Taylor Swift has spoken out about the issues faced by fans trying to get tickets to her Eras tour earlier this week.
Tickets for the North American leg of Swift’s 2023 tour were released via fan presale on Tuesday (15 November), following the drop of her latest album, Midnights, last month. (You can read The Independent’s five-star review here.)
However, event site Ticketmaster crashed for some hopeful supporters, with many expressing their disappointment on social media.
Soon after the presale launched, tickets emerged on resale sites for as much as $22,000 (£18,500).
The general sale was originally scheduled to take place on Friday (18 November), but was ultimately cancelled due to “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory”.
On Friday, Swift shared her take on the situation in a post to Instagram Stories.
After stating that she is “protective” of her fans, Swift expressed her discomfort with seeing so many of her fans affected by the ticket difficulties.
“It's really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse.”
She continued: “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 2.4million people got tickets, but it really p***es me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.”
The “Anti-Hero” singer concluded her message with the hope that there would be additional chances for fans to enjoy the music together.
“And to those who didn't get tickets, all I can say is that my hope is to provide more opportunities for us to all get together and sing these songs,” she wrote. “Thank you for wanting to be there. You have no idea how much that means.”
European dates for the Eras tour have not yet been announced.