Fans flock to the MCG ahead of Taylor Swift’s sold out show in Melbourne
Upset attendees discovered their tickets were invalid moments before the show started, after thousands of fans’ Ticketek accounts were hacked and their tickets stolen | LIVE UPDATES
High expectations and live music can be a dangerous combination. Go to enough gigs and you might become conditioned to keep your hopes somewhere near the basement, so that if the experience doesn’t quite ascend to the top floor, you’re not left shattered with disappointment.
Try telling that to the 100,000 or so people at the first Australian concert of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour, though, to be held in Melbourne on Friday night.
For many young fans, as they descend upon the Melbourne Cricket Ground in flocks of sequins, feathers and cowboy boots, this run of shows will be their first taste of live music. Only a true curmudgeon would wish them anything other than the greatest night of their lives.
For The Eras Tour, about 630,000 total tickets were sold, yet an unthinkable number of fans were still left disappointed.
But not for the lucky ones at the show tonight gleefully waiting as the clock ticks down to the first night of the Australian leg of Swift’s juggernaut tour.
Jake Wagenfeller was among the first of the attendees to trickle towards the MCG. He told The Australian he had purchased tickets to each of Swift’s seven shows across Melbourne and Sydney, an endeavor costing around $10,000. The songs he is most excited to see Swift perform live?
“Treacherous and King of My Heart. I’m hoping out of any of the seven shows she performs at least one of them once,” he said.
It's barely even obstructed oh my god #MelbourneTSTheErasTourpic.twitter.com/TItGJz6J2r
— Maegan⸆⸉ MELB N1 + N3 🎉🖤 (@daisymaegs) February 16, 2024
The entire MCG is VIOLENTLY shaking 😅😅#erastourmelbourne#erastour#TaylorSwift#Melbourne#MelbourneTSTheErasTourpic.twitter.com/C6GpsErUs3
— Leon Sjogren (@Leonsjogren) February 16, 2024
What an entrance! 😠Such a privilege to be watching Taylor Swift live at her first Melbourne concert! â¤ï¸ #MelbourneTSTheErasTourpic.twitter.com/21qifaKe1r
— Margy Osmond (@MargyOsmond) February 16, 2024
Taylor crying at how big the 96,000 MCG crowd is #erastourmelbourne#ErasTour#Melbourne#TaylorSwift#MelbourneTSTheErasTourpic.twitter.com/QM91ZpVcPY
— Leon Sjogren (@Leonsjogren) February 16, 2024
Despite the mood amongst the vast majority of the so-called “Swifties” being one of scarcely believable excitement and happiness, there were several upset attendees who had fallen victim to the hacking which has plagued many of the estimated 4.5 million people who tried to get tickets for the tour.
Deborah Golden was at the concert with her friend Jenny Bjorklund and their daughters Elizabeth and Liv, a birthday present for the two teenagers.
When they arrived at the MCG and tried to scan in, they were told their tickets were no longer valid. Despite a desperate attempt to remedy the situation at the ticketing enquiries window, they were told the tickets had been removed from Ms Golden’s Ticketek account and transferred to someone else.
“How can this happen, I’ve already downloaded them from Ticketek into the ticket wallet on my phone, and then I go into my Ticketek account and it says they’ve been recalled,” a devastated Ms Golden told The Australian.
“I think Ticketek have a lot to answer for, I’ve just been told the cyber crime for this event has been absolutely off the charts but that doesn’t help me get in.”
A woman and her daughter standing outside the MCG just over an hour into Swift’s set also appeared to be victims of the cybercrime plaguing the Eras tour.
“Check in (Facebook) Messenger, that’s where the tickets are,” the woman shouted down the phone as her distraught daughter sobbed next to her.
Facebook Marketplace is understood to have been rife with scammers preying on desperate fans in the run up to the event.
The pair declined to speak to The Australian and refrained from joining in with the hundreds of other Swifties singing their hearts out outside the concert.
Hundreds of ticketless Swifties singing their hearts out outside the MCG. Many more camped out with picnics in Yarra Park. #taylorswift#erastourmelbournepic.twitter.com/EfqOzoXD0M
— Angus McIntyre (@AngusMcIntyre58) February 16, 2024
Who needs a ticket? #erastourmelbourne#taylorswift#MCGpic.twitter.com/XB2jukrjGJ
— Angus McIntyre (@AngusMcIntyre58) February 16, 2024
Earlier in the evening fanatical fans were waiting outside each gate over an hour before doors were set to open despite the concert being an all-seated event. Decked out in an eclectic variety of outfits, attendees arrived as kings and queens, cowboys and cowgirls and, of course, many were covered in sequins and glitter. Some male attendees had gone for a more modest approach, wearing NFL gear as a homage to Swift’s Super Bowl champion boyfriend Travis Kelce.
