Hundreds of thousands of Swifties are expected to descend on the streets of Toronto over the next two weeks as the city plays host to Taylor Swift.
The global pop star is bring her ‘Eras Tour’ to the Roger Centre over the next two Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays for a number of shows.
Tickets for the now sold-out shows initially went on sale back in 2023, and while an unknown quantity were released by Ticketmaster last week, your chances for buying them on there have likely passed.
Instead, those who are interested are left with few options including buying tickets on secondary resale sites such as Stubhub or Seatgeek or trying their luck in other options such as contests or raffles.
On Stubhub, the lowest one can find a ticket on Thursday night is for $2,678 but that will simply get you onto the Corona Rooftop Patio, which features standing room only with an obstructed view.
If you wish to have a seat in the stadium with an unobstructed view it will set you back $2,830.
From there, prices rise pretty quickly all the way up into the tens of thousands of dollars, with the high offering being for a VIP hotel package with four tickets for $24,173.
For those crying foul at the prices, the company also lists recently-sold tickets with purchasers having paid more than $5,000 for a seat to Thursday night’s show.
If you really want to get close to the stage, you can head over to Seatgeek where someone is looking to collect $32,978 for a floor seat for Saturday night’s show.
A spokesperson for Stubhub told Global News in an email that there are “buyers from 47 countries (excluding the U.S. and Canada) attending the Toronto shows.”
They also said that outside of Miami, the Toronto shows are their best-selling of the ‘Eras’ tour which is also outpacing Swift’s Reputation Tour by 26-1.
The company says to buy ahead as prices may not come down on the day of the show as some might think they would.
“Some people might think that waiting till the last day before the concert could lower the prices, but that’s not what we have been seeing so far,” they wrote.
The streets of Toronto will be packed as hordes of people are expected to visit the city for the shows, which have also caused restaurants to be booked solid for months as well as hotel prices to skyrocket.
Music industry veteran Eric Alper has been in the business for three decades now and he cannot recall any other artists causing such a kerfuffle.
“I was around when Michael Jackson was at his peak in the mid-’80s as a fan and as a teenager. And that was big because we were all watching the same things and reading the same things,” he said, noting that the big difference is that audiences are so segmented these days.
“It’s astonishing to me because we are all in different silos now. We’re not all reading the same stuff. We’re not all listening to the same stuff,” he explained.
“It’s very possible that you can go through life without hearing a single Taylor Swift song, but it doesn’t deny the fact that she has touched on so many aspects of people’s lives that nobody else has.”
If you don’t want to sell your house, or a kidney, to see the must-see event of the year, there are a couple of other charitable options you can roll the dice on.
Two Toronto hospitals, St. Joes and Sick Kids, are both offering draws that will allow the winner a chance to see Swift over the second week of her shows while also pocketing some cash for your expenses.
The draw raising money for Sick Kids will take place on Nov. 17 and the winner will walk off with two 100-level seats for the last show as well as $10,000 in cold, hard cash.
The draw raising funds for St. Joseph’s Hospital will end on Nov. 18 for tickets to see the show on Nov. 21 and includes a 50/50 component with the pot currently sitting at over $44,000.
Ways to partake in the Swift experience without tickets
Of course, it will take a minor miracle to win either draw, one would guess, so if you still want to take part in the Taylor Swift experience there are other options.
There will be Taylor Swift-themed drag shows, a scavenger hunt at the Royal Ontario Museum, a cover night at the El Mocambo to raise money for a cat rescue as well as trivia events at local bars.
There will also be an event called the Taylgate, which will offer Swifties a chance to listen to music, dance and make friendship bracelets.
Speaking of tailgates, the Kansas City Chiefs will be in Buffalo to square off with the Bills on Sunday night in a battle of the two top teams in the AFC.
This might provide Swifties with another opportunity to get a glimpse at T-Swift as she often heads to games to support her beau, who is a tight end for the Chiefs, Travis Kelce.
It would seem like an unlikely coincidence that the NFL scheduled the game in the middle of Swift’s series of concerts in Toronto.