As Taylor Swift‘s highly anticipated “Eras” tour approaches, fans fight to get their hands on tickets. Swift officially announced the tour on November 1, and ticket pre-sales began on November 15.

The Eras Tour initially consisted of 27 performances hitting stadiums in 20 different cities, later adding eight more dates for a total of 35 shows. The tour received unprecedented demand and sold over two million tickets.

Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan Presale allows fans to purchase tickets before they go on sale to the general public. These presale tickets sold out quickly, leaving many fans without a spot secured for a concert.

“The adrenaline rushing to get the tickets was through the roof,” said Medha Garikipati (‘23).

While some fans were left empty handed, others were lucky enough to secure tickets at face value and desirable seats, such as AP teacher Samuel Weaver. 

“I felt good (about getting tickets), I felt bad for the people who weren’t able to get some, but you know that’s what happens,” said Weaver.

Upon the first ticket releases, thousands of fans waited in queue online to avoid mass amounts of people crowding the website at once. While this worked out for some people, others had to wait several hours in line for a shot at purchasing tickets.

“I logged in 30 minutes before and I got into the queue. It didn’t move at all and I didn’t get tickets even though I was in there for 40 minutes,” said super-fan Grace Lee (’23) about her experience in the waiting room.

With the large amounts of people waiting for tickets to drop, Ticketmaster could not handle the traffic and crashed, pushing back the presale time to 3 P.M. instead of 10 A.M.

“I was relieved because then I’d have more time and I wouldn’t be on school wifi, so I was hoping I’d get connected to the server better,” said Garikipati.

Ticketmaster limits the amount of presale tickets released to account for general sale, however general sale was canceled due to an “overwhelming demand“. Fans unable to participate in the presale now have to rely on secondary ticketing sites, such as StubHub and SeatGeek, to try and secure tickets at inflated prices, some going for upwards of $1,000. 

“People who are die-hard Swifties couldn’t get tickets, and it’s kind of dumb if you choose the amount of presale tickets that go out, so how can it get sold out?” said Garikipati.

Another issue that fans had while purchasing tickets was Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing, also referred to as “official Platinum Seats.” Ticket prices are adjusted to meet consumer demand, leaving people with tickets multiple times the original price.

“I think Ticketmaster is a scam and needs to be destroyed. I’ve always been anti-Ticketmaster,” said Weaver. “I remember back in the 90s when Pearl Jam tried to take them on and go outside of it, and even they were unsuccessful and they were one of the biggest bands in the world at the time.”

Swift later issued a statement via Instagram Stories showing remorse towards how Ticketmaster handled the situation and empathy to those who weren’t able to buy tickets.

“I felt really upset and annoyed about Ticketmaster, especially since they were like ‘oh yeah we didn’t expect this many fans’ and they sold all the tickets in presale,” said Lee.