A selection of Taylor Swift fans have been given another opportunity to purchase tickets for the US leg of the singer’s 2023 Eras Tour after many were left disappointed by online vendors.
On Monday, Ticketmaster, which has faced a backlash for how it handled the massive demand for Swift tickets, emailed some individuals who had signed up to the “verified fan” presale but had been unsuccessful the first time round.
Within the email, it tells recipients they have been selected to participate in a “limited-time opportunity” to request to purchase two tickets to Swift’s 2023 tour.
It adds: “You were identified as a fan who received a boost during the Verified Fan presale but did not purchase tickets.
“We apologise for the difficulties you may have experienced, and have been asked by Taylor’s team to create this additional opportunity for you to purchase tickets.”
Ticketmaster states on its website that fans will have until December 23 to submit their purchase request for what show and tickets they would like, and after the window closes they will learn if their request has been accepted or not.
Last month, fans trying to secure tickets for the tour in the presale were met by massive delays and error messages that Ticketmaster blamed on bots and historically unprecedented demand.
It was the most tickets sold on the platform in a single day, the company later said in a statement.
A general public sale scheduled for after the presale was also cancelled, with Ticketmaster citing “insufficient ticket inventory” to meet “extraordinarily high demands”.
We want to apologize to Taylor and all of her fans – especially those who had a terrible experience trying to purchase tickets. We feel we owe it to everyone to share some information to help explain what happened: https://t.co/1Gn4kRIvq8
— Ticketmaster (@Ticketmaster) November 19, 2022
Following the disruption, megastar Swift expressed her anger and frustration over the hours spent by fans trying to buy tickets for the 2023 tour.
Posting a story on Instagram, she wrote: “I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could.
“It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.”
The singer also said she has trust issues when it comes to her fans’ experience, trying to keep many elements of her career in-house.
“It’s really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse,” Swift said.
Of those who had lost out, the pop star said at the time she hoped to “provide more opportunities for us to all get together and sing these songs”.
The aftermath of the Ticketmaster chaos also led to the announcement that a US Senate special committee will hold a hearing to examine the lack of competition in the ticketing industry.