What's happening with this whole international fans thing? I am so out of the loop. And the influencers? What's happening
Hi! I’m gonna summarize everything but this will still be long lol. Basically a conversation about international fans’ experiences was started, propelled by the following:
On September 9th, the City of Lover concert is happening in Paris, in an intimate venue that holds 2000 people. It’s been described as an exclusive/private concert to celebrate the release of Lover. I quote: “The concert will welcome fans from more than 30 countries to experience a once-in-a-lifetime performance.” Cool, right? A dream!!!
They created hype around this once-in-a-lifetime event by getting various radio shows, websites & other media outlets to talk about this and get fans excited about winning all-inclusive (transport + hotel) tickets for two! A popular radio station here literally mentioned every single hour that they had a contest for this event.
To name a few, I think I’ve seen contests being held in Poland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Malaysia, New Zealand, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom. Each country has around 1-5 contests I think. My country held 3 contests (4 if we include a contest that ran for a few hours and was then strangely canceled and never spoken about again akdjaksda) and each picked one winner who received two tickets. The actual contests are so hard to win, like your chances are 0.1% and take so much active time and energy, I already wrote a post about what these contests are like, if you’re interested.
To share two messy experiences I saw in other countries: 1) one fan was promised two tickets but ended up getting only one and then had to let down her friend. 2) one fan spent hours earning the most points in a contest and should have won but was told she was disqualified because her points didn’t seem authentic and wasn’t allowed to argue, discuss, ask further questions.
Then there was a random French email sent out to some European fans, saying that there were 200 Lover deluxe boxes now on sale that would include a concert ticket. These tickets becoming available for purchase was so out of the blue because it kept being called a “private” and “invitation-only” event. Many didn’t get the e-mail, many saw the e-mail too late, many (like myself) didn’t finalize their purchase in time because they sold out in like 10 minutes. This way of releasing tickets also allowed absolutely no time for fans to make arrangements, like how they’re gonna travel to Paris probably by themselves all of a sudden.
So… there are thousands of fans trying to get these tickets, all over the world. Yes, Taylor is incredibly popular, so obviously a show for 2000 people is gonna be so hard to go to. But besides only being able to win through scattered contests, it looks like the audience won’t actually consist of a majority of fans:
This show seemed like it might be an opportunity for fans, international fans who hardly ever get opportunities like this. But so far we have the 200 random tickets that went on sale. Plus, the 30 countries (and don’t get me wrong, it honestly is really cool that there will be people from 30 countries but hear me out) with an average of 3 contests to win 2 tickets… that means there’s like 180 fans actually winning these tickets - not considering that some people might have just heard on the radio and been like oh cool free trip to Paris. Anyway, now we have roughly <400 fans attending.
That leaves 1600(!!) seats - wHoMsT is going to fill these, you ask?! Well, people are reporting that mainly influencers (like YouTubers who aren’t necessarily Taylor fans) and reporters/press have been invited… so it’s focused on promotion and not on fans from 30 countries? Unless more fans have been invited and can’t talk about it yet but I’d be a little surprised if that was the case, especially with influencers being invited and talking about it already? Like we all know when and where it’s happening, there’s no reason to keep invitations a secret?
It’s Taylor’s first mainland Europe show since she came to the Netherlands and Germany in 2015. Mainland Europe shows are a lot of fans’ closest shots at being able to see Taylor. A lot of international fans were talking to each other about trying to win tickets and their disappointment so @bleachellataylor and @speaknow proposed we all publicly talk about it today. This whole Paris concert thing would just be an absolute dream for so many but it’s been a little disappointing, and a lot of international fans have dealt with disappointment for years as they miss out on merch, content, tours, opportunities. So a conversation was started, AND THAT’S WHAT YOU MISSED ON GLEE. I’m just crossing my fingers for good tour dates when the time comes.
