A desperate, painful search for two SZA tickets.

How the longest 20 minutes of my life unfolded on a Friday afternoon stuck in a Ticketmaster queue.

It was 1.45pm.

I cracked my knuckles and logged into my Ticketmaster account.

I was 15 minutes early.

Everything seemed normal.

In front of me were two Ticketmaster pre-sale pages: one for SZA’s show at Spark Arena on April 15, and another for the following night, on April 16.

In case you missed Wednesday’s drama, SZA is returning to Aotearoa for two shows, a tour that was announced in the weirdest possible way

I wanted two tickets to her Tuesday night show. But I opened up Monday’s too as a back-up for a just-in-case-something-goes-horribly-wrong scenario.

The pre-sales kicked off at 2pm.

I was ready.

At 1.56pm, I filled out two Captchas and entered two waiting rooms.

I had followed Ticketmaster’s instructions.

I had taken my time.

I had my current credit card details ready and waiting.

“How could I snooze and miss the moment?” sings SZA on ‘Shirt’, her 2023 single.

That wasn’t going to be me.

I wasn’t going to miss this moment.

Yet, at 1.59pm, the temperature of the air around me suddenly seemed to rise.

At 2pm, I believed I had done all I could.

I made it through the waiting room for SZA’s Monday night show first.

This is the screen that greeted me.

12,654!?!

For the record, 12,654 people is more than the number that can fit into Spark Arena on any given night.

By 2.02pm, I was stressed.

But I didn’t give up.

I powered on.

Perhaps there might be tickets available for the Tuesday night, the night I wanted to go to anyway?

The numbers in that queue were lower.

Those numbers seemed manageable.

By 2.04pm, they were at 6000.

By 2.05pm, they’d dropped to 3000.

By 2.06pm, they’d dropped to 121.

At 2.07pm, I was through.

I selected two GA tickets for $499.80 (+ a lot of fees), added them to my virtual basket and headed to the checkout.

At this point, I was smiling.

I opened my banking app. The money had been deducted off my credit card.

My order must have had gone through.

I believed I was in.

I was so naïve.

At 2.09pm, I got this message:

Fuck.

I checked my emails. I hadn’t received a confirmation.

I opened my Ticketmaster app. Same thing.

There were no SZA tickets to be found.

At 2.10pm, I texted a friend.

That’s when I really started to panic.

At 2.11pm, I gave up and made plans to cry-watch Apple’s recent SZA live show as compensation.

At 2.12pm, I got over myself and opened up multiple Ticketmaster windows.

I rejoined multiple Ticketmaster queues.

I put multiple tickets into multiple baskets.

I was too panicked to take any screenshots, but I was greeted by the same message every time.

Denied.

There seemed to be no tickets left.

The dream was over.

Then I remembered something.

The previous day I’d signed up for a different pre-sale to the one being offered by Live Nation. This one was through the Australian touring company bringing SZA down under, Secret Sounds.

Maybe some of those tickets might still be available?

At 2.13pm, I searched my emails.

At 2.14pm, I found the link, and clicked on it.

There they were: two GA tickets were available.

At 2.15pm, I put them in my basket.

I entered my credit card details.

I opened my banking app and transferred another $550 to my credit card, which had been maxed out by the first failed purchase.

The new transaction went through.

At 2.16pm, I received this email.

By 2.20pm, the drama was over.

I was breathing again.

It’s 6.44am on Saturday now and my credit card still shows two transactions from Ticketmaster for $527.44.

Josh, from Ticketmaster, has told me not to worry.

But he’s also told me to contact my bank.

Sigh.

I’m going to go and make a coffee.

Buying concert tickets is so fucking stressful now.

Can’t we all just go back to camping out again?

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