Taylor Swift performs onstage during the Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour at NRG Stadium on April 21, 2023 in Houston, Texas. Photo / Getty Images
Shake off all those tears you cried after missing out on Taylor Swift’s presale tickets Swifties, because you’re going to need all the energy you can get to partake in today’s great war - aka the general sale.
The first of Ticketek’s two sale events has officially started and if you’re trying to get tickets for one - or all - of her four Sydney shows then we have all the hot tips that may help you secure them.
Earlier this week, reports stated more than 800,000 people were on the Ticketek website trying to secure tickets and it’s expected that today will also see massive numbers. Taking to Twitter, some fans have already shared their ticket securing set up with one fan showing multiple laptops open on the waiting “lounge” screen, while others made jokes to get them through the stress of it all.
happy hunger games, and may the odds be ever in your favour. #ticketek #TaylorSwift pic.twitter.com/gUs9vLhQGu
— akira (@tpwk_akira) June 29, 2023
Here we go again. I feel like as a society we’ll all remember the great Taylor Swift ticket dash of 2023. Success or near misses, ticketek time-outs and questioning whether a queue is worth waiting in if it’s a queue in name only. Good luck all 👍🏻 #TaylorSwiftErasTour pic.twitter.com/ckZadmdMrr
— Luke Doherty (@Luke_Doherty) June 30, 2023
Me now vs me at the end of today #ErasTour #erastouraustralia #ticketek #TaylorSwift pic.twitter.com/r2HVd9XMCw
— 🪷Sasha (Taylor’s Version) 🌸 (@WitchyFolklore) June 29, 2023
i’m going to throw up, ticketek please be nice to me today
— em (@emsdwt) June 29, 2023
If you’re a Swiftie fan who is trying to get Melbourne tickets, hold tight. They go on sale at 4pm through Ticketek website leaving you with plenty of time to plan your strategy.
This is the last ticket release for Swift’s Australian shows meaning that unless you miraculously get tickets through a resale, it’s your lucky last chance to get your hands on those highly in-demand tickets.
So with mere hours to go, we have the hottest tips and tricks that may help you secure tickets:
February 16, 17 and 18 - Melbourne Cricket Ground
February 23, 24, 25 and 26 - Sydney Accor Stadium
The general sale – which is open to anybody – will begin today. Sydney tickets are available from 10am (noon NZT) and Melbourne tickets are on sale from 2pm (4pm NZT).
Ticket costs vary from A$79-$379 ($86-$415) depending on the seats, while VIP packages range from A$349-$1249 ($382-$1368). Tickets will be available on the Ticketek website.
Whether you’re buying the most expensive VIP ticket or the cheapest, each one comes with the same thing - the only difference is where your seat is located. The top-tier tickets are on the floor and as close to the stage as you can get, while the cheaper tickets are further away.
So, what exactly is included in a VIP ticket? Elite Daily reported the pack includes:
As for whether the hefty price tag was worth it, they remained undecided and found it depended entirely on what you expect or want from the concert.
Don’t queue
Some superfans waited for hours on the Ticketek website before the presale even began on Wednesday, and it resulted in them entering their bad blood era when they realised fans who hadn’t queued at all were getting tickets first.
Ticketek has since released a statement revealing this is because there is no “queue” as such and fans who enter the waiting lounge will have equal opportunity to get through to the ticket purchasing page. However, they advised accessing the site 15 minutes before the sale is scheduled to begin.
Speaking to news.com.au, a spokesman for Ticketek said, “Everyone in the Ticketek lounge has an equal opportunity to get into the site regardless of when they have arrived”.
So if you happened to swoop in and grab A Reserve seats after just 10 minutes, you can only count yourself among “the lucky ones”.
— Ticketek Australia (@Ticketek_AU) June 29, 2023
Don’t use work Wi-Fi
If you’re one of the fans who didn’t take a day off work to secure tickets and you’re logging onto the website using work Wi-Fi, you may be in for a cruel summer.
