It’s the news every Taylor Swift fan has been hoping (and praying) for: on Monday, the singer announced the European dates for her already hugely successful Eras tour.
Starting from May 9, 2024, Taylor will be hitting up 26 separate destinations across Europe over a period of months – including, crucially, several nights in the UK. In addition to four nights in London, there are two nights in Liverpool and one in Cardiff to grab tickets for.
But therein lies the rub: how to get your hands on those tickets? With Taylor playing her first UK gigs in years (beyond the surprise appearances at Haim and The 1975’s concerts), demand is likely to be sky-high.
With that in mind, here are our tips for maximising your chances of getting your hands on the goods.
When is she playing?
First thing’s first, book out some space in your diary for Taylor’s tour dates.
Friday 21 June - London, Wembley Stadium
Saturday 22 June - London, Wembley Stadium
Friday 7 July - Edinburgh, BT Murrayfield Stadium
Saturday 8 July - Edinburgh, BT Murrayfield Stadium
Friday 14 July - Liverpool, Anfield Stadium
Saturday 15 July - Liverpool, Anfield Stadium
Tuesday 18 July - Cardiff, Principality Stadium
Friday 16 August - London, Wembley Stadium
Saturday 17 August - London, Wembley Stadium
Check if you’re eligible for the pre-sale
True Swifties will have a leg-up on this one: those who pre-ordered Taylor’s Midnights album via the UK store will be able to access the presale, which will go live at 10am on 10 July for London, July 11 for Edinburgh and Dublin and July 12 for Cardiff and Liverpool.
Everybody else, sadly, will have to pre-register and wait their turn to get tickets.
Pre-register for tickets
You can’t just log onto Ticketmaster on the day and expect to be in with a shout of grabbing tickets: no, you need to pre-register on Taylor Swift’s official website for each date in question: taylorswift.com/tour.
This needs to be done before Thursday, June 22 at 11.59pm in the UK, and before Friday, June 23 at 11.59pm in Ireland and Europe. Once you’ve registered, you’ll get a special code that will let you get first access to tickets on the day of sale.
Can you register for multiple locations? Yes you can, but of course bear in mind you’ll be fighting for tickets amidst the hordes of Swift fans for each sale event.
Make sure your account is spick and span
In order to minimise stress, it’s worth making sure that your Ticketmaster account is looking up to snuff, to make the process of buying as pain-free as possible. Fill in your account with all your details, especially your payment information, before the tickets go live.
On that note, the prudent Swifty will put down more than one method of payment: card and PayPal is usually a good double-whammy, and will let you fall back on the other method if one doesn’t work, thereby saving your precious place in the queue without faffing about looking for a second card.
Check when tickets go on sale
Just to make things extra exciting, tickets for different locations go on sale at different times, so make sure to set a timer and an email notification alert for the big day in question.
These days are:
London: Tuesday, July 18, 2023, at 2pm
Edinburgh: Wednesday, July 19, 2023, at 2pm
Liverpool: Wednesday, July 19, 2023, at 2pm
Cardiff: Wednesday, July 19, 2023, at 2pm
Once the big day arrives…
Hooray! You’ve pre-registered, waiting for the right day and clicked on the link to take you to the ticketing website. Unfortunately, you still need to get those tickets (prepare for a wait of around two hours to even get on the page), but there are a number of ways to maximise your chances.
Watch the numbers. The goal is to see a number in the queue, as opposed to a generic ‘There are 10,000 people ahead of you’ message. Once an actual number (for instance, 200) appears, then you’ll likely be on the page in a couple of minutes, giving you time to prep and start those hand-warming exercises.
Do not refresh your page. It’s tempting, but that will only bump you further down the queue as a result, meaning you’ll have to wait even longer (and potentially scupper your chances of getting a ticket).
Stay in one browser at all times. Though you might think keeping multiple tabs open to maximise your chances of making it through the queue is a good move, it comes with dangers: the chances of losing your spot in the queue or even not having a payment go through are high.
