Taylor Swift fans in Singapore shed tears of joy after ‘roller coaster’ race for concert tickets
- Some diehard fans braved two days of sweltering heat outside post office branches across Singapore, to be the first few in line to buy concert tickets
- Resale tickets have begun to pop up, with a VIP ticket going for as much as S$3,000 (US$2,200), compared to the original price of S$348 for top tier tickets
Emotions ran high in Singapore on Friday as thousands of “Swifties” succeeded in their quest to see their idol in concert next March, while others were forced into a resale market where tickets are going for thousands of dollars.
Within two minutes of the general sale going live on Ticketmaster at midday, the website’s queue surpassed 1 million people.
Dressed in tie-dyed T-shirts, jewelled Crocs and beaded friendship bracelets, some diehard fans had braved two days of sweltering heat outside post offices for a chance to grab tickets to see the US singer-songwriter on her first trip to Singapore in eight years.
This Week in Asia visited a post office branch in the northeastern neighbourhood of Ang Mo Kio on Friday, and saw a long line of people anxiously tapping on their digital devices, also trying to secure tickets online, as Swift’s hits blasted in the background.
“I’ve been waiting 10 years to see her, and I don’t know when’s the next time I’ll see her,” said 23-year-old student Charmaine Cheng tearfully.
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She said she had been queuing since Wednesday and finally managed to secure four Category 1 tickets for the first night of the concert. “This was really, really important for me.”
Student Anyi Ye also shed happy tears when she snagged four tickets. “It was like a roller coaster for me. It took almost half an hour to secure tickets. I thought it was all over for me,” the 19-year-old said between sobs.
Some went to great lengths to see their idol. One 19-year-old said he had taken medical leave from national service to queue for tickets.
Just before ticket sales opened, Singapore Post staff were bracing themselves for the storm to come, counting down the minutes when fans would swarm in.
“We also saw a lot of fans queuing up for Jacky Cheung tickets, but I’m not sure if they waited overnight,” said one employee who declined to be named.
Ticket frenzy
The dash for tickets had been building up over weeks.
In the days leading to the start of the sale at noon on Friday, some enterprising users had marketed their “queuing services” on e-commerce platform Carousell – charging S$20-50 to help desperate Swifties save a spot at post offices.
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In group chats on the Telegram app, fans also gathered to discuss strategies to secure tickets and share updates about ticket availability across the different dates.
The platform has also been a venue for fans to vent their frustrations. In the Telegram channel titled Taylor Swift The Eras Tour Asia, which has close to 20,000 subscribers, fans complained about glitches on the ticketing website.
“After two hours of queuing [I got] kicked out, [and] needed to queue again after choosing the category and section,” one angry Swiftie wrote, adding that she was then placed 1,384,881st in the virtual queue.
Meanwhile, tickets for Swift’s shows have started showing up on the resale market, including on e-commerce platform Carousell, going for as much as S$3,000 (US$2,200) for a VIP ticket.
