Shake off? Parents come up short for Taylor Swift tickets

NEW YORK (dpa) – They should be birthday presents. It was supposed to be a Christmas present. They should be the special of the special treats for young Taylor Swift fans.

Instead, the hours-long Ticketmaster debacle they endured Tuesday while trying to snag concert seats left many parents empty-handed and frustrated – and their children disappointed.

“I was trying to buy tickets so my best friend and I could take our teenagers to their first concert and literally waited all day to finally buy tickets and there wasn’t a single ticket left,” says Micah Woods, who lives near Little Rock, Arkansas, said Wednesday.

Others who fought on computers eventually scored, some after being kicked out of the online queue multiple times or struggling with error messages.

“I was pretty exhausted afterwards. Just the stress,” Natasha Mitchner said in Dayton, Ohio. “But it’s worth it. She puts on a good show.”

After nearly six hours in line, Mitchner was madly collecting tickets for herself and her two daughters, ages 17 and 20. She jumped for a fourth bonus ticket that could be used by her husband or a friend of the kids. It’s the fourth time the Swiftie family has seen her live.

“My 20-year-old said even if you don’t get them, I still love you,” Mitchner said, laughing. “It’s kind of our thing to do this together. I would have been upset. I was just trying to stay calm.”

Emails to Ticketmaster spokeswomen were not immediately answered on Wednesday. In a tweet on Tuesday, the company called the demand “historically unprecedented” as millions of people tried to buy something.

Fresh off one of the biggest album releases of her career, Swift announced earlier this month that she will embark on a new US stadium tour next year, with international dates to follow. Fans who received a special code after registering had exclusive access on Wednesday to buy tickets before the rest of the public were sold on Friday.

The 52-date Eras Tour begins March 17th in Glendale, Arizona and concludes with five shows in Los Angeles concluding August 9th. It’s Swift’s first tour since 2018.

“It was sad. It was so sad,” said Vivica Williams in Clarksville, Maryland.

She lost an attempt to fight for her 14-year-old daughter and a friend. The girls were in gym class when the tickets went on sale, so Mom was put in charge of the job. The Philadelphia show was supposed to be a birthday present.

“They were so excited. I tried to get ahead and I tried to get ahead. It bangs and bangs and bangs and bangs. And so I finally get in line and I’m like yay! Then, oh, there’s more than 2,000 people in line ahead of you,” Williams said.

She was kicked out of the queue 4 or 5 times after logging in around 9:30am which was 30 minutes before the sale.

“I never got more than 2,000 people in line. I finally gave up around 2:30. I guess forget that, I’m a grown man. I can’t just sit here on the phone with Taylor Swift all day,” Williams said. “I used to complain to my daughter all the time. This is for the birds, for example.”

With another chance for tickets on Friday, she has already informed the offspring: “It’s on you now, girls.”

And with presale tickets up for grabs in the middle of the school day, Williams wasn’t the only parent left with the job.

Jonathan Hickman in Knoxville, Tennessee, managed to snag some tickets for his 15-year-old daughter after what his wife Katie Allison described as he performed “some crazy, cracking Ticketmaster” magic all day.

Tickets to a show in Nashville were supposed to be a Christmas present — and her daughter’s first concert without parents — but they’ve now told her.

“If you’ve ever wondered what those teenage girls screaming with incredible excitement for The Beatles sound like, I’m sure I can now describe the sound to you in a fairly accurate way,” Allison wrote on Facebook. “We’re still not sure how Jon did it. We’re kind of in shock. But boy is it fun to see your daughter SO excited about music.”