Taylor Swift Fans Crash Ticketmaster Site
The crush of fans flocking to Ticketmaster to try to nab presale tickets for Taylor Swift’s upcoming 2023 “Eras Tour” in the U.S. caused the site to become inaccessible for thousands on Tuesday morning.
“We are aware fans may be experiencing intermittent issues with the site and are urgently working to resolve,” Ticketmaster’s customer support Twitter account posted at 10:54 a.m. ET Tuesday.
In an update at 1:05 p.m. ET, Ticketmaster said it was wrestling with “historically unprecedented demand with millions showing up to buy tickets for the TaylorSwiftTix Presale.”
“Hundreds of thousands of tickets have been sold. If you have already secured tickets, you are all set,” the ticketing service said in a tweet. “If you are currently in a queue, please hang tight — queues are moving and we are working to get fans through as quickly as possible.”
Ticketmaster additionally said that West Coast on-sales for Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Santa Clara and Seattle originally scheduled for 10 a.m. PT Tuesday will now be taking place at 3 p.m. PT, with queues opening 30 minutes prior. The Capital One on-sale is being rescheduled to tomorrow at 2 p.m. local venue time; according to Ticketmaster, all presale codes and links sent via text will still work at that time.
According to uptime-monitoring site Downdetector, user complaints of problems accessing Ticketmaster began to spike at about 9:30 a.m. ET, peaking at nearly 5,000 reports at about 11:36 a.m. ET. Reports of technical problems with Ticketmaster began to taper off at about 12:20 p.m. ET.
Swift, who just released her album “Midnights,” has set 52 dates for her U.S. Eras Tour. That makes it her biggest tour to date, and one that could break her own record for gross ticket sales in North America. Opening acts for the U.S. leg of the tour are Paramore, Haim, Phoebe Bridgers, Beabadoobee, Girl in Red, Muna, Gayle, Gracie Abrams and Owenn.
As previously announced, tickets for Swift’s Eras Tour were priced from $49 up to $449, with VIP packages that start at $199 and go up to $899. The Eras Tour is her first since the 2018 Reputation stadium tour; last year, Swift canceled her Lover Fest tour because of the COVID pandemic.
Swift last month made history as the first artist to hold all 10 top spots on the Billboard Hot 100 in a single week with songs from “Midnights,” led by “Anti-Hero,” which was the first music video from the album and the first song to be promoted to radio.
— Ticketmaster (@Ticketmaster) November 15, 2022
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