7News reported that any fans accessing the website via a work computer face a lower chance of getting tickets than someone using a personal hotspot or home Wi-Fi, as websites like Ticketek consider a single IP address as one user.
Don’t refresh your browser
When you’re in the “pits of hell” watching that little blue line go left to right, left to right, left to right, it can send you into a spiral and refreshing your screen feels like a logical option. But it’s not.
Ticketek has specifically told fans, “Don’t leave the Lounge page or refresh your browser, the page will refresh itself frequently to let more fans through to purchase.”
Know what tickets you want
Once you’re let through to the ticket-buying page, you have a very limited amount of time to secure your pride and joy - your tickets. While the Herald hasn’t seen it themselves, it has been widely reported that there is a timer in the top right-hand corner of the page and if you don’t buy tickets within that allocated time slot, you’ll get kicked off the page.
So, before you even get to that point, decide exactly what tickets you want, whether it’s A reserve or G reserve or one of the six VIP packages.
Another top tip is having a second choice just in case your first isn’t available.
Have your card handy
As stated above, you have a very limited time to get tickets so once you’ve decided what you want, added them to your cart and driven your getaway car to the checkout, don’t let yourself down by misplacing your card.
Have it super glued to your hand if you must!
This week has seen two hectic presale events. The first took place on Monday for American Express Australia cardholders and 30 minutes before the sale was scheduled to begin, the website suffered “technical difficulties” and outages.
Taking to Twitter, many fans shared images of their attempts to get on the website with the help page reading “Site help, thank you for visiting American Express.
“We’re sorry. We are momentarily experiencing technical difficulties. We are working on bringing our services back online. For immediate assistance, please call the number on your card or statement. We apologise for any inconvenience.”
Approximately three hours after the sale began, a representative reached out to the Herald assuring fans that unexpected website outages had been fixed and pre-sale tickets were still available for all American Express cardholders. However, the allocation was quickly exhausted and tickets sold out by the end of the day.
A second presale event was held by Frontier Touring on Wednesday and saw some fans wait in the queueing “lounge” for hours before and during the sale, while others logged on and were able to buy tickets within minutes.
With reports of more than 800,000 fans flocking to the website in an effort to secure presale tickets, Ticketek confirmed at 3.43pm, three hours and 43 minutes after the presale began, that all general Frontier presale tickets for Sydney had sold out.
Melbourne tickets - which went on sale at 4pm - also sold out within hours.
Securing your tickets is only the first step to getting to Swift’s Australian shows. The second is working out how you’re going to get there. Thankfully, Air New Zealand have got you covered.
The country’s national airline said in a statement released yesterday that they have added 2000 additional seats on trans-Tasman services out of Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland for the beginning of next year.
✈️ | @FlyAirNZ named their extra flights to “NZ1989” for #TSTheErasTour concert goers in Australia! pic.twitter.com/1pArVDrIdH
— Taylor Swift Facts (@blessedswifty) June 29, 2023
Chief customer officer for the airline Leanne Geraghty said that they saw an immediate spike in interest with the tour announcement.
“When tour dates for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour were released last week, we saw a surge in demand for the final day of our Tasman sale with more than 3,500 Kiwis booking flights to coincide with concert dates,” she said.
The airline said it has repurposed service number NZ1989 (Auckland to Ohakea) for Taylor Swift ticket holders, in honour of her fifth studio album.
Additional flights to Melbourne and Sydney go on sale Friday June 30, at 2pm.
Who: Taylor Swift
What: The Eras Tour
Where: Melbourne and Sydney
When: February 16-26
Tickets: Tickets officially go on sale to the general public on Friday, June 30 via Ticketek
Lillie Rohan is an Auckland-based reporter who covers lifestyle and entertainment. She joined the Herald in 2020.
NY Times: Few stars win over critics and convey Old Hollywood glamour as effortlessly.