/Adjusted%202021%20Originals/DRCS%20Logo%20BrandMark%20Positive%20w%20Square%20BG%20Left%20Aligned%20PNG-min.png?width=95&height=99&name=DRCS%20Logo%20BrandMark%20Positive%20w%20Square%20BG%20Left%20Aligned%20PNG-min.png "DR Care Solutions | Your Care, Your Support, Your Way | Aged Care & Disability Care Consulting Services")
Huge entertainment spectacle, Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour, opens this weekend and brings innovation and fairness to fans with a disability.
© Danielle Robertson Consulting Pty Ltd t/as DR Care Solutions
If you haven’t already heard, one of the biggest entertainment spectacles of our time, 34-year-old American pop sensation Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour is coming to our shores this week, opening in Melbourne this weekend and the following in Sydney.
Her six shows in Australia, three in Melbourne and three in Sydney, form part of The Eras Tour – a tour of 151 shows across five continents over two years. The tour name reflects its content as Taylor performs “the musical eras” of her career which commenced age 14.
It kicked off in the US State of Arizona in March 2023 and from the start the US ticketing agency, Ticketmaster. Unprecedented ticket demand saw, at one point, 14 million fans vying to purchase 625,000 available tickets at various US stadiums accommodating 50,000 to 70,000 concertgoers[1].
In the flurry for tickets, one equally devoted fan group was missing out; they were the fans living with a disability. It appears that in trying to purchase tickets, they were left in circles with the ticketing agency advising the fan to contact the venue about accessibility and the venue advising the fan to speak with the ticketing agency!
It got to the point where concerned lawyers and professionals formed a group, Vigilante Legal, to represent the fan group and take Ticketmaster to the Federal Trade Commission for alleged fraud, misrepresentation, The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 violations, and multiple antitrust violations[2].
When pre-sale tickets to the Australian leg of the tour were released by the Australian ticketing agency, Ticketek, in June 2023, fans with a disability voiced their extreme disappointment with the ticket purchasing process.
Around four million fans queued online to access around 450,000 tickets. Those seeking to purchase accessible tickets were advised to request tickets via a phone support line or email. They then had to anxiously wait days for a response, knowing that all pre-sale tickets had been sold in a matter of hours.
Members of Spinal Life Australia made a complaint to the Human Rights Commission. Discussion and mediation between those members and Ticketek took place and a solution was found through a co-design process[3].
Ticketek launched its new online platform in November 2023. It allows the user to buy accessible and non-accessible tickets online and within the same transaction for the first time; giving them the chance to sit with or near their family, friends or support workers, where previously they might have been seated in a completely different area[4].
In the words of Dane Cross, Senior Advisor for Advocacy and Access at Spinal Life Australia:
"It puts you in the race. You're able to - live, in real time - book those tickets, and if I miss out, at least I've missed out equitably."[5]
Let’s see this innovation for accessibility for all venues across the nation and support any and every person’s love of live entertainment!
Need help caring for or supporting a loved one? Please feel free to call me, Danielle Robertson, at any time for an initial complimentary discussion on how to set up the right care, support and assistance at the right time and in the right place.
Resources
[1] Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour
[2] Cosmopolitan: Swifties With Disabilities Were Competing for 0.005% of Eras Tour Seats; Ticketmaster Made IT Worse
[3] Spinal Life Australia: Ticketek's New Accessible Booking Platform
[4] Ticketek: Accessible Ticketing
[5] SBS News: Some Swifties Faced A Ticketing Nightmare. There's A New Move To Address It
