Madness struck as Taylor Swift fans were panicking to get presale tickets for her Eras Tour on Nov. 15. The sale demand was so high that Ticketmaster ultimately had to cancel sales to the general public.
According to Ticketmaster, 1.5 million out of 3.5 million people who registered for presale were sent codes to get early access to Swift’s tickets.
“The presale distribution was pretty even. I know a lot of people who got the code, including myself and some who didn’t,” Taylor Swift fan and junior Makayla Younger said.
Younger missed school on the day of presale to be able to purchase tickets without any distractions.
“I was very excited because I thought that I would for sure be getting tickets to the concert since I was at home,” Younger said.
She sat in the waiting room right when it opened at 9:30am, leaving her 30 minutes until the queue opened.
“Right when the queue opened, it told me that there were over 2,000 people in front of me, which didn’t seem too bad since I thought it wouldn’t take that long to get tickets,” Younger said.
What Younger wasn’t prepared for was the strenuous wait and technical difficulties coming her way.
“I ended up sitting in the queue for five hours, and right when the screen told me to get ready to pick my tickets it kicked me out,” Younger said. “I had to restart the queue all over again and when it finally let me in all the seats were gone for presale.”
Younger was left devastated and with no tickets after committing her whole day to Ticketmaster’s presale.
“They knew that the tickets would be in very high demand, and they did not plan properly. The fact that they had such a hard time dealing with a presale that they had to cancel the general public sale is outrageous,” Younger said.
Junior Caroline Albert, another Taylor Swift fan, was not able to get a presale code.
“It was really unfair for other fans that didn’t get into presale because they didn’t get the opportunity to get tickets,” Albert said.
On the day of the presale, Albert was tense as she witnessed everyone’s presale experience.
“A lot of my friends who had presale codes were having trouble getting tickets, so I was concerned if I would be able to get any,” Albert said.
Her friends had gone through glitches in the queue that many other people like Younger had experienced.
“My friends were waiting forever and were kicked out of the queue multiple times,” Albert said.
She was in shock when it was announced that the general sale would be canceled due to the presale demand.
“I was going to try to purchase general admission tickets but with it getting canceled I was not able to get any,” Albert said.
Albert quickly became upset with how Ticketmaster handled the situation for the Eras Tour.
“As a company that big, Ticketmaster should have been prepared for the ticket sales of this concert because of how popular Taylor Swift is,” Albert said. “It’s extremely disappointing because I would have loved to go.”
