffic to Ticketek.
A search for “Taylor Swift tickets” only returned Ticketek as the top result via a “sponsored” link.
“Taylor Swift Sydney tickets” returned links to both the Frontier Touring and Ticketek sites.
Typically, controversial resale site Viagogo has appeared at the top of searches for tickets to concerts and sports events.
But they don’t even come up on the first page of results and there were no Eras Tour tickets to the Sydney or Melbourne concerts available on their site on Wednesday.
Frontier has warned fans to stay clear of unauthorised resellers, including “Viagogo, The Ticket Merchant, Tixel, Trade Me, eBay, and Gumtree” or social media sites, as it could result in “your orders and tickets cancelled without notice to you and your ticket price refunded. The original purchaser and their party will be refused admission and any other orders and tickets they hold will also be cancelled without notice to them and their ticket price refunded.”
Tickets can only be resold from September via the official Ticketek portal.
While scalpers may have been held off, fans now have to battle price gouging and premium demand for accommodation and flights.
The Eras Tour “presenting partner” Crown Metropole is offering a Taylor Swift package from $1059, which includes breakfast, parking, a gift and food credit in a Luxe King room.
A Luxe King room two weeks earlier is available from $349.
Booking platform Hometime reports a 100 per cent increase in Melbourne-based bookings taken last week for Swift’s tour dates, compared with the last six months.
Tech experts have speculated many frustrated fans are encountering a waiting loop from hell because they were attempting to buy tickets via the same IP address as work mates or family members.
It is believed the Ticketek site would recognise several registered fans logging on to buy tickets from multiple devices on the same Wi-Fi network as one user.
The final “general” Eras Tour tickets go live on Friday, with the Sydney shows on sale from 10am and the Melbourne concerts from 2pm with fans advised to use their phones or a VPN.
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
Originally published as Taylor Swift ticket frenzy surprise discovery
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