When your favorite singer announces their long-awaited world tour, you might be willing to spend a great deal more than you should for tickets and be ready to put up with any problems that may arise. But for most people, these prices can be too absurd, which causes many die-hard fans to skip out on the experience of a lifetime. 

The same can be said for the Taylor Swift Eras tour which recently kicked off in America and is headed internationally soon. This being said, Taylor fans all over the nation have been upset at the overpriced tickets and queue crashes on the Ticketmaster website.

As I tried obtaining my own tickets for Taylor Swift’s Houston and Arlington shows, I was met with these same issues that made it quite an agonizing experience to buy concert tickets. And prices aside, the Ticketmaster website wouldn’t let any of my ticket purchases through, until all that was left were the back-of-the-barrel nosebleed seats. Of course, I still had to buy them because it’s Taylor Swift, but at a painful price.

Given these events, many people are putting the blame in the wrong places, when they should be blaming Ticketmaster and similar corporations monopolizing sky-high ticket prices. 

Given the staggering and record-breaking interest in pre-registering for tickets, one would think that would have been a clue to Ticketmaster that the actual sale date for tickets would also be record-breaking. And thus, the company should have prepared. Clearly, they were not. In addition to Swifties flooding the website for pre-sale tickets, millions of bots attacked the site as well, leading to peak demand four times greater than seen before. Just for Ticketmaster to cancel sales to the eagerly awaiting general public, as there were no tickets left.

So, since the resale market is the only option left for fans, it begins a difficult decision of how much money one is willing to spend. In the week leading up to the recent Arlington, Texas shows, tickets on StubHub and VividSeats were starting in the low $400 range. But considering that this gives fans a chance to see the 12-time Grammy-winning Taylor Swift perform since her reputation tour in 2018, tickets are well worth the price of admission.

The fan experience at the Eras tour is one a Swiftie will not forget. Swift described the Eras tour as “a journey through the musical eras of my career” which has spanned an amazing 17 years. Each show covers the 10 “Eras” of Taylor Swift, in an epic 44-song marathon, lasting over three hours. Very few performers, like Swift, have such stamina on stage and she’s going to be keeping up this pace for an amazing 52 dates on her US Eras tour.

Fans were provided with bracelets that lit up in sync with the show, providing an amazing artistic effect regardless of where one was sitting. This also explains why there was a strict “no lights allowed” policy for the show which some fans had been worked up over.

Swift’s show also included 10 full sets and costume changes, one for each of her Eras, or studio albums spanning her career. Every aspect of the show’s aesthetics from her costumes to visual effects, lighting, pyrotechnics, and set design were spectacular. Swift captured the very essence of each of her Eras in a visual, sensual experience for her fans. This was shown with her Donatella-Versace-designed rhinestone bodysuit and Christian Louboutin sparkling boots to match her Lover Era and a gorgeous sequin ball gown for her Speak Now Era.

One of the most Twitter-worthy aspects of her performance has been her infamous stage “dive.” This is when Swift literally looks like she’s diving on stage. In reality, fans have learned that there’s an inflatable airbag under a portion of the stage where the floor opens up. Initially, there is a red glow that turns green when it’s safe for Swift to literally dive through an opening on the stage. She then “swims” underneath the stage (presumably doing a quick costume change), and then hops back up on the other side to continue her performance. Truly amazing.

And to top things off, in true Swift style, she donated to the local Tarrant Area Food Bank ahead of her tour stop in Arlington. The TAFB would not release the exact amount of her contribution, but called Swift a “Hunger Hero.” Once again revealing just how amazingly fabulous and thoughtful Taylor Swift has been.

And so, while Taylor Swift’s Eras tickets were highly overpriced, criticism should be placed solely on Ticketmaster, bots, and scammers. But this doesn’t mean that fans who were able to obtain tickets will come home with empty pockets and frown on their face. Truly any amount of money is worth getting to see Taylor Swift and all the entertainment that comes with her tour. So, don’t feel too hard on yourself if you spent an absurd amount on tickets because you won’t be disappointed.