Taylor Swift Fans Are Taking Desperate Measures to Get Tickets for The Eras Tour

Swifties have had many a rival to begrudge over the years in her honor: Katy Perry, John Mayer, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, and now Drake come to mind. But this week, in the wake of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour presale, there is one common enemy for superfans nationwide: Ticketmaster.

Yesterday, the site crashed because of what it called “historic demand” for verified fan presale tickets mere moments after it began at 10 a.m. EST, according to Gizmodo. The Capital One presale—for which I may or may not have opened a new line of credit—was also rescheduled to today at 2 p.m. local time, dragging the bloodbath out one more grueling day.

To be clear: Swifties are not to blame in this situation. Ticketmaster is the problem. Fans have trained for this sale with the discipline and determination of Olympic athletes: They (we) logged onto the site early, filled in their (our) credit card information ahead of time, and coordinated with friends in different parts of the country, lest some but not all manage to break through the ether. The night before the long-anticipated presale, SwiftTok was already rife with videos of fans far more gracious than I breaking down the tips and tricks of ticket purchasing. Hell, some even learned some light coding to figure out where in the queue they were on Tuesday. As the old saying goes, never underestimate the power of a fangirl and her will to hear “Cruel Summer” live.

While some aspiring concert goers took the “drop everything now” approach to the presale, some still had to go about their everyday lives as the great war raged on, even as tickets were being resold at exorbitant prices (anyone wanna go halfsies on a $24,000 ticket??). One resourceful fan, who was scheduled to take an anatomy practicum during the sale, enlisted the help of her professor to make sure they snagged the coveted tickets. “REALLY IMPORTANT,” their email subject line read, followed by this urgent plea:

This is the question of the year. If you agree it will make my day and entire year. I am currently in line for Taylor Swift tickets but have my anatomy Practicum at 1:30. Do you think it’s at all possible that you could watch my spot in line on my laptop while I take it. I’ll come see you at 1:00ish either way.

And you know what? It worked. Dr. Shull did, in fact, “oblige the student’s request,” dutifully monitoring their spot in the queue, even with 2,000+ people in front of them. Akin to the Hunger Games, securing Taylor Swift stadium seats requires the quickest of reflexes: Fans need to be ready to pull the trigger on tickets the moment they’re let into the presale, no matter the (literal) cost. We thank you for your service, Dr. Shull.

And the ticket buying solidarity went both ways: One teacher posted on TikTok about her sixth grade class’s day-long journey to help her get tickets to a Tampa show next April. The deeply invested bunch helped their teacher refresh through “countless of errors,” alerted her when the queue moved (and when it didn’t), and stuck with her when she got kicked out of the queue six separate times. In the end, she was able to secure tickets, even if they are “nosebleeds.” Give those students some A’s!

https://www.tiktok.com/@southernbelleinsults/video/7166448893570469163
The mad rush for tickets has reached mythic proportions: While the Washington State Department of Natural Resources tweeted yesterday scolding fans for allegedly DMing them to “‘wake up Mount Rainier just a lil’ to clear space in the queue for Taylor Swift tickets,” Jezebel has confirmed with the department that Swifties have not gone as far as to try and wake up a dormant volcano for the sake of floor seats.

Even then, this Ticketmaster fiasco seems to be a natural disaster of its own. When the clock strikes 2 p.m. today, I have one thing left to ask: Are you ready for it?