Fans are demanding a change to event ticketing
Swifties in Canada have launched a change.org petition against Ticketmaster after their displeasure with the Verified Fan on sale for her upcoming series of shows in Toronto. Many were unable to secure tickets for the six shows on The Eras Tour coming to the city in November and December 2024, sparking outrage within her fanbase.
“Presale codes have gone out, using the ‘verified fan’ registration process through Ticketmaster, however tickets are immediately being priced with dynamic pricing and being purchased for resale on third party ticket websites and social media for astronomical pricing,” the petition reads. “This has happened with several other artist shows – people who had never planned on attending an event are using the ‘verified fan’ process to resell tickets. This means that less fans are given a fair opportunity to purchase the presale tickets, as more resellers than fans are getting through the ‘verified fan’ process and purchasing the max limit of tickets to resell at a much higher cost. This can also be said for tickets sold in presale for the additional shows of the North American leg.”
Fans are “tired, hurt, frustrated and disappointed” over the limited availability for tickets due to Ticketmaster’s policies.
“Fans currently don’t stand a chance at seeing their favorite artist, Taylor Swift, perform for a once in a lifetime show,” the petition continues. “Fans are tired, hurt, frustrated and disappointed. We want to be able to support Taylor but feel like we have had our voices and opportunities taken away from us. She has taught us to be brave and stand up for ourselves, so now we are.”
The petition aims to “Demand change for Ticketmaster’s resale policies and for laws to be implemented to cap resale prices at 50% above the original face value.” Organizers are hoping the petition will be seen by Canadian government officials, Swift and Ticketmaster.
Last fall, Ticketmaster came under scrutiny after it botched the original on sale that was plagued by significant service failures and delays on its website. In January 2023, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to discuss monopolistic practices in the live entertainment industry, specifically Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation, after increased demand saw millions of fans unable to purchase concert tickets and bots make billions of attempts on Ticketmaster’s servers.
Following the presale disaster, Swift blasted the company on Instagram, forcing the company to apologize to Swift and fans to file lawsuits against the ticketing giant.
“I’m not going going to make excuses for anyone because we asked [Ticketmaster], multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could,” Swift shared. “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.”
Demand for Swift concert tickets was huge before the original Verified Fan presale in November 2022. Swift initially announced 27 dates and then added eight and another 17 dates within two weeks and before any tickets were ever sold, totaling 53 dates. On August 9th, Swift closed the first leg of The Eras Tour with six sold out shows in Los Angeles with the announcement that 1989 (Taylor’s Version) will be released this fall.
The trek continues internationally through next summer before returning to North America for a 15 more shows next fall.
