Taylor Swift says “it really pisses me off” fans went through “several bear attacks” on Ticketmaster
Taylor Swift has shared a response to fans following the cancellation of the general ticket sale and outcry from fans who couldn’t procure tickets for her ‘The Eras Tour’. Read her full response below.
Ticketmaster announced yesterday (November 17) that the general ticket sale was to be pulled last minute, citing “extraordinarily high demand” and “insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand”.
In her response, Swift wrote that although there were a “multitude of reasons” people had a hard time getting tickets, “we asked them multiple times if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could.”
“Well. It goes without saying that I’m extremely protective of my fans,” she shared in a message via Instagram. “We’ve been doing this for decades together and over the years, I’ve brought so many elements of my career in house. I’ve done this SPECIFICALLY to improve the quality of my fans’ experience by doing it myself with my team who care as much about my fans as I do. It’s really difficult to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse.”
Swift continued: “There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets and I’m trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward. I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could hand this kind of demand and we were assured they could. It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.
“And to those who didn’t get tickets, all I can say is that my hope is to provide more opportunities for us to all get together and sing these songs. Thank you for wanting to be there. You have no idea how much that means.”
Due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand, tomorrow's public on-sale for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour has been cancelled.
— Ticketmaster (@Ticketmaster) November 17, 2022
Pre-sales for Swift’s first tour since 2018 had already set a record with millions showing up to buy tickets. At least two million tickets were sold by Tuesday (November 15) in pre-sales for select groups – the most ever for an artist in a single day [via BBC News]. At the time, a spokesperson for Ticketmaster said that its website experienced “historically unprecedented demand” for tickets.
Fans complained on social media of lengthy wait times and website outages when pre-sale tickets for Swift’s 52-date tour went on sale. As The Guardian reported, shortly after tickets went on sale, some were re-listed on sites such as StubHub for as much as $22,700 (£19,100) each.
BBC News has reported further that Ticketmaster claims that a “staggering number of bot attacks” overwhelmed its website.
Ticketmaster said that more than 3.5million “Swifties”, as her fans are known, registered in advance as “verified fans” in hopes of getting tickets for her 52-city tour in the pre-sale. The company also hosted a pre-sale for people carrying a credit card from Capital One, the company sponsoring the tour.
“While it’s impossible for everyone to get tickets to these shows, we know we can do more to improve the experience and that’s what we’re focused on,” the company told the BBC.
‘The Eras Tour’ will be Swift’s sixth tour. Fans are seemingly particularly keen to get their hands on tickets because the pop behemoth hasn’t been able to tour since 2018 due to the COVID pandemic and has also released four albums since then.
It’s promised that the tour will include songs from all of Swift’s 10 albums over the years including her latest, ‘Midnights‘.
So far, Swift has only announced North American dates but a post on her website has confirmed that UK dates are to be announced.
Last week the singer added 17 new dates to her 2023 tour, including stops in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Chicago. She’d previously added eight extra dates due to demand.
Meanwhile, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has launched an investigation into Ticketmaster after numerous Swift fans reported issues with buying tickets.
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Erica Campbell
NME
