The presale for Taylor Swift’s upcoming Eras Tour in the US was opened on Tuesday. Ticketmaster, a US-based ticket sales distribution company entrusted with managing concert sales, crashed much to the disappointment of fans. Swifties, as Taylor Swift fans are called, soon took to Twitter to complain about the slow and erroneous booking process. Many complained that they failed to secure the tickets even after being in the ‘queue’ for hours. In a tweet, the distribution company said that they saw an “unprecedented demand with millions showing up to buy tickets” and rescheduled sale timings for a few venues to ease the traffic on their server. As fans struggled to get their hands on the much-awaited tour ticket, a professor stepped up to help his student who was in line for the concert spot. On Tuesday, Austin Young Shull, a professor at US’s Presbyterian College, shared a unique request that his student sent him. The request message said, “I am currently in line for Taylor swift tickets but have my anatomy Practicum at 1:30. Do you think it’s at all possible that you could watch my spot in line on my laptop while I take it.” The message ended with a reference to Swift’s latest song Anti-Hero and said, “please please please don’t be the anti-hero :)”. You have to serve many roles when you’re a professor and advisor… pic.twitter.com/uAQuFlhTbE — Austin Young Shull (@YoungShull) November 15, 2022 While sharing a screenshot of this message, Prof Shull wrote, “You have to serve many roles when you’re a professor and advisor…”. In a follow-up tweet, he shared that he obliged the required and shared a picture of his student's laptop that showed the Ticketmaster’s Eras Tour waiting window which listed his student in a queue with 2,000 people ahead of them. For those asking did I oblige the student’s request… pic.twitter.com/tZX62FFJfz — Austin Young Shull (@YoungShull) November 15, 2022 The professor’s sweet gesture soon went viral as his tweet got over 84,000 likes. In the comments, many people shared their own funny stories of struggling to get the tickets. Two of my students came into cadaver lab today with their laptops and were like "Ummm.Dr Priest, we're still in the queue sooo." Set up the laptops on a spare table and watched them through 3 hours of dissection. I was just jealous cause I didn't get into the pre-sale! 😁 — Gen 💖💜💙 (@Hautegeekgen) November 15, 2022 Three students did same in my WGS seminar today. Whole class celebrated success of 1 student — Dr. Skylar Bre’z ☮️ (@BrezSkylar) November 15, 2022 I love that your student felt comfortable asking you to do this (and that you did it :) ) 🥰🥰 — Tired Scientist (@scientist_tired) November 15, 2022 I love that you are the kind of prof that has created a space and culture for your student to send this. This is everything. — Dani 🇺🇦 (@tweet4dani) November 15, 2022 I respect this on so many levels :) The student being still committed enough, but also not being afreaid to reach out to the prof. I hope you stood there for a bit ;) ( also, nice to see some 'normal' on twitter for a change :P ) — 🇺🇦🇺🇦 Walter White 🇺🇸🇨🇦 💉💉💉 (@robicheau_john) November 16, 2022 This is the sweetest thing I saw on Twitter in a week. This message from your student says everything one needs to know about you - that she felt comfortable making this request. The world needs more people like you in academia. Glad you did your part & don’t ever change 😘 — Yamani S Gunawardena (@gunawardena_s) November 15, 2022 I had a 10 am recitation. Before starting class I gave all my students permission to log into the virtual queue and keep it running during class. In all honesty, I was in the queue as well! We all got our tickets! — Candice Damiani (@CandiceDamiani) November 15, 2022 I've been booted to the end of the queue three times now so I don't hold out a lot of hope for me. But I'm crossing my fingers for this earnest young Swiftie. Fly baby girl, FLY!!! (don't let her down, Prof!) — THEE mj (scib0rg70 on IG) (@scib0rg) November 15, 2022 Swift’s ‘Eras Tour’ is expected to have a set list based on her previous albums. The tour’s US schedule consists of 52 shows that are will take place next year from March to August. Swift is playing at concerts are a gap of four years since her sold-out Reputation Stadium Tour concluded in 2018.
