Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour has brought consumer frustration with Ticketmaster into a whole new era. The ticket-selling giant even issued an online mea culpa on Nov. 19, explaining the unprecedented demand in an attempt to shake it off.
But there’s still bad blood between Swifties and Ticketmaster. In a now-viral TikTok, a Taylor Swift fan who thought she was getting front row tickets to the show found two rows in front of her when she got there—not the blank space she was expecting.
The video, posted by TikTok user Emi (@emidolli), has garnered more than 4.5 million views since going up on April 16. Based on Swift’s reported concert schedule and evidence from other videos Emi posted of the show, the incident seems to have occurred at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., on April 13, 14, or 15.
In the video, Emi shows a view of the stadium and the two unexpected rows of folding chairs in front of her. The on-screen caption tells some of the story, noting, “When we paid for front row tickets and when we got there, Taylor’s team added two more rows in front of us and sold them to random people, and Ticketmaster said, ‘Sorry, not our problem.’”
A voice-over adds, “I couldn’t give less of a fuck about my tickets being over a thousand dollars; I don’t perform to poor bitches.”
@emidolli row 9 was supposed to be frontrow and when we bought our tickets on ticketmaster there was no rows ahead of us. we got to the stadium and there were two rows added. so we asked security who took us to TSA who took us to a guy named bill, and bill literally said “blame taylor, she added two more rows for friends and family”. i literally asked the girl in front of me how she got her tickets and she said she bought resale for 1.2k on seat geek so someone needs to pay up 😭😭 #erastour #tampa #night ♬ original sound – susie
Emi adds more detail in the video’s caption: “Row 9 was supposed to be front row and when we bought our tickets on Ticketmaster, there was no rows ahead of us. We got to the stadium and there were two rows added. so we asked security who took us to TSA who took us to a guy named Bill, and Bill literally said, ‘Blame Taylor, she added two more rows for friends and family”. I literally asked the girl in front of me how she got her tickets and she said she bought resale for 1.2k on seat geek so someone needs to pay up.”
In the comments section, viewers shared their thoughts on the situation.
Some viewers said they would have sat in a front row seat if they paid for a front row ticket, which may have prompted Emi to comment, “oh also guys if ur show is sold out u can’t be moved to another seat.”
One commenter noted that they’d been in Emi’s situation before. “This exact thing happened to me,” they said. “I was still super happy with my seats but I was expecting front row.”
“The tickets were still in the same section so it’s not really a price different or obstructed view,” another argued.
That comment led someone to respond, “It’s definitely a price difference, lol. Some of those tix were running 2500-5k resale for front row vs maybe 1-2k.”
“Regular non-VIP floor was $359 before fees, front row stage was $449 before fees and not VIP,” another claimed.
Someone else pointed out that “Row 9” is not the same as front row, leading Emi to retort, “Is a row that’s touching the stage not front row?”
It wasn’t all a complete loss, though: In another TikTok, Emi showed “evidence” that she was close enough to capture Swift’s attention.
“SHE LITERALLY LOOKED AT ME,” she proclaimed.
@emidolli SHE LITERALLY LOOKED AT ME 😭😭😭 #erastour #erastourtampa #night3 ♬ original sound – emi
“No she didn’t,” someone replied.
The Daily Dot contacted Emi via TikTok comment and Ticketmaster via email for more information.
