Taylor Swift fans are descending on the MCG in the lead up to the first Australian show of Swift’s Eras Tour tonight.
Follow our blog for live updates about the biggest show in Swift’s career.
Face paint and sparkles
KJust now
By Kate Ashton
19-year-old Nadirah and 20-year-old Keiyona were close to the front of the queue when gates opened.
There was no need, as all seats are allocated, but they had been lining up for about 25 minutes anyway because they were “so excited”.
Beck, Chloe and Mia were too excited to sleep last night
K2m ago
By Kate Ashton
(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)
Mum Beck is accompanying her children Mia and Chloe to tonight’s Taylor Swift show.
The pair were so excited ahead of tonight’s concert “they didn’t sleep,” Beck said.
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More fan snaps
7m ago
By Dannielle Maguire
(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)
(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)1 others have reacted, with “care” being most popularShare
Sabrina on stage
12m ago
By Dannielle Maguire
(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)
(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)3 others have reacted, with “care” being most popular
(ABC News: Grace McKinnon)3 others have reacted, with “curious” being most popularShare
A last-minute score?
K41m ago
By Kate Ashton
(ABC News: Kate Ashton)
These two lucky fans THINK they may have just scored last minute tickets to tonight’s show for the price of $400 each.
A fellow fan said she had ended up with some spares.
Georgia said her and her boyfriend, tried everything to get tickets, although admitted her boyfriend did most of the work.
“We’re from Canada, but we knew we were moving here, we tried to get them in Sydney.
“We tried to get them in Melbourne.
“Every time new tickets came up, he was on he was up in the middle of the night,” she said.
And while they hadn’t gotten them yet … Georgia was visibly emotional when the promise of the tickets came through.
(ABC News: Kate Ashton)
“Oh my god, huge, this is very exciting,” she said.
She said she was a little stressed they might not be real … but her boyfriend was also sceptical about the unfolding deal.
“I’m not gonna stop holding this sign until they’re here,” he said.
4 others have reacted, with “care” being most popular
Fans without tickets told to stay away
K45m ago
By Kate Ashton
Outside the MCG, there are voice announcements urging fans without tickets to stay away from the concourse.
There are plenty of police around — some spotted exchanging friendship bracelets with fans — it’s unclear at this stage to what extent that will be enforced.
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‘Will babysit for tickets’
K47m ago
By Kate Ashton
Some fans are still desperately seeking tickets.
19-year-old Sam was holding up a sign that said “Got spare tickets? Speak Now”.
(ABC: Kate Ashton)
The diehard Swiftie said he tried everywhere to get his hands on a ticket to the Era’s tour, even looking for tickets to Swift’s dates overseas.
“It was horrible to be honest,” he said.
“I tried to do in the middle of the night as well, it just doesn’t work.”
But it at least he met some fellow fans along the way.
Nicola and Sam were both looking for tickets and met at the MCG today.
“Same thing, I’ve been up late at night, on Facebook marketplace,” she said.
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Fan’s ticket suddenly “disappeared”
K56m ago
By Kate Ashton
While there are squeals of joy and cheers in almost every direction, the vibes are a little different at the ticket enquires line with some anxious fans waiting to see whether or not they could have fallen victim to a scam.
(ABC News: Kate Ashton)
Not everyone lining up here is bracing for the worst … others ABC spoke to were here to pick up physical tickets or were having issues downloading online ones.
But one fan, Alfred said he was devastated after his ticket suddenly “disappeared”.
“We could see the QR code and everything for the whole week, and then it was suddenly not valid,” he said.
Alfred didn’t want to say exactly how much he had paid for his 4 tickets — but it was “more than $1000”.
He said he had bought them off a friend.
He had even emailed Ticketek ahead of time to double check the tickets were real, and they had sent him a confirmation email, which he showed us.
But Alfred told us Ticketek said that email was in error, and they couldn’t do anything to help him and his friends for tonight’s show and advised him to report it to the police.
“They said, ‘oh no, sorry, it was misinformation, we can’t do anything about it’,” he said.
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By Dannielle Maguire
Phoebe and Laura travelled from Coleambally for tonight’s show.
They’ll will be in Melbourne for less than 24 hours.
(ABC News: Grace McKinnon )
Coleambally is a small town 200km west of Wagga Wagga in NSW.
I just looked it up and it’s about a four-and-a-half-hour drive between Coleambally and Melbourne.
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Taylor Swift fans from the Sunshine State
By Bree Dwyer
Queenslanders Eden, Layla and Lily had been looking forward to the concert since they booked tickets in June.
As they were preparing to leave the Sunshine Coast this morning, they heard a flight to Melbourne had been cancelled.
“We were a little bit panicked,” Layla said.
They soon found out their flight had been delayed — but was still going ahead.
Eden, Layla and Lily (ABC News: Braeden Jason)
“We’ve been planning it for ages — planning everything,” Layla said.
“We’re so excited.”
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By Mikaela Ortolan
The City of Melbourne estimates Swift will bring in more than $1 billion to the city’s economy alone, during the three touring nights there.
For some perspective, Lord Mayor Sally Capp said over an entire year the city normally saw about $3.3 billion in economic value from its major events schedule.
“Tay Tay is going to deliver a third of that over a weekend,” Cr Capp said.
But some economists reckon those projections might be overblown — you can read more about the contested field of Swiftonomics and the Australian Eras Tour here.
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Flight prices
M1h ago
By Mikaela Ortolan
Additional flights were added to both Sydney and Melbourne to cater to the demand.
Qantas and Jetstar expected a 30 per cent increase in passengers on flights to both states over the concert period
One fan told the ABC he drove from Adelaide to Melbourne because the prices of flights were too expensive.
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Taylor Swift fans caught up in scams
By Dannielle Maguire
Melbourne mother Sarah had been looking forward to taking her daughters, aged 10 and 13, tonight’s concert.
But she discovered her tickets weren’t legitimate.
The person who originally owned the tickets had their account hacked, and the tickets sold to a third party who on-sold them, Sarah said.
An hour spent at the Ticketek’s MCG booth failed to resolve the issue.
“Their own system has let them down, maybe they should tell my 10 year old and deal with the tears,” she says.
Sarah says the transactions took place on Ticketek’s resale platform.
But the company disputes this.
“This customer did not purchase her tickets through any official Ticketek platforms … therefore we are unable to verify whether the customer’s tickets are valid,” a spokesperson said.
By Dannielle Maguire
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Bracelets from the Philippines
K2h ago
By Kate Ashton
(ABC News: Kate Ashton)
Krysthel and Van live in Melbourne but these hundreds of friendship bracelets have travelled all the way from the Philippines.
(ABC News: Kate Ashton)
Van said his 22-year-old niece in the Philippines was devastated she wasn’t going to make it to Swift’s eras tour but made the bracelets anyway and sent them to Australia ahead of tonight’s show.“She really wanted to go but she can’t,” Van said.“So I’m gonna go for her.”
Each ticketholder must have a smartphone with the Ticketek app on it.
Read more about the restrictions on food, friendship bracelets and everything else here.
