Taylor Swift Concert Pre-Sale crashes Ticket Sites

Four years ago this month, Taylor Swift was wrapping up her Reputation tour—marking the last time the record-breaking singer would take her live show on the road before a pandemic hit that left fans at home to enjoy her subsequent four new studio albums and two album re-recordings. The announcement of a worldwide stadium tour has sent TikTok, Ticketmaster, and her hordes of fans into an all-out frenzy.

Taylor Swift’s long-awaited return to touring spelled disaster Tuesday for live-events site Ticketmaster as fans scrambled to secure their seats for the singer-songwriter’s “Eras” show.

Millions of Swift fans descended on Ticketmaster early Tuesday to jostle for spots at “Eras,” her first tour in four years and as many albums. Many quickly took to social media to report glitches and delays that left them ticketless. Buyers reported frozen queues and broken checkouts on the site, and hours into the mayhem, Ticketmaster tweeted that demand for the shows was “unprecedented” and that people in queues should “hang tight.” It also rescheduled some presale events to Wednesday.

Early tickets were going on Ticketmaster for $49 to $500, but resellers were quickly listing them for thousands. It was reported that some tickets were $22,000. Swifties want it known that these resellers are not real fans but “monsters.” And the biggest monster of all? Ticketmaster.

For its part, Ticketmaster blamed the chaos on “historically unprecedented demand,” though that did little to quell the outrage. Follow SpotLife ASIA for the latest news and updates.

In response to the demand, Ticketmaster has shifted the start times of pre-sales for Swift’s other concert dates. “Thank you for your patience as we continue managing this huge demand,” the company said.

“Fans who have received a code to the TaylorSwiftTix Presale should login and access the queue through the link they received via text rather than entering through the Ticketmaster homepage,” the company said. “This will ensure an optimal shopping experience.”

Swift’s 2023 U.S. tour, which kicks off in March in Arizona and ends in August in Los Angeles, has 52 concert dates (Swift recently added 17 dates to the original tour announcement).