Today is Taylor Swift Eras tour presale day – thousands of Swift fans are bracing themselves for a tense couple of days as they try to grab tickets to the UK leg of her major tour, which begins in June next year.
It’s a stressful time for Swifties: tickets are notoriously scarce, queues are long, and the last time Swift went on tour was in 2018, meaning it’s been half a decade since the Swift fans have had a chance to see the Grammy-winning singer perform live.
Plus, when tickets for the American leg of the Eras tour went on sale in November 2022, there were major issues. According to Ticketmaster, as many as 3.5 million people pre-registered for presale tickets at the time. This led to extraordinarily long queues, and meant that ticket prices (which fluctuated according to demand) skyrocketed. It also meant that no tickets were available for the general sale. Afterwards, some Swifties were so upset that they filed a lawsuit against Ticketmaster.
“Historically, we’ve been able to manage huge volume coming into the site to shop for tickets, so those with Verified Fan codes have a smooth shopping process. However, this time the staggering number of bot attacks as well as fans who didn’t have codes drove unprecedented traffic on our site,” explained Ticketmaster at the time.
Posting on her Instagram story, Swift said: “I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could. It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.”
This time the sale has been set up slightly differently. The presale – which started at 11am this morning (July 10) – runs across three consecutive days, with three sales taking place each day at 11am, 1pm and 3pm. For a detailed breakdown of the ticket sale times and dates, check our guide here.
Nevertheless, Swift fans are still on tenterhooks. Happily, amidst all the stress, there has been some comic relief, which has – somewhat predictably – arrived in the form of memes.
Here’s our pick of some of the best fan reacts to the presale drama.
good morning taylor swift presale starts in one hour pic.twitter.com/j5h2EKF4Gx
— ★ MIKEY 🎱 ★ (@KlLLJCYS) July 10, 2023
All UK Taylor Swift fans today with presale codes. pic.twitter.com/ATZPbrYIpy
— Grace O'Keeffe (@Grace_E_OKeeffe) July 10, 2023
People trying to get Taylor Swift tickets on ticketmaster #TheErasTour #ErasTour pic.twitter.com/sK7JRXnAZf
— tasha louise | ✨🧸💛 (@eds_afterglow) July 10, 2023
‘not now sweetheart mommy is trying to buy taylor swift tickets during the midnights presale’ pic.twitter.com/a5CmFt2dZC
— kyra (@hotelkycard) July 10, 2023
The Taylor swift presale journey involves moving through The Lobby into the Waiting Room, then into the Queue, then into the Shop for Tickets. Exhausted already pic.twitter.com/Cw7RLUmHB9
— Sophie (@sophierebeccaf) July 10, 2023
taylor swift presale day pic.twitter.com/xXCwEa3vLn
— stella (@stellarossssa) July 10, 2023
Ready to enter the Great War (Taylor swift presale) pic.twitter.com/cyjtXDCO4x
— Rosie (@hiyaitsro) July 10, 2023
I GOT TICKETS FOR OPENING NIGHT IN WEMBLEY. I AM SOBBING IN WORK #erastour pic.twitter.com/kyNjxC36FX
— erın 🪩 (@no_itserin) July 10, 2023
Taylor Swift presale day pic.twitter.com/fb3zcxUPpi
— Matthew (@mdoddster) July 10, 2023
if this isnt a sign i dont know what it is come on ticketmaster #TheErasTour pic.twitter.com/d1NJVQcTTb
— Josh (@joshthenormal) July 10, 2023
