Taylor Swift, a popular singer-songwriter, recently announced that she would be doing an “Eras Tour” where she will play songs from different parts of her career. She also announced that she would be having a presale for “verified fans” where fans would apply to receive a code that would give them access to the presale. However, when the time came for the presale, the sheer volume of fans trying to access Ticketmaster caused the site to kick many people out, and many fans were outraged that they didn’t get tickets. Taylor Swift tops the charts consistently with her albums of different genres, and has an extremely large fan base. According to the American Music Awards, Swift won 6 awards in 2022, including Artist of the Year. On October 21st, Swift released her newest album, Midnights, which featured 13 tracks. She also released a “3:00 a.m. edition,” which featured seven extra tracks. 

Laila Ali, a junior, had a negative experience with the presale and was unable to get tickets. Ali and her friend wanted to go together, and her friend’s mom tried to buy tickets but had a “god awful” experience. Ticketmaster gave an error whenever she tried to purchase the tickets. 

When asked how she felt about not getting to see Swift in concert, Ali said, “It was really upsetting for me as I’ve wanted to see her since I was a little kid.” She also added, “Ticketmaster was fully aware of the unprecedented demand, and yet they still couldn’t handle it! I hope all of the people who got tickets end up getting refunded and a resale is done.”

Jordyn Bouer-Myers, another Swift fan and a junior at Tuscarora, was also unable to get tickets. Bouer-Myers got kicked out of the queue at least ten times, she said it was “very all over the place and really unorganized.” She has been to two of Swift’s concerts in 2012 and 2015, and was frustrated that she couldn’t get tickets to this one. She said, “It’s frustrating that we weren’t able to get tickets, but it isn’t the end of the world.”

Alyson Mccuin, a junior and a huge fan who was in the top 0.05% of Swift’s listeners this year on Spotify Wrapped, managed to get tickets. Alyson’s stepdad purchased the tickets for her while she was at school, and he waited in the queue for five and a half hours. Mccuin was elated when she found out she would be attending the Eras Tour.

“I remember so vividly sitting in chemistry class and getting the text that we got tickets, then slightly embarrassingly bursting into tears.” She had been waiting for the text all day, and had been so relieved when she found out she got to go to the tour. “I was extremely overwhelmed and excited to get tickets, but I also kind of feel guilty for getting tickets since I know so many people who are bigger fans than me/have been fans longer struggled to get them,” she said. 

Taylor Swift has a massive following, and there just weren’t enough tickets for everyone to see her on tour. This demand combined with Ticketmaster malfunctions resulted in a rough experience for many fans.