SINGAPORE: A Taylor Swift fan who paid S$1,800 for a VIP ticket for the international superstar’s The Eras Tour in Singapore took to social media to express her disappointment over the alleged lack of crowd control during the event.
Lin, a content creator, uploaded a video sharing her experience at the highly anticipated Taylor Swift concert in Singapore. “I just got back from the Eras Tour, and I really need to share my experience because I did not have a good time,” she said, recounting her concert experience.
@linmaxin excuse me while i take a week to cry about this lol… #erastour #erastoursg @Singapore Sports Hub @Taylor Nation
“For context, I bought VIP1, which was about S$1,800… but for some reason, people from the other sections kept coming to our section. I guess because our section was the closest to the diamond stage.
But not only were (they) coming to our section, but the security guards didn’t really know what to do and as a result, they were just all overcrowding in that one single section.
As a result, it was really hard for us to enjoy the experience at all because people were shoving at us, people were overcrowding… it was a little bit hard to breathe at some point because of how many people there were.
“They were all rushing in and the security guards, instead of telling them, ‘Hey go back to your sections,’ they pushed the extra people into our rows… so it just caused even more crowding.
Cause they were like ‘Oh you have to keep the middle lane clear’ and ‘Keep close to the seats.’ But there was no space for them because this is not their section.”
She then recalled how people came into their space. “It got to the point where there was a group of women who came into our section from another section and were crowding into our row,” Lin shared.
“They were standing slightly behind our row but they kept bumping into me, they kept shoving me a little bit. And it got to a point where one of them put her hands on me, on my shoulders, and I was like ‘Hey, can you move?’
“I paid for the seat. I paid S$1,800 to be seated like this? So obviously I was like ‘Hey…’ I (told) a security guard ‘Hey you know this girl, she put her hands on me, she’s been shoving me, she’s been bumping into me, and they didn’t tell them to leave.
They just said, ‘Stop touching her.” And then they later moved on to the front. The very front. I’m not too sure if you can see, but a lot of these people… a majority of them… were either not from our section or not from our rows.
So they moved from the back all the way to the front or they were just other sections that just came in and crowded.”
Lin also shared what went on in her mind when she decided to spend a lot of money on this concert. “At the end of the day, I’m just really really appalled and I guess ultimately really disappointed with how everything was handled,” she added.
“I’m really really upset that I spent S$1,800… because I thought ‘Hey it’s just a once in a lifetime kind of thing, right? I don’t splurge on anything else… why not splurge on this one thing?’
And it ended up not even being a good experience. Like, I still enjoyed myself, of course, but a lot of my enjoyment was impeded by these people who didn’t know how to stay in their own sections or in their own rows.
“And while I don’t fault the security guards at all because I could tell that they didn’t really know how to handle things, I am still a little bit disappointed as well that nothing really was done.
They were just saying like, ‘Hey, go back to your section.’ But when people didn’t move, they didn’t do anything. I don’t know what they could have done. Maybe they could have said, ‘If you don’t go back to your sections, then you’ll be kicked out of the concert.'”
She also called on the concert venue’s management, asking them to come up with stricter rules. “I don’t know, I’m just really really sad,” said Lin.
“I wasted S$1,800 on the Eras Tour and I’m just really really sad. Sports Hub, if you can, if you’re watching this, please regulate these events better… these concerts better.
Have strict guidelines set in place. If people are crossing over from different sections, maybe have a punishment set out.
“It wasn’t affecting only me; it was affecting my friend and a couple of other people that I think didn’t really voice out their discomfort, but especially the people who were at the end of the rows… they were getting pushed by people the most.
“Me and my friend were at the very end of the row, so we were getting pushed a lot by people. People blocking our view, that weren’t from our section or from our row… I just think that if we paid a premium price, these things should be handled better.”
Read also: “Taylor Swift Confetti” from The Eras Tour concert being sold online for S$1.50/pc