Tickets for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour go on sale on Tuesday, and Swifties around the world have been gearing up for their version of the hunger games.
The much anticipated tour includes three shows at Gillette Stadium, May 19-21 — Swift’s only stop in New England. Fans hoping to score tickets to the shows know the drill, and it’s far from easy.
The competition began Monday, with hundreds of thousands of Swifties anxiously checking their phones for an email or text from Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan system.
Fans had until Nov. 9 to register for the Tuesday presale ticket release. On Monday afternoon, fans began receiving emails and texts from Ticketmaster letting them know whether they’ve been verified and selected to participate. Without the verification, Swift fans won’t have access to early tickets.
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“Be careful not to delete. You’ll receive a text with your unique access code and the link you’ll use to shop for tickets,” Ticketmaster said, adding that invited fans may purchase a maximum of six tickets.
But here’s the twist: Ticketmaster said if demand exceeds supply (um ... duh), it will select verified fans at random to participate in the presale.
For Swifties, this is all more or less existential.
“I’m actually terrified for the moment I open my email and see something from Ticketmaster. It’s gonna be like opening up a college acceptance/rejection letter,” one person tweeted.
Another person created a “Hunger Games” logo featuring a fiery Mockingjay and swapped out Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen for a profile of Swift.
“Today in a picture,” the person tweeted.
today in a picture pic.twitter.com/TUi8x5Nwmc
— l(abby)rinth (@fifteeenswift) November 14, 2022
Ticket prices are where things could take another unpredictable turn. Prices supposedly range from $49 to $449, before fees, but because demand is so high, the prices could go way up, as plenty of Bruce Springsteen’s fans will tell you. When Springsteen tickets went on sale over the summer, a wave of would-be buyers were shocked to see prices zoom into the four-figure range for a March show.
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“If you don’t see something that’s comfortable for you, step back, hold on,” says Dean Budnick, coauthor of the 2011 book “Ticket Masters: The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped.” “There might be another opportunity [to buy tickets], whether it is the next day or the next month, or five months from now.”
May the odds ever(more) be in your favor.
Previous Globe reporting was used in this article.
Brittany Bowker can be reached at brittany.bowker@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @brittbowker and on Instagram @brittbowker.