On July 4, 5 and 6, Taylor Swift (34) will come to the Netherlands with her famous Eras Tour to play three huge shows at the Johan Cruyff Arena. To prevent fraud, tickets are registered in your name and cannot be transferred to another person. However, tickets are being offered for thousands of euros on resale sites, causing many “fastees” – as the singer’s fans call themselves – to be scammed. This logically leads to frustration among the masses.
“Fans seem to be unaware of these tricks.”
It is nothing new for black marketers to sell tickets for much higher amounts at popular concerts. But the amounts Taylor’s tickets are currently being resold for are beyond anything. The €6,000 seat is no exception. In the US they go even further, because tickets are more expensive there in some cases.
Platforms like Viagogo and Stubhub in particular offer tickets at very high prices. Greenhouse Talent, the concert organizer, assumes that these tickets are fake. This is because official tickets are sent to ticket holders only a few days before the shows start.
Tickets were sold exclusively through Ticketmaster. “Fans can register for this and through the lottery process are allocated a unique code,” Greenhouse said. This would make resale through third parties impossible. This way, fraud and exorbitant prices can be prevented.
Tickets can only be resold through Ticketmaster itself. This works based on the QR code. At the start of the show, this code is scanned and the sold ticket is issued. In addition, you can request a maximum profit of 20 percent on your ticket. Viagogo and Stubhub’s prices are much higher, so this is unlikely to be a legitimate entry ticket. Furthermore, tickets are not available via a file, but only via a code. Viagogo does not own these tickets and is not allowed to charge such high amounts as per the guidelines.
So many fans are now sounding the alarm at the Greenhouse after purchasing a ticket via Viagogo. This is an annoying situation, according to the organization, because “it is clear that fans are not aware of these tricks.”
Artists like Ed Sheeran have previously spoken out against these resale sites. For example, Ed declared concert tickets sold through Viagogo invalid. In addition, an investigation was conducted into the site in 2018, where many complaints about misleading advertising were found to be justified.
Regular selling prices for The Eras Tour ranged from €224 for first place, close to the podium, to €79.25 for seventh place, away from the podium. VIP tickets are of course much more expensive, with prices rising to €774. It is still unclear whether Viagogo will stop selling tickets after the uproar.
On April 18, Taylor surprised her fans with a double album. Her fans couldn’t believe their happiness. View photos below.