I never thought a website would be my biggest enemy, but here I am in 2022 having a profound hatred for Ticketmaster. Now, you’re probably wondering how this rivalry happened. Well let me break it down: 

On November 1st, Taylor Swift announced she was going on tour. Sources say if you listened closely, you could collectively hear every teenage girl (and some acceptable men) screaming and crying tears of joy. Naturally, as soon as I found out about the concert, I texted my friends and one of their parents signed up for the presale. It was perfect. It was going to work out, right? Following the release of her new album, Midnights, it was clear from the beginning the competition was going to be intense, but no one could guess what would truly happen – how her song, “The Great War,” would come to life in a literal sense.

On the 15th, the best news was received: I was picked for the presale. My confidence was through the roof. I was certain I would get tickets. I was even looking for the perfect outfit to wear. Presale was going to happen the next day, and that day was supposed to be spent celebrating. However, this was the day in which Ticketmaster failed us all.

We were waiting in the queue, we were picking out seats, we were going to pay, we were watching the website crash…wait WHAT?! Just like that, the tickets were gone, the website refreshed and we were pushed to the back of the queue. No, it couldn’t be…no…THE PRESALE TICKETS WERE SOLD OUT! How could this have happened?! However, I wasn’t the only person who lost presale tickets. Hundreds of people had the same issue. This was not something that could just be overlooked: people took off work, spent hours upon hours trying to get these tickets, just to end up with nothing. What was even worse, people were abusing their presale luck, buying extra tickets and trying to sell them for thousands of dollars. Why is there so much corruption at a Taylor Swift presale ticket sale? 

Can you believe this isn’t the worst of it? I know, I’m shocked too. The Capital One presale happened the next day, and of course, the same issues occurred. People were kicked off, unable to buy tickets. It was okay though, because general ticket sales were occurring on Friday. There was still a chance, and Swifties were allowing themselves to become accustomed to the idea of getting nosebleed seats, if that’s what it took to go. 

Sources now say, Thursday afternoon, if you listened closely, you could hear every unlucky teenage girl (and some unlucky, acceptable men) screaming and crying, this time in pain. Agony. Distress. Only some of the ways to describe the emotions floating through the air. General ticket sales were…CANCELED! Excuse me? This had to be a joke, a sick, cruel joke. Ticketmaster published a tweet, explaining how the demand was so high for tickets, and they didn’t have enough inventory for the general public. There was no remorse, no care in the world about how many people they let down. Scrolling through TikTok, you could see all the distraught fans. 

Fortunately, Taylor has responded to the problems, stating that she was highly disappointed with the whole situation, and how she is deeply sorry for the obstacles all her fans had to face. It is absolutely insane how fast everything changed, and how this opportunity was stripped from so many people. 

Until this whole fiasco is fixed, many people will continue to be disappointed in the disorganization and lack of responsibility exhibited from those in charge.