More than 15 per cent of Australians tried to buy Taylor Swift Eras tour tickets
Productivity in Australia was lagging on Wednesday — and it’s all Taylor Swift’s fault.
Not even Charlie Bucket would have made the cut for Taylor Swift tickets.
In scenes not even Roald Dahl could have imagined, more than four million people logged on and waited online on Wednesday for more than eight hours to buy the first general admission tickets for the Australian leg of Swift’s Eras tour.
“Ticketek managed to repel more than half a billion bot attempts (which come from scalpers) and more than 4 million people across Sydney and Melbourne were trying to secure tickets today,” an exhausted Ticketek spokesman told The Australian.
Some local Swift fans left were furious and stressed, and vented their fury online, as the official site selling tickets for her Australian shows experienced record-breaking traffic and sales.
Ticketek confirmed there were no technical glitches, just an unprecedented event.
Presale turned into a pilgrimage for the remaining 450,000 spots to her Sydney and Melbourne shows slated for February 2024 which went on sale for Frontier Tour members at 10am AEST on Wednesday with the Ticketek site and app experiencing an influx of traffic hours as early as 4am.
The Wall Street Journal reports Ms Swift’s epic Eras Tour is on track to become the biggest in concert history, with the potential to gross over $1 billion when it wraps up next year.
“It’s easier to get a Hermes crocodile Birkin,” Sydney business owner Ami Kassra said after more than four hours virtually queuing online for the chance to buy tickets.
She missed out.
Ms Kassra said she expected many people – stressed parents, fans and even grandparents – would trade in a coveted and exclusive Hermès bag that costs upwards of $50,000 where selected “clients” spend years on waiting lists for the opportunity for the opportunity to see Swift live.
Money couldn’t buy access. Sophia Forrest, the actor daughter of Australia’s richest man Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest, missed out and instead took to tagging friends in ticket giveaway competitions on Instagram for the chance to score a seat.
Not even the Prime Minister has a ticket.
No one, it seems, is immune to what Anthony Albanese calls “Tay Tay fever”.
Leaked photo of the #ticketek server for Taylor Swift pic.twitter.com/SB5Bbaj954
— Trending_Memes (@Trending_Memers) June 28, 2023
Only people who can sing the full ten-minute version of All Too Well by heart should be allowed to buy Taylor Swift tickets.
— Nadine J. Cohen (@nadinevoncohen) June 28, 2023
That’s how he diagnosed it this week.
“Tay-Tay fever is here. It will be here for many months leading up to the gig so I‘m just hoping I can get a ticket. I haven’t got one yet,” Mr Albanese said.
“I’m hoping to get an invite somewhere. We’ll wait and see how it goes.”
Mr Albanese is a confirmed “Swiftie” but refused to use “prime ministerial powers” to entice Ms Swift to stage more shows in Australia.
Mr Albanese, who used to DJ is spare time in opposition, was introduced to Swift through his then 14-year old son, Nathan.
He said Nathan – now 21 – had even called him while overseas to ask him if he could get him a ticket.
“I know that my son is overseas at the moment having his first big break with his partner. So, he checks in, and the one thing he rang me about the other day was he had heard about Taylor Swift, and he asked me to see if I could get him a ticket,” Mr Albanese said. “We will see how that goes.”
On Tuesday the Eras tour was given official “major event” status in Victoria in a bid to prevent ticket scalping.
The Andrews government triggered the special consumer legislation as the AMEX specific packages that sold out in less than three hours on Monday were then being resold for more than $3000.
Those hoping to secure general admission tickets to the five Australian shows will be eligible to sign in from 10am AEST on Friday.
The surge in demand is also being caused due to Ms Swift not staging any shows in New Zealand.
She also has just one South East Asian stop slated for Singapore later next year.
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