“I want it to be like, messy,” cries Olivia Rodrigo in the opening line of her debut album, SOUR. It seems she got her wish — the ticket sales for her tour were nothing if not messy. 

Despite her rise to global stardom in the past year, Rodrigo has opted for performing in smaller venues, upsetting many fans who were unable to get tickets. “I don’t think I should skip any steps,” she explained in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. Rodrigo has performed live only a handful of times, with her debut song “drivers license” blasting her into global recognition in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic. Still, fans have taken up her comment section in an effort to persuade her to add more ticket availability. Comments like “girl do arenas next…” and “GIRL RELEASE MORE DATES” fill her post, receiving over 15 thousand likes each. Rodrigo, however, maintained her stance and stayed within her comfort zone, with her team standing by her. 

One of the most frequent complaints with procuring tickets for the ‘SOUR’ tour was Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan Sale, which sent access codes to fans and, supposedly, kept the tickets away from the hands of resellers and bots. However, “due to extremely high demand for the Olivia Rodrigo ‘on sale,’” many fans ended up on the waitlist, and had no access to the tickets at all. Unlike a normal presale, where a select number of tickets are sold before the general ‘on sale,’ the Verified Fan Sale ended up being the only place to procure tickets for most of Rodrigo’s concerts, with no other tickets reserved for the general public.

Consequently, anyone who didn’t receive a code was forced to go through resellers or Ticketmaster’s “Platinum” tickets. Even those people who did get a code didn’t necessarily end up with tickets, though, with Ticketmaster’s website stating that “Verified Fan doesn’t guarantee that everyone who is verified will get a ticket but it does level the playing field so that more tickets go to fans who intend to go to the show.” In fact, demand ended up being so high that the website went down for a while, with a statement noting, “We are currently experiencing technical difficulties and our team is working to resolve this as soon as possible.”

Resale and Platinum ticket sales did not go any smoother for Rodrigo’s fans. For her New York City dates, prices skyrocketed to over $6,000 per ticket, and in San Francisco, they reached almost $10,000 per ticket. Considering that Rodrigo’s tickets were sold for around a list price of $50 each, the increase outraged many fans and left many of them devastated. Even the biggest superfan can’t drop $10,000 on a concert ticket. When asked about whether they thought Rodrigo and her team could have done anything to improve the situation, one fan of hers said “it would’ve been cool if they could have done an early access thing like Taylor [Swift] did for her Reputation Tour, where fans could earn an earlier spot in line by participating in challenges and watching videos.” Still, many fans seem to think they did the best they could, and that the volume of people vying for tickets could not have been satisfied, no matter what the process entailed.

Fans that did manage to procure tickets are beyond ecstatic, however. There are several songs fans seem to be hoping will make Rodrigo’s setlist, with the most popular being “hope ur ok,” the last track on her album, and snippets from her unreleased songs that Rodrigo previously posted on Instagram. Among the favorites in that category are “white flowers” and “the exception.” 

Though the Coronavirus pandemic makes it more difficult for artists to engage with their fans, many have held special events in order to connect with as many people as possible in a safe manner in regards to COVID-19. Gracie Abrams, for example, has offered a VIP Soundcheck Upgrade, giving fans, “access to an intimate preshow soundcheck.” Taylor Swift, too, has recently done a viewing for her “All Too Well” short film with people whom she hand-selected. Rodrigo’s fans have been hoping for a “breakup rage room” at her concerts, where fans could go and smash items from their exes, or just something that causes them emotional or mental stress. Neither Rodrigo nor her team have confirmed or even hinted towards this possibility, but her fans remain hopeful, believing that this ‘room’ would capture the mood of her album perfectly. 

“It would’ve been cool if they could have done an early access thing like Taylor [Swift] did for her Reputation Tour, where fans could earn an earlier spot in line by participating in challenges and watching videos.”