"Hope the memories are worth it": How much Canadians are spending to see Taylor Swift live
For 29-year-old Taylor Swift fan Mikaela, seeing the pop star live will be a pricey family affair.
The Battleford, Saskatchewan, resident, along with their two sisters and niece, will be making the trek to Vancouver to catch the December 8 show, which also happens to be the final performance of the massive Eras Tour.
“I hope the memories are worth it,” they replied to a Daily Hive callout asking Canadian Swifties how much they’re spending to see the “August” singer live.
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Out of the dozens of responses Daily Hive received, Mikaela, by far, has the biggest bill.
The fan says they bought each ticket for $3,400.
“I’m buying for my two sisters and my niece as well because they can’t afford it,” explained Mikaela.
In addition, they booked a hotel for $420 a night and $600 round-trip flights from Edmonton, which they will drive to from Saskatchewan.
Fortunately, they were able to use some points for the flights, but their overall bill still came to a staggering $20,000.
Mikaela isn’t the only Swiftie who has broken the bank to see the singer live.
Daily Hive collected accounts from Swifties across the country showing the financial lengths they took to go to the Eras Tour.
The battle for Taylor Swift tickets
When the Canadian Eras Tour dates were announced last year, fans rejoiced, but that was just the beginning of the battle to secure the highly coveted seats.
When tickets finally dropped, Swifties had to face being waitlisted by Ticketmaster for the presale. And when those who weren’t blessed with presale codes finally got access to the tickets, they were met with resale prices up to a whopping $17,000.
Amy, a Swiftie from Ontario, bought her ticket for the November 23 Toronto show from StubHub, the resale site notorious for hiking resale prices.
The 37-year-old copped her seat for $1,500, which she says was one of the cheaper prices she saw.
“I just checked StubHub a bunch and bought a ticket early when I saw a lower price,” she answered in our callout.
Luckily, Amy doesn’t have to deal with colossal transportation or accommodation costs since she lives an hour away from the city. She estimates she’ll spend $1,600, including the expenses for transit and gas.
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A Swiftie, who has asked to remain anonymous, is in a similar situation as Amy. The 19-year-old lives in Langley, BC, and plans to take transit to Swift’s December 8 concert at BC Place.
However, she’s one of the lucky few who bought her seats from Ticketmaster at face value.
“My best friend was able to get the code and had purchased four tickets for us to go see Taylor Swift with two other people,” she told Daily Hive in an email.
She spent just $175 to see the “All Too Well” singer live.
Another fan who asked to remain anonymous was also able to buy her tickets at face value, and she’s seeing Swift twice in Vancouver. She splurged on $2,000 VIP floor seats for one night and bought $500 tickets in the 400s for the next night, spending $3,500 altogether.
“I have been a Taylor Swift fan since 2008 but never had the opportunity to see her live,” she explained in an email to Daily Hive. “I finally have the finances to be able to see her in my hometown, so I decided that it would be worth it to fulfill a childhood dream of mine.”
“Let’s get out of this town”
For Canadians who live far from Toronto or Vancouver — the only Eras Tour stops in the country — nabbing a ticket was just the first of their worries.
They had to take a cue from Swift’s “Wildest Dreams” and leave their hometowns to see her in person.
The next hurdles they faced were expensive flights and out-of-control hotel prices.
Mikaela says their $600 plane tickets were way more expensive than they typically are for a flight from Edmonton to Vancouver.
“I think it is brutal that airlines and hotels are these huge companies and are gouging fans,” they told us in response to the callout.
The Swiftie says they saved up by not spending money on things they typically would, like camping permits, eating out, or buying craft beer.
The anonymous fan seeing Swift twice says she worked several jobs and saved up for five years to afford those two tickets.
Other Canadians even travelled across the pond to see Swift, and several found the costs more affordable.
Joanne Swaine, a Swiftie from Nova Scotia, saw the pop star in Edinburgh, Scotland, in June with her family of four.
Including the cost of tickets, which they bought for $250 each at face value, accommodations ($1,100), and flights ($1,300 each), the total cost of seeing Swift live was $7,300.
Considering that they also got a trip to Scotland out of it, you could say they got more bang for their buck than Mikaela.
A 36-year-old fan from Vancouver couldn’t find tickets to shows in the city that weren’t “completely overpriced.” She says she got eight people to sign up for presale codes, but they were all waitlisted.
So, she got tickets to a Paris show from a family friend for €375 (around C$566) at face value.
Canadian Swiftie at an Eras Tour stop in Paris (Supplied)
“When we looked at flights/tickets/hotel versus what was available for the Vancouver show, it was cheaper to fly to Paris,” she told Daily Hive over email.
Including flights and accommodation, the Swiftie says she paid $1,700 overall.
“We met lots of Canadians and Americans (even some from Miami) that said it’s way cheaper to fly to Europe, and it’s easier to get tickets than it is for any of the North American stops,” she explained.
Canadian Swiftie at an Eras Tour stop in Paris (Supplied)
Haley Kroetsch, a fan from Cold Lake, Alberta, struck out getting tickets in Toronto and Vancouver.
She emailed Daily Hive to tell us that she debated buying tickets from StubHub but was scared they could be fake.
“I looked to Europe, where there are more strict resale laws,” she said. “A lone VIP floor ticket was released online for Gelsenkirchen, Germany.”
Haley Kroetsch at a Taylor Swift Eras Tour concert stop in Germany (Supplied)
So, she left her husband and two kids for a short solo trip to see Swift live.
The VIP ticket cost $950. Including flights, gas, airport parking, and accommodations, Kroetsch says she spent around $4,000 to see Swift live in Germany.
Haley Kroetsch at a Taylor Swift Eras Tour concert stop in Germany (Supplied)
She estimates it would’ve cost her $3,500 just for nosebleed tickets through StubHub, so the trip was worth it.
“Having two babies through the pandemic, we haven’t been on many big vacations as a family. This was my first trip without kids since 2020. I’m in my mom era these days!” she explained.
Haley Kroetsch at a Taylor Swift Eras Tour concert stop in Germany (Supplied)
“Concerts used to be a fun and accessible activity”
The general consensus among those who filled out our callout is that concert ticket prices have gotten out of control.
“I have been attending concerts nearly every year for the past 10 years,” said Christy, a Swiftie from Windsor who’s going to a Toronto show. “What used to be good seats at around US$150 are now three rows from the top of the stadium for the same price.”
“Concerts used to be a fun and accessible activity. Now you have to spend several hundred dollars to see artists that are not even that huge,” agreed another Eras Tour attendee.
Others think the additional fees are significant contributors to the jacked-up prices.
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“I think the base ticket prices are reasonable. I think the fees are unreasonable, and then markup on resale tickets is basically criminal,” answered Jade, a fan from Edmonton who saw Swift in the UK.
Others blame the resellers.
“Taylor Swift listed them for fair prices. The artists aren’t greedy; it’s the resellers,” answered Mikaela.
While fans fight to get seats online, the fight for fairer concert ticket prices rages in the courts.
In May, the US Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and Live Nation for their alleged “illegal monopoly” over concert ticket sales.
In 2022, a group of Swifties even took it into their own hands and sued Ticketmaster after chaotic concert ticket sales.
Either way, these stories show that Swifties live up to their “big reputation” — ride-or-die fans who will do what they must to witness their queen live.