Taylor Swift breaks Australian records as fans flood ticketing site

Taylor Swift has broken an Australian record for people attempting to buy concert tickets as over 4 million eager fans across the country tried to buy tickets in the second presale for the pop star’s highly anticipated Eras Tour.

At 9.30am, half an hour before presale tickets for the star’s Sydney dates opened, more than 800,000 Swifties were anxiously waiting in the Ticketek online lounge.

Taylor Swift fan Bianca Davino secured her tickets after three hours waiting in the Ticketek queue.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Sydney-based Swiftie Bianca Davino, 25, managed to scoop up four tickets after waiting in the queue for three hours – an experience she said was like “waiting for Godot”.

“It was a test of patience, a test of stamina. It was a test of mental endurance,” Davino said. “This is the cultural event of the century, so to be part of it is amazing. Even though I will be up in the nosebleeds, just being in the atmosphere and getting to soak it all up – it’s worth it.”

In Melbourne, it took Dee Salmin, 29, about two hours to nab her ticket. Once she was finally admitted from the queue, there were only single seats left, leaving her with the difficult decision between going alone or not at all.

“I had to make the executive decision that I would just go by myself and hope for the best. When you’re a Swiftie, you make friends. You make it work,” Salmin said. “But none of my friends got tickets. I felt really bad.”

Dee Salmin (centre) managed to secure a presale ticket, but her friends did not.Credit: Justin McManus

More than half a billion bot attempts – which largely come from ticket scalpers – were also repelled by the ticketing website, a Ticketek spokesman said.

Sydney presale tickets sold out at 2pm, while Melbourne tickets sold out just past 4pm. Other than a few complaints on social media regarding the length of the time some users were made to wait in the digital waiting area, Ticketek confirmed the release of the second batch went smoothly, leaving many fans breathing a sigh of relief.

“It was a nightmare. Stuff kept crashing, so we were going from iPads to phones to computers until we finally got in,” said Isabella Edwards.Credit: Janie Barrett

Swifties were left floundering earlier this week when the American Express ticket site crashed due to high demand during the Sydney VIP presale. Though the site resolved the issue before the sale ended, tickets soon sold out.

The first presale on Monday was available to American Express cardholders looking to buy VIP packages in advance. These tickets cost between $349.90 and $1249.90. The second presale was available for Frontier Touring members, with ticket prices ranging from $79.90 to $379.90, though Ticketek notes that all ticket prices are “subject to change at any time without notice”.

Some fans left the Frontier presale feeling as if their wildest dreams had been answered, but others were left anxiously awaiting their final chance on Friday when general release tickets will be made available. The not-so-lucky last will have the chance to buy tickets for Swift’s Sydney shows via Ticketek from 10am, while Melbourne fans will have access from 2pm.

Isabella Edwards, 23, joined the queue at 5.30am. About six hours later, she finally managed to buy three tickets for Sydney’s Friday night concert.

“It was a nightmare. Stuff kept crashing, so we were going from iPads to phones to computers until we finally got in,” Edwards said.

However, she said the hassle was worthwhile as it has secured her a chance to celebrate Swift’s music alongside thousands of her fellow fans. “It’s a huge concert now that you’ve got her full 10 albums out. We’re not just there for one album, we’re there for all 10,” she said. “That’s really exciting.”

Ticketek could not confirm how many tickets would be available during Friday’s general sale.

Fans looking to secure Eras Tour tickets have had multiple options: by signing up and obtaining a presale code through Frontier Touring, Crown, Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) or American Express– all of which had an allocation of presale tickets.

Many The Age and Sydney Morning Herald readers were also caught up in the ticket frenzy, with some saying they had waited in the Sydney presale queue for over two hours on two devices with no result, and others saying they had given up, opting instead to wait for the next sale to open.

But dedicated mother Cathi Walker said she managed to buy her daughter – who is overseas – a ticket after about 35 minutes. “[It was] totally nerve-racking as I knew how important it was to her,” she said.

Another reader, Dee, said her teenage daughters were “crying and screaming with their friends on the phone and hugging a Taylor Swift poster on the wall” while trying to buy their tickets.

Swift’s Australian tour kicks off in February next year, starting in Melbourne on February 16 and 17 and then heading to Sydney for shows on February 23, 24 and 25.

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