CINCINNATI — Some Taylor Swift fans knew Ticketmaster would be trouble Tuesday morning — and it was. The site froze and crashed for many due to an unprecedented number of people trying to buy presale tickets.
"It’s been a crazy day," said fan Taylor Harris.
Harris has never seen Swift in concert and was hoping to make one of her wildest dreams come true this summer.
"When I was 25, I got diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer," Harris said. "I put it on my bucket list and it says, 'See Taylor Swift in concert.' So when these tickets became available, I was like we have to do this, we have to get these tickets and we have to go. It would be so cool to check it off my bucket list."
Harris was re-diagnosed with ovarian cancer in April. The support from family and friends got her through, and so did Taylor Swift.
"Last year when she re-released Red Taylor’s Version, I can’t even tell you," she said. "I was still doing maintenance chemo, and I can’t even tell you how many times I just put the album on repeat and Reputation, and I would be sitting in the chemo center and I would just be listening to Taylor Swift the whole time."
After more than four hours in line, Harris was finally able to secure her tickets. Her struggle to get tickets is a problem Emily Hacker knows all too well.
“I waited an hour, hour and a half and then it completely stopped moving — the site like crashed completely," Hacker said. "I couldn’t even get back on it, logged me out of everything, tried to get back on Ticketmaster, nothing was happening."
Ticketmaster has been back up and running for awhile, but people are still having problems trying to buy tickets. Taylor Swift fans tell me the site is really slow, and some have gotten kicked out of the queue and placed at the back of the line. @WCPO https://t.co/J2BhQcjMNt
— Jessica Hart WCPO (@JessicaHartTV) November 15, 2022
Hacker says Ticketmaster crashed after waiting for over an hour.
"I was just angry at that point," Hacker said. "I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get tickets today or go back another day and see what’s happening. It was a little upsetting.”
Hacker said she’s still hopeful she’ll get tickets to see her favorite singer.
"I saw her back in 2019 and it was amazing and I’ve been her fan since I was 10 years old, when she came out with her first album," she said. "All of my friends know me as Taylor Swift Swiftie."
For a select few fans, though, today was a fairytale.
"I had like 825 people ahead of me and so I just had to wait,” said Aungelique Heater.
Heater was able to get tickets before the site crashed.
"As soon as it said, 'You’re in,' I looked at the seats where we wanted to sit and Ticketmaster was moving really slow, so it was difficult to kind of find the seat that I wanted, and I was kind of nervous because I think it was gonna crash so I had to hurry up,” Heater said.
She added her daughter is a big Taylor Swift fan and set several alarms this morning to make sure she got into the waiting room early.
Heater noted she’s excited to see Swift in concert next summer and hopes Ticketmaster is able to sort out the issues they had today.
