Taylor Swift fans are truly seeing “Red” after a massive surge in demand for presale tickets for her new tour led to major issues on Ticketmaster Tuesday.
The ticket platform announced that it’s been forced to delay the presale release of West coast concert tickets until 3 p.m. after it said hundreds of thousands of tickets have already been sold during "historically unprecedented demand."
Further, Capital One, who also planned to release tickets to cardholders only, rescheduled its presale to Nov. 16 at 2 p.m. local venue time. All presale codes and links sent via text will still work at that time, according to Ticketmaster.
A surge of outraged fans in online waiting rooms took to social media to call out their frustrations with Ticketmaster over the presale ticket process for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. Some said they have been waiting “in line” for nearly four hours and still haven't had the chance to choose tickets.
"Sitting in a paused queue for over 2 hours for Taylor Swift Eras Tour tickets is my villain origin story,”" one fan wrote on Twitter.
Usual $60 nosebleed seats are reportedly being resold for $700. One fan said they found a resale ticket priced at $33,750.
"There has been historically unprecedented demand with millions showing up to buy tickets for the TaylorSwiftTix Presale," Ticketmaster said in a statement Tuesday. "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."
What is Ticketmaster's verified fan program?
The presale tickets were only for so-called “verified” Swift fans, aimed at ensuring that loyal “Swifties” can get tickets to the star’s big show through a special presale code.
Ticketmaster introduced the “Verified Fan” program in 2017. Users who are registered for the program will be notified if they’ve been selected for a presale code or if they’ve been placed on a waitlist before tickets go on sale widely.
Last week, Taylor Swift announced that she was adding eight more shows, on top of the additional 17 shows the star has already tacked onto The Eras Tour, according to a press release from Ticketmaster on Nov. 11. The tour, which kicks off in March 2023, is the 32-year-old singer's biggest U.S. stadium tour ever.
The tour will feature songs from her record-breaking album, "Midnights," that the singer released in October. Swift became the first artist to claim the entire top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart with the new record.
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The TaylorSwiftTix Presale was announced to begin Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 10 a.m. local venue time. Buyers are only allowed to purchase six tickets at a time.
In total, Bookies.com estimated that over 2.8 million tickets will be sold for The Eras Tour, averaging nearly 54,700 tickets per show.
Ticketmaster certified that fans who have already secured tickets are "all set."
