The Gold Rush for Taylor Swift’s Vancouver Show Tickets: Is it Over Now?
Photo Credit: Stephen Mease/North Shore Daily Post
The Eras Tour, the three-hour long concert tour celebrating a collection of Taylor Swift’s “Eras”, or her ten original studio albums, kicked off in Glendale, California on Mar. 17.
Because the tour originally only consisted of American dates, Canadian Swifties would have to cross the border to go to the concert, watch the concert film in cinemas, or tune in to livestreams. However, they had their wildest dreams come true when Swift added Canadian shows to the North American leg of her tour on Nov. 2, nearly eight months after the Eras Tour first began.
These added shows have been long awaited and will commence in Toronto in November 2024. The later announcement of three Vancouver tour dates, which will take place from Dec. 6–8th in 2024, were celebrated by Swifties across the nation.
On Jul. 6, when Canadian fans were still waiting for dates to be announced, Justin Trudeau posted a reference-laden tweet encouraging Swift to bring her tour to Canada. “It’s me, hi. I know places in Canada would love to have you. So, don’t make it another cruel summer. We hope to see you soon,” he wrote.
According to CBC News, 3.5 million accounts signed up for the wildly popular Ticketmaster presale. Registered fans are randomly selected to be given a code that grants them access to the presale. Receiving a presale code does not guarantee tickets, although users cannot gain access to the sale without one.
The great war for presale codes (and eventually, tickets) was felt within the Hamber community. Many Hamber Swifties signed up with multiple accounts to increase their chances at getting a code from Ticketmaster. Kaitlyn Petersen (10) registered 27 accounts, but was waitlisted on all of them.
“I didn’t want to get my hopes up because I [signed up] for Toronto tickets too, before Vancouver dates were published and I didn’t get a code either,” she said. “But I thought I would get at least one out of 27.”
Fortunately, Petersen will still be able to attend the concert because a friend managed to acquire tickets and offered her one. “I was so, so excited,” she said. “But they were a lot of money so my first concern was how I was [going to] pay it back.”
Nevertheless, she is really looking forward to the concert. “It’s such a production [...] and I’m so excited to see it live,” Peterson said.
Many students, however, were not so lucky. Will Zou (9), who had expected to be waitlisted after registering two accounts, was disappointed when he had failed to acquire a code.
“I was crying, but not crying with tears,” he said. “I expected it, but I was [still] really, really sad.”
Like many Swifties, Zou is considering buying resale tickets for the show, though it is much more expensive. He has been continuously browsing multiple resale apps, as well as a physical ticket service store, for tickets under $1000. But his search has been in vain so far.
“I downloaded six resale apps and [all the tickets] were, like, $1000,” he said. Maintaining optimism, Will hopes to be able to buy tickets the day before the concert.
The rarity of acquired codes within the Hamber community raises another concern: Is Ticketmaster’s code distribution system fair? Ms. G. Lau (LLC), who attempted to get tickets herself, called the process an “international scam.”
Ms. Lau believes that it is not fair for non-Vancouverites, or even non-Canadians in general, to be held at the same priority as Vancouver Swifties. As a Swiftie herself, she thinks that Vancouver residents should get priority over the codes. “[Vancouverites] are competing with people from all over the world. No wonder we can’t get tickets.”
Teacher-librarian Ms. S. Lemmon (LLC) registered 11 accounts through Ticketmaster, four of which were Avion-sponsored. Avion members, through RBC, were given presale access to the show. Although she was very hopeful, Ms. Lemmon was waitlisted on all of her attempts. She said she thought about buying resale, “but [it was] $1,500 for behind the stage.”
When asked about her opinions on the fairness of the code distribution system, Ms. Lemmon went on to explain that although she understands that the system is purely based on luck, she does not agree with the process of selecting “verified fans” who, despite the stages of filtration, still resell the tickets for an unjustifiable mark-up price.
“The fact that all of these tickets went on sale and were instantly being resold…,” Ms. Lemmon reflected. “Are you a verified fan if you’re just in it for the money? A true fan would get the tickets and hold the tickets close.”
Instead, she suggests that the system could be more fair by determining the selection of verified fans through their purchase of official vinyls and merchandise, rather than having the system decide randomly.