Freed from Ticketmaster fiasco, fans flock swiftly to new ‘Eras’

It’s official! Ms. Swift is back, better, and more glamorous than ever as she hit the stage on March 17 to debut her brand new Eras Tour, making history along the way. At her very first concert in this 52-stop tour, she was already breaking records, having 69,000 people at her performance in Glendale, Arizona, and now holds the new title of highest attending concert for a female artist in the U.S. (previously belonging to Madonna since 1987). 

Additionally, she has become the first ever artist to cover the entire Top 10 on the U.S Billboard Hot 100 Chart, simultaneously breaking The Beatles’ previous record and doubling it. Not only has she been breaking records with the debut of her tour, she’s been smashing them before it even began. 

Fans remember more than anyone the chaos that ensued as a result of Swift’s tickets going on sale. People fought tooth and nail to pre-purchase the tickets before TicketMaster so rudely crashed, with over two million tickets being sold all at once, thus causing the crash. It was the highest number of tickets the company ever sold in one day, but one could say that the panic that followed the crash of the website was also an all-time record, with the website being down for about five hours as TicketMaster frantically tried to fix it.

Later on in the week, Swift posted to her Instagram story and her TikTok, addressing the chaos while apologizing for it personally to her fans. This would be followed up in late January, with the President and CFO of TicketMaster’s parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, also apologizing to both Swift and her fans during their Senate hearing on January 24.

Swifties and fans of other artists (such as SZA, Beyonce, Sabrina Carpenter, and many more) have filed a lawsuit against TicketMaster, taking them to court in LA to address previous issues, describing the chaotic tour sales as ‘unlawful conduct’ and accusing them of being in violation of antitrust laws. 

Swifties weren’t the only ones in an uproar about this, as many SZA fans that were trying to buy tickets for her new concert a little after this whole fiasco found that a lot of the prices were jacked up to ridiculous amounts. Then this same problem happened again with Beyonce fans and her ticket prices. 

But for now, not much is known about how the case is going to end or what’s going to happen to the infamous monopolizing ticket-selling company. Even if the court rules in favor of TicketMaster, recovering from its tarnished reputation and shaking off the allegations will be an even more difficult feat to overcome. Regardless, the only “reputation” Swifties want to focus on right now is Taylor’s, and with her upcoming tour dates featuring 52 performances in the Eras Tour, fans will now have their chance.

by Emma Anderson

Published April 24, 2023

Oshkosh West Index Volume 119 Issue VII