Ticketmaster’s Wild West Show: Swift Tickets Go Boom!
It’s a Double‑Feature of Crowd Chaos and Coffee Spills
When the first chance to see Taylor Swift since 2018 hits the market, fans set the internet ablaze—and Ticketmaster flips the lights on. Users queued up for eight hours, scrolled past red‑top screens and, unfortunately, sighed in despair when the purchase buttons disappeared.
What Went Wrong?
- Ticketmaster’s servers hit a temporary traffic spike; they posted on Twitter that they were “working urgently” to fix what they called “intermittent issues.”
- West Coast shows opened three hours late, making even the most punctual fans feel like they walked late to a concert.
- Online queues turned into a marathon for many; folks were up to eight hours waiting with their coffee rings on keyboards.
- Ticket prices ranged from $49 to $449, and yet after all that waiting, a great number of fans were left on the “outside looking in.”
Swamped by “Unprecedented Demand”
Ticketmaster claimed that the “historically unprecedented demand” was for the The Eras Tour. A spokesperson admitted the number of sign‑ups was more than twice the number of actual seats. That’s like trying to fill a stadium with two crowds looking for the same seat at once.
Fans’ Lives in a Queue
Dave Pell, author of NextDraft, joked that he felt like a “failure as a dad” because he “wasbanished to ‘the barren badlands of the Taylor Swift ticket waiting list wasteland’.” Fans were also dropping out of the queue, feeling a bit like a glitchy lottery where the numbers keep changing.
Politicians Step In
Rep. David Cicilline tweeted back at Ticketmaster, calling the wait times and hidden fees “completely unacceptable.” He blasted the 2010 merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation, saying the duo is an “unchecked monopoly.” He urged the Justice Department to investigate—though the agency stayed tight‑lipped.
Other Ticket Sellers Aren’t Hiding
SeatGeek, betting on Arlington, TX and Glendale, AZ, also announced “high demand” and reportedly urged fans to keep calm and stay patient. Ticketmaster, meanwhile, announced that hundreds of thousands of tickets had been grabbed—though some buyers were still out hunting for a resale price that could stretch up to $18 000 per seat on StubHub.
Was It All Just Trouble?
Swift’s latest album, Midnights, dropped in October, and the tour kicks off in March, running through August. And though the long queues and glitches were a high‑stakes blip, many got in the seats they wanted—especially if they were ready to line up for three hours.
Bottom Line
Ticketmaster’s last “T‑shirt explosion” turned out to be “more of a test than a triumph.” Fans, reserving, scrolling, and praying in their pockets, learned that the modern concert ticket experience can be a roller coaster of long waits, broken servers, and headline‑dressed headlines. But hey, the pop‑star’s stage is still worth a few sleepless hours.
