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International back-up plans and multiple contingencies: How I’m strategising for Taylor Swift tickets
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SINGAPORE – “We’ll come back fresh and ready on Wednesday for another round of The Great War.”
That was what I texted my two friends in Singapore after Melbourne general sales for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour closed last Friday.
After 12 hours of waiting in the Australian ticketing platform Ticketek lounges last Wednesday and 10 hours last Friday, only to be let in after all tickets had been sold out, we agreed to let go of Australia as the first of three international back-up plans.
Our group chat, appropriately titled “Stressing & planning for Taylor tickets”, has been the headquarters over the last two weeks, accumulating nearly 250 images and more than 40 links as we fine-tune our strategy for the best chances to obtain tickets for the long-awaited Asia leg of The Eras Tour.
Now that Down Under was a bust, save for the possibility of resale tickets being made available on Ticketek in September, we shifted our focus closer to home – the battle for UOB presale tickets
Beyond the basics of pre-registering with multiple accounts to increase the odds of getting the unique presale code needed for general sale tickets on Friday, amassing UOB credit cards for the presale and taking Friday off work to wait outside SingPost outlets,
The three of us are aiming for VIP packages and are prepared to spend $728 each, twice the amount of the Category 1 prices of $348. A dent in the wallet, certainly, but still much cheaper than our remaining international back-up plans of going to Japan or Europe.
Helping us is another friend, solely in charge of standard tickets ranging from Categories 1 to 3. I pre-emptively armed her with all the information she could possibly need, from Ticketmaster troubleshooting to ideal seating arrangements.
It is times like these that I am grateful for a dual monitor set-up at home, as I prepare to spend hours glued to my laptop while on a group call with my friends. To minimise the need to leave my desk, meals have been pre-planned and liquids will be limited. Anything to avoid the fear of being let into the sale while on the toilet.
Though my hope lies in securing four VIP packages during the presale, knowing that my friends and I have scoped out four SingPost outlets in various parts of Singapore is a comfort, including the Harbourfront Centre Post Office. Whoever among us receives the coveted e-mail containing the general sale code needed for online and in-person purchases will immediately be on duty to queue overnight, ready for the general sale to begin at noon.
With bases covered in Singapore, our remaining back-up plans include lottery tickets in Japan and trying for tickets in Europe as a last resort, both of which will include additional costs of plane tickets, accommodation and whatever possible sightseeing we may do.
The intensity of the planning is not lost on me. Non-Swifties would question the logic of losing sleep or forking out exorbitant amounts of money to see a blonde pop star whom many know for her extensive library of songs about failed relationships.
Fans waiting outside of Nissan Stadium ahead of pop star Taylor Swift's second night of performance in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 6.
PHOTO: AFP
However, as a fan since 2011, successfully fighting The Great War (a term coined by South-east Asian Swifties as millions attempt to get tickets to one of her six shows at the National Stadium
The Eras Tour has been dubbed a tribute to the changing eras across Swift’s 17-year career, beginning with her self-titled debut album in 2006 up to her 10th studio album Midnights (2022). It is also the first tour since Swift regained ownership of the masters of her first six albums from Big Machine Records, which allowed her to re-record and re-release Fearless and Red in 2021, and Speak Now on Friday, all known as Taylor’s Versions.
Her last concert in Singapore took place in 2015 for her 1989 World Tour, when I lived abroad. As a broke university student in the United States, I was also unable to afford her Reputation Stadium Tour in 2018.
My personal willingness to spend up to a full paycheck to see Swift in concert will result in a tight budget in the coming months if I were to succeed in getting tickets. The price of eating out less and buying fewer pretty books feels worth it to see an artiste whose music I have grown up with.
