On every corner of social media right now there are Taylor Swift fans experiencing anything from despair to glee.
The superstar brings her record-shattering Eras Tour to a close in Vancouver this weekend with three final shows (Dec. 6-8) at BC Place, and people from all over the world are hoping to be a part of it - even if it comes down to the last minute.
The reality is that there are only so many seats to be sold, and the journey to get a ticket is quite often not simple.
'The Great War': Navigating Ticketmaster
For many Vancouver Eras Tour ticket holders, the journey began in November 2023, when the initial "verified fan" registration period was open on Ticketmaster.
While some argue that the only way to "verify" someone is a real Swift fan is to somehow cross-reference their Spotify listening history or ask them trivia questions, for Ticketmaster, it's pretty much luck of the draw. You sign up with your account, choose a city and date for a show, and await an email response that either tells you you've been waitlisted or you have a special code that will allow you the chance to queue up with thousands of others to try for tickets.
Swifties call this "The Great War," which is a play on the title of a song from her 2022 album Midnights.
The queues are notoriously long and frustrating. Do you refresh? Is it better on mobile or desktop? What happens when you're let in?
Not all who queue get tickets.
Not all who get tickets want them. Some are in there just to turn around and drop tickets on the resale market to make a profit.
Once the sale is over, it's over, and, in Vancouver's case, it's been over a year since fans had the chance to buy on Ticketmaster. The last 13 months have included tickets being sold or exchanged through Facebook Marketplace and groups or through reselling portals like StubHub.
Some of the transactions have been scams.
Ticket fever peaks for the last three Eras Tour shows...ever
As the concerts loomed closer, ticket fever peaked. After all, this is the last chance to see Swift on this particular tour, a sweeping 3.5-hour career retrospective that has commanded attention since it began in March 2023 in Arizona.
A surprise ticket "drop" nearly two weeks before the shows featured a bank of thousands of tickets located behind the stage priced at $16 each. They were snapped up in a flash (with a limit of two per night for any "verified fan" who could get through the online Ticketmaster queues).
They hit the resale market in a flash, too, with many priced at over $1,000 each.
Once the stage was built the week of the show, a couple more ticket "drops" happened. Alerted by Twitter/X accounts devoted to sharing such info, and word spreading fast online, a few thousand more seats sold.
Fans win tickets with Swift trivia skills on Vancouver streets
On Thursday, the day before "Night One" of the Eras Tour, tour presenter Rogers hit the streets for a ticket giveaway campaign.
While the comms giant has been steadily doing social media contests, Thursday's streeter blitz was actually an IRL "verified fan" situation.
Ticket-seekers vied for pairs of concert tickets at four Vancouver locations throughout the day, with the wins going to the fans who could successfully answer three Swift trivia questions. And they weren't easy ones.
Fans Bridget and Emily took off work to take their shot at the Vancouver Art Gallery plaza at 11 a.m. The pals rushed from opposite sides of town to try to find each other on the plaza to get in line for a chance to compete.
Their win had them in disbelief.
They had not won "The Great War," they shared with V.I.A. minutes after their win, describing the process as a "wild lottery" that seemed to have "no rules."
The friends, who won tickets to the Friday night show, realized their last-minute win left them with a to-do list, starting with "go back to work," followed by planning an outfit. Emily says she's in her Reputation era and is hoping the weekend brings some kind of special announcement from Swift, maybe even the release of the "Taylor's Version" re-record of that or her self-titled debut album.
Bridget says Midnights continues to have a special place in her heart. When the album came out, she says she was working a field job and remembers listening to the opening beats of the first song, "Lavender Haze" and thinking "pop Taylor is back! Let's go!"
She's also hopeful that Swift's famous boyfriend, NFL star Travis Kelce, might make an appearance in the audience of Friday's concert, which would lead Swift to change a lyric of the closing song "Karma" in tribute.
Regardless, both fans, who feel like scoring tickets is capping off what has been a long journey for them, are thinking Swift will use her last three shows to use the "surprise song" section to touch on tunes that reflect the closing of an incredible chapter.
'Karma is me going to Taylor Swift': generous Vancouverite gets a surprise
Meanwhile, in a TikTok video, Vancouverite Bryleigh Wong shared her incredible last-minute ticket moment, which was a true example of "Karma."
Wong, who lives near the stadium, shares in her video that she was offering her parking space at a reasonable rate to help out anyone who needed a safe, affordable spot to park for the show. When she connected with a fan who was going to the concert with a friend in cancer treatment, Wong says she would let them use the space for free.
To ensure the concert-goers knew Wong wasn't a scammer, she explains they held a meetup near BC Place.
The concert-goers were so grateful that they not only had friendship bracelets for Wong but had also pooled their funds to buy her a ticket to the show, knowing Wong had been unsuccessful in securing one for herself.
@bryleighwong Like a frickin cookie or coffee would’ve been a nice thank you 😠BUT THIS!!?? Karma is me going to Taylor Swift ahhhhh
♬ original sound - Bryleigh
While Wong only has a short distance to go to get to BC Place, Swifties are coming to Vancouver from around the globe - from 49 countries (according to SubHub data, alone).
Spreading Swiftie joy amidst Alaskan avalanches
An Alaskan Swift fan named Samantha (@smphilemon on Threads) was set to make the trek to Vancouver but Mother Nature intervened.
Samantha shared on Threads that instead of being asleep in Vancouver getting her rest before seeing the Eras Tour, she was stuck at home. The highway she needed to take was shut down due to avalanches.
She took the opportunity to make another Swiftie's dream come true.
"I gave my ticket away and the joy I caused is so worth it," Samantha wrote on Threads. "The Eras Tour is one big massive movement of joy. My cup is filled and I am happy and grateful and blessed."
Are there any more chances to get Vancouver Eras Tour tickets?
Fans still hoping to score tickets may find the opportunity comes at the last minute, as in right before the show starts.
Ticketmaster may open up the queue (either to verified fans with codes from last year or to anyone) and StubHub will have tickets moving all day and evening.
Rogers may also be near the stadium to do a few more giveaways to some lucky ones looking to get in.
