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Analysis
The process of buying tickets and then attending a large concert is complicated. For acts like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, tickets go on sale sometimes a year or more in advance. To purchase tickets, you have to register for presales, and if that doesn’t work out, you have to battle it out with other fans in the public sale. If you can’t get tickets directly, there’s plenty of resale sites that are upcharging tickets. But those tickets may not be real or valid. It’s a lot to deal with, and it’s understandable if fans opt to just stay home.
There is another way, though, for those who don’t mind rolling the dice. You can try to buy tickets on the day of the show. On TikTok this year, I’ve watched dozens of GRWM (get ready with me) videos of people who get ready and then buy tickets last minute for a show.
It’s like watching a short suspense film. You hope that the subject of the video will obtain tickets—ending in celebration. But it doesn’t always end that way. I’ve seen videos that end with someone crying or driving home. The majority of the videos I’ve watched, however, do end in success. Yet even if I can guess how they’ll end, watching them is a serotonin boost. Their happiness is contagious.
A video of one fan posting a last-minute GRWM video went viral on Twitter this week. The fan begins the video getting ready at 6:23pm for the Renaissance World Tour. Beyoncé’s show was expected to start at 8pm, but she didn’t have tickets yet. “I’m going, and I’m going to have floor seats,” the fan states confidently. “I think the key to lucky girl syndrome is sheer motherf*cking delusion.” At 8pm, she still doesn’t have tickets. After taking public transportation to the venue, she winds up getting floor tickets at 9:05pm, and makes her way to the section minutes before the “Break My Soul” singer takes the stage. She revealed in a follow-up video her method for refreshing Ticketmaster right before the show.
If you search TikTok for these GRWM concert videos for fans without tickets, you’ll find dozens of them. And it’s not just people trying to nab last-minute tickets to Taylor and Beyoncé; TikTokers are also using the same method this year for Drake, Diplo, and other events. The GRWM without tickets videos are becoming a whole genre on TikTok.
Why it matters
With so many big tours this year, TikTok has really become a resource for concertgoers. You can find out Ticketmaster hacks, the best way to travel to the venues, how to dress for shows, and answers to other FAQs. Fans want to help out other fans. These videos that show the story of someone getting ready for an event that they don’t have tickets to are a unique way to show others how to copy what they did step-by-step. People watch them hopefully. Maybe, they think, this will also happen to me.