Ticketmaster has a new Taylor Swift problem.
Early Tuesday morning, Ticketmaster opened the online presales for the first of four Paris shows on Swift’s “The Eras Tour,” set for La Défense Arena on May 9, 10, 11 and 12, 2024. The four Paris dates were set to go on sale today in two allotments, with one sale for May 9 and 10 opening at 9 a.m. local time and another, for May 11 and May 12, due to start at 11 a.m.
Over a million Swifties queued up for the first tranche of tickets, but less than 15 minutes after opening the Paris sale, French Ticketmaster tweeted: “Some of you may be having issues with the site this morning – we are working on it and will let you know.” An hour into the sale started, with reportedly no movement in the queue, the company announced it was suspending both the 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. sales.
La mise en vente Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour de 9h et 11h pour Paris La Défense Arena a été mise en pause. Nous vous tiendrons au courant avec une nouvelle heure de mise en vente dès que possible. Tous les codes non déjà utilisés resteront valables.
— Ticketmaster.fr (@TicketmasterFR) July 11, 2023
“The Taylor Swift sale | The 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Eras Tour for Paris La Défense Arena has been put on hold. We will keep you posted with a new on-sale time as soon as possible. All codes not already used will remain valid,” Ticketmaster tweeted.
The tickets were on general release, and fans had to sign up to be put into a lottery in order to get a code to redeem for tickets.
The company did not give any explanation for the suspension. It’s unclear if the site will go ahead with sales for Swift’s two Lyon concerts, which were planned to kick off at 1 p.m. local time.
This isn’t the first time Ticketmaster has botched sales for a Taylor Swift concert. The company had major technical issues with its presale of “The Eras Tour” tickets in November, such that more than two dozen fans filed suit against Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation. Swift herself commented on the debacle, saying it “really pisses me off that a lot of the people who were able to buy tickets feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.”