It was a generally orderly scene, screaming aside, when gates opened shortly before 4.30pm. Fans used the time in the queue to trade friendship bracelets, a hallmark of “Swifties” around the world. The forearms of some fans were barely visible due to the number of bracelets they’d managed to trade with their fellow concertgoers.
Over a thousand fans swarmed the merchandise tents outside the MCG with just over an hour until the Taylor Swift concert began.
Mother and daughter duo Liz and Janice had travelled from the Mornington Peninsula for the concert.
“I don’t need to be a super fan, I’ve got two daughters,” Liz, who was celebrating her 50th birthday said with a laugh.
Janice, definitely the more fanatical of the two, said she couldn’t wait for her second glimpse of her icon having previously attended Swift’s “1989” tour in 2015.
The din from inside the MCG when Taylor Swift took to the stage shortly after 7.30pm was extraordinary, even 100 metres outside the entrance.
Hundreds of adoring fans who had missed out on tickets gathered outside the gates, craning their necks around unimpressed security guards just to get a glimpse of their idol.
Swifties young and old danced on the concourse as Swift opened with Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince followed by hit Cruel Summer, The Man, You Need to Calm Down and Lover. The singer performed songs from her each of her albums, including Lover, Fearless, evermore, Reputation, Speak Now, Red and Folklore.
ðŸŸï¸| 96k people singing the classic that is “Lover†💕#MelbourneTSTheErasTourpic.twitter.com/y3wuiAI6dm
— Taylor Swift Updates 🤠(@swifferupdates) February 16, 2024
Police and security did the fans outside the entrance the courtesy of waiting until the end of the first song to move them along.
Many more set up for a picnic on the grass next to Jolimont Terrace, not letting the minor inconvenience of not having a ticket stop them from enjoying an evening of Swift Mania.
At 10pm Swift was still going strong, prompting the crowd to its feet for a bracket of songs from her 2014 album, titled 1989, before surprising fans with songs Red and You’re Losing Me.
Swift then revealed an alternative cover to her upcoming album The Tortured Poet’s Department, that “no one has seen”.
“There is an exclusive song on this vinyl called the Bolter. So this is called the Bolter edition,” Swift said, before launching into songs Lavender Haze, Anti-Hero and Midnight Rain from her 2022 album Midnights.
🚨| Taylor Swift announcing new variant of "THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT" at tonight's show of 'The Eras Tour" in Melbourne, Australia! #MelbourneTSTheErasTour
— The Eras Tour (@tswifterastour) February 16, 2024
pic.twitter.com/0Tc0yq4JKk
‼ï¸| Tonight’s surprise songs are 'Red' and 'You're Losing Me'#MelbourneTSTheErasTourpic.twitter.com/BAlWgeottT
— The Swift Society (@TheSwiftSociety) February 16, 2024
definitely not going out of style not in the foreseeable future#MelbourneTSTheErasTour N1pic.twitter.com/5jy3jrUntQ
— ClareAnne (@ClareAngels13) February 16, 2024
The crowd of ticketless fans who had stayed to singalong from outside the MCG began to thin slightly as the concert approached its end.
Some of the hundreds, if not thousands, of Swifties who had packed each gate began to make their way home to beat the 96,000 people who would shortly be exiting the stadium.
As Taylor Swift wrapped up her near three and a half hour set, thousands of devoted fans poured out of the MCG into the cool Melbourne night.
“Seriously, the best night ever,” was a common refrain amongst the satisfied Swifties. One gentleman walked past in a Rolling Stones t-shirt and, whatever you think of Swift’s music, the level of devotion she attracts surely puts her on that level.
One security guard, who asked not to be named, told The Australian the word amongst her colleagues had been that 10,000 adoring fans stayed to listen from outside without tickets.
“It’s just been wonderful,” she said. “We had to move them back a bit from the entrance but they’ve been so good.”
Superlatives were not in short supply as those lucky enough to secure tickets trickled out of the MCG to join the hordes of fans who had remained outside throughout the show.
“12 out of 10!” yelled one cowboy-hatted woman, with her group of friends unanimous in the opinion that they had seen something special.
Marianne, 45, who had travelled from Brisbane with her daughter Sasha, 17, to see the show said it had “just been the best [night]” as Sasha appeared too starstruck to even speak.
“Whatever we were expecting, this was just more. Amazing,” Marianne said before leading her daughter into the night with thousands of other satisfied fans.
Taylor Swift will perform in Melbourne on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, followed by Sydney (February 23-26).
