Taylor Swift fans in SC went to Sweden and France for better deals on concert tickets (2024)

Mount Pleasant resident Katie Augustine was able to score four VIP floor tickets to see Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour for the relatively low price of $150 each— a feat nearly impossible to match in the U.S.

A "Swiftie" since middle school, Augustine's determination to see the concert tour led her in 2023 to search for upcoming shows— but overseas. It was tough. Just to get a chance to buy a ticket, fans need to get through a lottery-like system. So Augustine sought tickets in several countries and succeeded for a show in Stockholm.

On May 18, she arrived at the venue in the Swedish capital and took her spot close to the stage, along with her boyfriend, her sister Allie and her brother-in-law.

“People asked ‘why would you come all the way here for a concert,’ and we told them we couldn’t get tickets in America or it would have cost thousands through resale," Augustine, 27, said.

When she bought the tickets in 2023, Augustine was thrilled to get them but uncertain exactly what they cost because the price shown on her just-created Swedish Ticketmaster account was in krona, (the Swedish currency) and she didn't know the exchange rate.

At current rates, $150 U.S. is about 1,580 kronor, a total price that included fees.

“When I got them I had to walk outside because my heart was beating so fast," Augustine said.

"There was no way I would get tickets in the U.S." she said. "So we went to Sweden."

Augustine did better than most Swift fans stateside have. In late 2022, a nonprofit in Greenville auctioned off four Taylor Swift tickets, plus hotel rooms, for a concert in Atlanta. The bids started at $2,500.

Others have had to open their wallets, too. Bailey Larkin, founder of the Taylor Swift fan club in Charleston, went to one of the Atlanta shows. She was able to get a pair of $300 floor seats by finding a relative who had a particular credit card, letting her tap the pool of tickets reserved for those cardholders.

“On the day of the show the seats right next to us were on sale for $4,000 each," she said. "So I ended up talking to people next to me who paid $8,000 for two seats, and we had paid $600."

Larkin said no one likes the service charges Ticketmaster adds to ticket prices, but the key problem in the U.S. is the lack of regulation on ticket re-selling. So when a popular show goes on sale, many of the people rushing to buy tickets just want to get them and sell them to others at vastly inflated prices.

In many European nations, tickets can't legally be resold for more than face value.

A Billboard article found that tickets for the remaining U.S. shows are selling for about $2,600 each, and tickets in Europe were 87 percent lower.

The article suggested that, at those prices, a Taylor Swift fan would save money by flying to Paris for a show even though they would have to buy airline tickets and pay for nights in a hotel.

That's just what Chelsea Bauer did. Last summer she had registered for presale codes— the lottery that decides who can get in the virtual line to buy tickets— in several counties and succeeded in France.

That meant going online at 2 a.m. due to the different time zones, but the result was VIP floor tickets for herself and three friends at $300 each. The show was earlier this month in Paris.

“There were definitely a lot of people at the show who were not from France," said Bauer of Mount Pleasant.

Like Augustine, Bauer and her companions made a vacation of it.

Augustine's $150 tickets for the Stockholm show were in a VIP section in front of the stage, with its own bar, she said. Her group turned their overseas concert trip into an 8-day trip that included a visit to Scotland.

Five days after that concert, the U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and Live Nation Entertainment, accusing them of driving up prices through an illegal monopoly.

“I’m not surprised, and I think there needs to be some separation," said Augustine. “Ticketmaster and Live Nation absolutely have a monopoly, and you see how that’s affecting the artists."

Taylor Swift is among many top performers who have complained about Ticketmaster. Others include Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam — which filed a Justice Department complaint about Ticketmaster 30 years ago this month.

Ticketmaster is where Augustine got her tickets for the show in Stockholm, but the company that controls an estimated 70 percent of ticket sales for major U.S. concert venues has had a bad reputation with Swift fans since November 2022 when its site crashed during a presale event for The Eras Tour.

On social media at the time, Swift expressed anger about what fans had to go through to get tickets, if they could get them at all. One fan filed a proposed class action lawsuit, then dropped the case in late 2023 amid reports of settlement talks.

For those who aren't fans, Taylor Swift is a very big deal. Her latest album left her tied (with Jay-Z) for the second-highest number of No. 1 Billboard chart albums, behind The Beatles. The Eras Tour has grossed more than $1 billion.

New Taylor Swift releases prompt listening parties at venues across South Carolina and other states. In 2023, University of South Carolina announced a new class that would focus on Swift's business acumen and career.

“I’ve been a fan since I was in middle school," said Augustine, who had not previously seen a live Swift concert.