Unpopular opinion: I’m furious Taylor Swift added more shows.

In news that will come as a shock to precisely no one, I missed out on Taylor Swift tickets yesterday. 

Yep, I was one of the 800,000 people who copied their presale code and logged into the Ticketek website in the hopes of snagging seats at her Sydney or Melbourne Eras Tour shows. 

Ha! What an optimistic little idiot I was. 

I’d like to ask the Mamamia HR department to look away now as I tell you that many people in our office spent hours with an extra screen open with a very annoying blue line that made you think you might be next. 

The anticipation and the stress were high as everyone looked a little something like this…

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While a few lucky people managed to get tickets, most of us missed out – including one devastated colleague who got to the point of putting tickets in her cart before the website glitched and her session timed out. 

You can also read all about our Senior Entertainment Writer Chelsea McLaughlin’s emotional experience here. 

And I’m guessing that if you’re one of the Swifties who missed out, you spent the majority of last night talking to people you knew who also missed out and were haunted by being stuck in what’s now being referred to as the ‘Waiting Lounge of Doom’.

So when the news was announced this morning that additional shows were being added – one for Sydney and one for Melbourne – I should’ve been elated.

More shows mean more seats and more chances to attend the record-shattering tour that we’ve all been dreaming of, right? 

But it made me kind of mad. Well, really mad. 

Because most people I know spent literal hours of their life in a line yesterday with a slim chance of getting seats only to find out they could’ve just had more seats available in the first place. 

Me still in the Taylor Swift pre-sale lounge pic.twitter.com/R4rmAYJjNM

— Melissa Forbes (@melissablack86) June 28, 2023

Of course, I know I just sound bitter. 

Don’t get me wrong, I will still absolutely be trying my hardest to get tickets. I’ve been a fan of Taylor for more than a decade and consider myself incredibly lucky to have been to her shows before. 

But this whole saga feels like the equivalent of that moment when bands go offstage at the end of their set, even though everyone knows they’re coming back for the encore.

There had already been a lot of speculation that there might be additional shows added given the gaps in Taylor’s touring schedule.

So when the stakes are this high, and there is so much unprecedented demand, it would be nice if the people who are willing to fork out their hard-earned money aren’t d**ked about in the process of trying to see their favourite artist.

Because, let’s face it, there are a lot of people out there who are going to have to make sacrifices to afford a concert like this – many of them parents who will face the wrath of their pre-teens if they don’t snag tickets. And they’ll have to try again on Friday – and probably spend a few more hours in the Waiting Lounge of Doom – in the hopes of achieving that. 

I also don’t buy the idea that the tour organisers didn’t know how popular the shows would be given Taylor’s incredible track record with this tour and added extras last minute.

After an insanely successful career that spans 17 years, Taylor is at the top of her game and a whole new generation of fans have been added to her die-hard fanbase. 

Listen to this episode of The Spill, all about Taylor Swift. Post continues after podcast.

A lot of the frustration also comes from the fact that the queuing system doesn’t work chronologically. 

Ticketek insists it’s not randomised but a representative also told PEDESTRIAN.TV, "everyone in the Ticketek lounge has an equal opportunity to get into the site regardless of when they have arrived."

This means there are plenty of stories of people logging in at 11am – an hour after the presale began – and getting tickets while others were on the site for hours beforehand and never got through. 

Not so long ago, superfans could camp out for hours at the ticketing booths in an actual, physical line and their hard work would be rewarded with the best seats in the house.

But now it’s completely up to chance, which makes this fairer but also much more stressful for all involved. 

Regardless of whether you’re a OG superfan or someone who is raising a little Swiftie, everyone deserves to feel a little bit of that Taylor Swift magic without wasting a day in front of a scrolling blue bar. 

But I can’t hate the player, I hate the game. So I guess I’ll see you all in the Waiting Lounge of Doom on Friday! 

Feature image: Getty/supplied. 

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