Australia’s Taylor Swift fans scramble for tickets as Ticketek expects 10 times the rush of first release | Taylor Swift #Australias #Taylor #Swift #fans #scramble #tickets #Ticketek #expects #times #rush #release #Taylor #Swift

Taylor Swift fans are hoping there’ll be no “bad blood” between themselves and Ticketek when a second round of highly coveted presale tickets launch on Wednesday morning.

The singer’s Eras tour has had Swifties in a frenzy since Monday, when a limited American Express presale with the official seller Ticketek was plagued by problems, with the Amex site crashing half an hour before tickets were due to go on sale.

The second tranche will be made available to members of Frontier Touring, beginning with Sydney at 10am followed by Melbourne at 2pm. Traffic is expected to be even higher than it was on Monday.

A Ticketek spokesperson told Guardian Australia the company expected at least 10 times more people trying to access tickets on Wednesday than they did on Monday.

The general release of the US singer’s much-anticipated Melbourne and Sydney shows, to take place in February next year, is scheduled for Friday.

The Ticketek spokesperson said fans hoping to snag a ticket should be aware “queuing is a necessary part of the purchasing process”.

“Fans must remember to not leave the Lounge page or refresh their browser. The page will refresh itself frequently to let more fans through to purchase.

“Once fans are in the Lounge, they should sit tight and wait to be let through to the event page. And then once they’re through they need to remember to keep an eye on the timer and complete their purchase within the time frame.”

The New South Wales and Victorian governments moved to crack down on scalping on Tuesday after resale prices in excess of $3,000 were listed. It’s a far cry from the $79.90 to $379.90 price range for a regular ticket.

The Victorian government designated the concerts as “major events”, triggering anti-scalping provisions in state legislation.

The NSW government’s consumer affairs office has confirmed it is investigating ticket listings on the reselling platform Viagogo.

On Tuesday Guardian Australia reported that tickets to Swift’s Sydney and Melbourne concerts were being sold through the platform at hugely inflated prices just hours after the Amex presale opened – in some cases up to 249% the cost of the most expensive VIP ticket packages.

NSW anti-scalping laws restrict ticket resales to a maximum of 110% of the value of the original ticket price.

Viagogo said it was reviewing listings and would take action as necessary.

Just shy of 200,000 people will be lucky enough to snag tickets to the Australian shows, which will be Swift’s first appearance down under since 2018.

Fans across Australia and New Zealand are expected to be poised at their laptops all morning, taking to social media to air their anxiety.

Swift will perform at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 16 and 17 February and at Sydney’s Accor Stadium on 23, 24 and 25 February. She has not announced further dates in any other Australian cities.