UOB presale tickets for Taylor Swift’s Singapore concerts sell out after 3 hours

Wednesday (Jul 5) marked the day of UOB presales for Taylor Swift’s upcoming Singapore concerts and as predicted, it was an absolute proverbial bloodbath.

The start of what has been dubbed “The Great War” had Swifties, me included, all over the region (some of whom were newly-minted UOB cardmembers) sacrificing their lunch hour and flocking to Ticketmaster’s site, in hopes of securing a ticket for Swift’s March shows.

#SingaporeTSTheErasTour”, “Ticketmaster” and “taylor swift” trended on Twitter in Singapore as prospective ticket buyers started queueing up.

Many also pointed out getting "error: rate exceeded" messages when trying to log in to Ticketmaster an hour before presales opened at noon. A few users even had problems paying for their tickets after selecting them.

In response to the issues, Ticketmaster wrote on Facebook: "While most transactions are unaffected, we are aware that some customers seem to be experiencing issues with the site. We’re investigating and will share more information shortly. Please stay on the site as we are sorting this urgently, we will continue to provide updates as soon as possible."

I personally joined the presale queue at 11.45am where I waited in a holding area and as soon as the clock struck noon, I found myself at number 29,370. Within 10 minutes of opening, queue numbers had reportedly reached a million.

After securing my tickets at 12.53pm (and redeeming myself after my failure with Coldplay), I rejoined the queue just to see how many people were in line. Suffice it to say, I was shocked.

That's right. Over a million people were ahead of me. A colleague of mine even had to wait for over two hours before he could enter the ticketing page.

According to Jacquelyn Tan, UOB’s Head of Group Personal Financial Services, the bank “experienced a very significant surge in card application volumes not just in Singapore, but across markets in ASEAN”. 

She added: “Daily average UOB credit card applications across Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam in the week of 21 to 27 June 2023 increased 45 per cent compared with preceding weeks in the month, with debit card applications in Singapore and Vietnam up nearly 130 per cent as well.”

So if it felt like you were competing against the world in your quest to get Swift’s concert tickets, you most definitely were.

At 3pm on Jul 5, Ticketmaster announced that presale tickets had officially sold out. By then, multiple listings had appeared on various resale sites – with VIP packages going as high as S$2,500 (about twice the price of their original value of S$1,228).

If you didn't score tickets during the UOB presale, shake it off and try again when general sales start on Jul 7. 

General sales will start from 12pm on Friday for selected registered fans. These fans will receive an email on Jul 5 with information on how to access general sales tickets, along with a unique access code that allows them to buy up to four tickets. Only fans with these access codes can participate in Friday's general sales which will be happening via Ticketmaster and SingPost outlets.

Sure, 8 million people reportedly applied during the fan registration period but who knows? You might be among the lucky few to get the access code. As of 2pm on Jul 5, multiple Swifties have received emails with their access codes, so be sure to keep a close eye on your inbox! A few fans have even started selling access codes on resale sites, with some going as high as S$500.

And if all else fails, you can always hold on to the hope that organisers will release more seats closer to Swift’s concert dates. After all, Live Nation sold additional standing pen spots for Twice’s September concert on Jun 26 and Coldplay currently has a waitlist for tickets to their sold-out shows.