Education Minister Chan Chun Sing issues challenge to Taylor Swift fans
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Education Minister Chan Chun Sing received many requests for a school holiday on the dates American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift is scheduled to perform here.
PHOTO: AFP
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SINGAPORE – Education Minister Chan Chun Sing has issued a challenge to Singaporean Swifties – local fans of Taylor Swift – after receiving many requests for a school holiday on the dates the American pop star is scheduled to perform here in March 2024.
In a Facebook post on Friday, Mr Chan said if any “creative and enterprising fan” can invite Swift to his or her school to perform for free, the Ministry of Education (MOE) will have the school declare a school holiday the next day.
“Then everyone gets to enjoy this inclusive concert,” he added.
This challenge was issued, Mr Chan said, because he was concerned about how fans of other music acts such as Coldplay, Blackpink, BTS and Beyonce, among others, would feel if MOE acceded to the school holiday request from Swift fans.
“I am also concerned that this may further fuel inflation as some overseas reports have suggested,” he added.
The New York Times reported last week that when American singer Beyonce kicked off her latest world tour in Sweden recently, a huge influx of visitors attending her first two concerts may have caused “a major, if temporary, surge in hotel and restaurant prices, big enough to have a noticeable effect on Swedish inflation overall”.
It was announced on Wednesday at midnight that Swift will perform in Singapore as part of The Eras Tour.
The 33-year-old will play three nights, from March 2 to 4, at the National Stadium. Singapore and Japan are the only two Asian stops on this tour.
The first two days of the Singapore tour fall on a Saturday and Sunday.
A pre-sale for UOB cardholders will be available from July 5 at noon, while general sales open via Ticketmaster on July 7 at noon.
Fan registration for general sale tickets began on Friday noon and will end on June 28 at noon on Ticketmaster.
Swifties flocked to the website on Friday morning, amid complaints from some fans that the website was down, with some taking to Twitter to share screenshots of error messages they encountered just minutes before noon.
Some fans received “error: rate exceeded” messages while others received “error 403”. Others complained about not being able to submit their registration.
According to Downdetector, a website that tracks outages, five reports were made regarding Ticketmaster. However, it appeared that most fans were able to register eventually.
The Straits Times has contacted the organiser, AEG Presents Asia, for more information.
