Taylor Swift fans left furious after hour long waits result in sell out signs on Ticketek website
The Eras tour is heading down under and no one is immune from ticket envy for the Shake It Off singer’s new show, not even our politicians – who also can’t get tickets.
More than 800,000 people waited online on Wednesday to buy the first general admission tickets for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour.
Some local Taylor Swift fans 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.
Presale for the remaining 450,000 spots to her Sydney and Melbourne shows slated for February 2024 went on sale for Frontier Tour members at 10am AEST on Wednesday with the Ticketek site and app experiencing an influx of traffic hours before.
Customers wanting to snap up tickets to the Sydney shows languished in the virtual “waiting room” for hours with no luck. The presale allocation was exhausted in about three hours.
ITS BEEN AN HOUR WHAT DO YOU MEAN IM STILL ON THE SAME PAGE #ticketek#ErasTourticketspic.twitter.com/U0Q4Jowjt2
— ashley (@ashbarinn) June 28, 2023
Ticketek released a statement encouraging those online to be patient after “#ticketek” started trending on Twitter and TikTok.
“Customers are successfully purchasing. Please be patient and don’t refresh your browser,” the statement said.
“Lots of Swifties are looking to make their Wildest Dreams come true by securing Taylor Swift tickets right now.
“The Ticketek site is working and fans are successfully purchasing tickets.
“We recommend having your Ticketek account details and payment info ready, as there are lots of Swifties that are excited to Shake It Off this summer!
“Please Stay Stay Stay on the page and don’t refresh your browser. The page refreshes itself frequently to let more fans through to purchase. Sit tight, your turn is coming.”
A spokesman confirmed to The Australian, the site and app did not “crash”, tickets just sold out - extremely quick.
Leaked photo of the #ticketek server for Taylor Swift pic.twitter.com/SB5Bbaj954
— Trending_Memes (@Trending_Memers) June 28, 2023
Those hoping to secure tickets to the two Melbourne shows from February 16, 2024 will be eligible to sign in from 2pm AEST on Wednesday.
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.
💌
— midnight rain 🦋 will get eras tour tickets (@flowers4lourry) June 27, 2023
Please, if you don’t live in Australia or any neighbouring countries, do not buy tickets to the eras tour here. We all want a chance to see her, and you can get tickets for when she goes to your country. There’s limited tickets so I just want all aussies, including myself, +
Tickets for the general public will go on sale on Friday at 10am AEST for the three Sydney shows, set to be staged at Accor Stadium from February 23, and 2pm for Melbourne.
Tickets start at $79.
REMINDER ✨ Our Frontier Member presale for @taylorswift13 | The Eras Tour kicks off tomorrow! Make sure you’re prepared by following our tips
— Frontier Touring (@frontiertouring) June 27, 2023
Presale times:
Syd 👉 10am
Mel 👉 2pm
🎫 https://t.co/ACaBMg7d4A
Not a Member? Sign up for early ticket access → https://t.co/lzCL0fF0Ippic.twitter.com/awakkAUR4u
This isn’t the first technical issue Ticketek has endured this week.
Demand for $1249.90 VIP packages, which were made available to American Express cardholders, caused ticketing websites and AMEX’s official site to crash on Monday.
AMEX customers were given the first opportunity to buy tickets at 10am on Monday. Even 30-minutes before the presage went live the site had collapsed due to overwhelming traffic.
“We’re sorry. We’re momentarily experiencing technical difficulties. We are working at bringing our services back online,” the site said.
The packages sold out in less than 24-hours.
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 were quickly being resold for more than $3000.
Some are now calling for national action, including federal coalition MP Bridget Archer.
“It is always a bit of a challenge for people. I think it would certainly be worth exploring this issue of consumer protections against scalping and that sort of thing because it does seem to be a perennial issue,” the Tasmanian MP said on Tuesday.
No one, it seems, is immune to what the Prime Minister has called “Tay Tay fever”.
That’s how Anthony Albanese diagnosed it on Tuesday while on the hustings on the Gold Coast, launching the campaign of Labor candidate Letitia Del Fabbro for the upcoming by-election in Fadden.
Mr Albanese refused to use “prime ministerial powers” to entice Ms Swift to stage more shows in Australia.
He did, however, beg for a seat.
“The 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,” he told Gold Coast radio on Tuesday.
“I’m hoping to get an invite somewhere. We’ll wait and see how it goes.”
Mr Albanese is a confirmed Swiftie.
He purchased her 1989 album on vinyl after her chart topping song, Shake it Off, got him through a turbulent period on the campaign trail during the election last year.
He also has her albums Folklore and Evermore on repeat.
“[They’re] a bit more relaxed, a bit more chilled, fantastic for listening to on a plane or travelling,” he added.
Mr Albanese, who used to DJ is spare time in opposition, was introduced to Swift through his then 14-year old son, Nathan.
On Monday, he said Nathan – now 21 – had 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.”
While the Prime Minister won’t be joining the ticket queue on Wednesday, economists stopped short of saying the Eras tour will impact cost of living.
KPMG chief economist Brendan Rynne told Sky News the show won’t add to inflation as the economy will be slightly weaker by the time she arrives.
“With disposal household income being stretched at the moment, anyone who is spending money on a Taylor Swift ticket, in theory, should be displacing other spending,” Mr Rynne said while adding he’s been tasked with buying his daughters tickets and merchandise.
How to buy tickets
Ticketek is expecting 10 times the amount of people who tried to purchase American Express pre-sales to attempt to buy tickets on Wednesday.
But Ticketek says queuing is a “necessary part of the process”, with a spokeswoman calling it a “way of ensuring fair access to tickets for all fans”.
“Fans must remember to not leave the Lounge page or refresh their browser. The page will refresh itself frequently to let more fans through to purchase. Once fans are in the Lounge, they should sit tight and wait to be let through to the event page. And then once they’re through they need to remember to keep an eye on the timer and complete their purchase within the time frame.”
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