By AJ Mun
Staff Writer
With several sold-out venues for Ariana Grande's mini Eternal Sunshine tour, superfans around the country are left heartbroken without tickets. On Tuesday, Sept. 9, Grande’s United States presale began on Ticketmaster, leaving millions of fans to fight in the war for seats at the venue.
While Grande had previously stated in an interview with Zane Lowe that she would want to tour the album in a smaller, more low-key setting, fans were easily able to imagine just how much of a bloodbath the fight for tickets would be.
With an alleged 1 million plus people in the queue, tickets were sold out in seconds. While this was to be expected, those without tickets were outraged to see the reseller prices skyrocket, given the number of seats that they had been able to obtain. At the time of writing, some of the cheapest seats on Seatgeek.com are showing $714 for nosebleed viewpoints.
As a fan, the outrage stems from the base knowledge of concerts and the assumption of who was able to get good places in the queue line for presale. Online, many hardcore and longtime fans were upset to see that less dedicated fans were able to secure seats for low prices. Some fans believe there should be a way to prove that you are deserving of a spot, as they believe they are more entitled to a ticket than others, and unfortunately, I agree.
If you have ever fought in a Ticketmaster war, you would know that scalpers and resellers are a poison to the concert community. The concept of greed is severely prevalent within TikTok posts of fans who weren't given a good spot in the queue, despite some of them waiting on the website for hours before it opened. Fans have also been seeing those who have gotten tickets being able to secure tickets for multiple nights of the show. Thus, bringing back the concept of greed.
Should people have been able to get tickets for multiple shows? Should there be some sort of trivia quiz that filters out the diehards from the fake fans? Should influencers have had the opportunity to get tickets over everyday people, despite not even being a fan? TikToker Mikayla Nogueira had previously made some subtly unsavory jokes about Grande’s love life and seemingly was able to obtain front row seats to her concert.
When looking in the comments, the fans' overall reaction can be summarized with one word: undeserving. On one hand, if someone has the money to pay for a ticket, they are entitled to it. On the other hand, why should someone who has made publicly negative comments about an artist be able to sit front row at their concert over someone who’s loved the artist since the beginning of their career?
Something that consistently comes up in conversations about who deserves tickets versus who doesn’t is the yearly Spotify Wrapped. For reference, Spotify Wrapped, like Apple Music Replay, displays a user's top-streamed artist, albums and songs. Some fans have taken to TikTok, telling those with tickets to show their Spotify Wrapped results to prove their claim to tickets.
Now, I am certainly not saying someone should have to submit their results to ticketing websites in order to get presale opportunities, but I strongly believe that there should be a set of standards put in place to help aid superfans in their journey to get tickets.
While I was lucky enough to be able to secure my seats, I went into the process prepared to be deeply upset if I had lost the fight because I, too, felt as though I was more deserving than some of the people I knew I would see at the concert.
The issue that arises when thinking about solutions for this problem is actually finding a viable answer to the question: “Who deserves priority and who doesn't?"
Spotify wrapped playlists aren't always a telling statistic of who is a hardcore fan. Though in the same vein, are fans expected to do multiple rounds of trivia to reserve themselves a place in line?
Grande’s team is currently aware of the reseller issue that is becoming increasingly more ridiculous by the day and is actively working to correct it.
Whether it be trivia, a Spotify Wrapped or a signed personal note from Grande herself, all I know is one thing: you will see my Instagram post at the Eternal Sunshine Tour.
