Paramore’s Hayley Williams is the latest artist to publicly call out Ticketmaster, saying that the ticketing giant needs to “get their shit together.”
The comment came as Paramore are on the road themselves, and was made in an effort to thank their fans. “I wanna say one more time how special it is that you’ve all made it tonight,” Williams told the crowd during Paramore’s Saturday night show in Cardiff, Wales. “We don’t take it lightly. We know, honestly, especially now, it’s a huge sacrifice to come to a show because Ticketmaster need to get their shit together. We’ve put a lot of pressure on ourselves too because we were like, ‘People are spending money that they don’t have to come and hang out with us and we better give them something that’s worth that’. We just love you so much.”
From the chaos around Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” on-sale rollout (which spurred senate hearings and a fan-led lawsuit), to getting fined by the Mexican government for overselling tickets, to the frustration around The Cure’s on-sale rollout, to Drake’s class-action lawsuit, Ticketmaster has faced a lot of heat in recent months.
While it’s to be determined if Williams’ and other artists’ comments will make a difference, shows and the demand for live music go on nonetheless. Paramore’s performance in Cardiff was their second date on the European leg of their ongoing tour. On Thursday night, the band played in Dublin, where Williams delivered an acoustic rendition of The Cranberries’ “Dreams.”