Fred Again just raised the bar for FOMO-induced ticket-buying stress.

I didn't get tickets. I didn't even get close. Did anyone?

I had the link.

I was poised and ready.

On my computer were two Ticketmaster pages, ready and waiting to take my money for tickets to Fred Again, the UK DJ making headlines with a series of quickfire pop-up shows across Australia and New Zealand.

Wellington will see him perform on Friday, with another two shows planned for Spark Arena on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.

It happened so fast, with those Auckland shows announced at midday via Instagram, with a ticket link sent out shortly after.

They went on sale at 1pm.

At that exact moment, silence spread across my office.

Everyone frantically tapped away on their phones and laptops in a bid to score those tickets.

I wanted two of them too.

Once I made it through Ticketmaster’s hellish waiting room, this is the screen that greeted me.

I’m no mathematician, but even I know that 25,099th in a queue for a concert that can only fit around 12,000 people is a bad place to be.

Out of everyone in my office, only one person managed to buy tickets and he was triple-screening it, juggling his phone and his laptop.

It was always going to be this way.

The hype machine behind Fred Again has been working overtime, and his marketing tactics are a rare thing of beauty.

In a country that barely covers music anymore, the headlines have been coming thick and fast…

His trick is pretty simple. The man born Frederick Gibson announces his shows just a day or two beforehand. He posts links to buy tickets exclusively through Instagram then sits back and watches fans work themselves into a frenzy.

It is the most FOMO-inducing ticket-buying spectacle of them all – even after SZA’s ticket-buying debacle and Pearl Jam’s horrible online lottery.

Hype drives hype, and right now Fred Again has more than he can handle.

In Sydney, 125,000 people attempted to get their hands on 2750 tickets for his Sydney Opera House show.

When tickets went on sale in Wellington, scalpers offered them at three times the price.

Today, my desk neighbour reported she was 65,000th in the queue, meaning 130,000 fans were trying to get hold of Fred Again’s 24,000 Auckland tickets.

There was little to no chance I’d be able to get one.

I want to moan.

I want to complain.

I want to be angry at him.

But honestly I have to admire the guy.

In an age where shows are announced months in advance through pipelines that have been set up well in advance, Fred Again has found a way to break the formula and do something unique.

If I could find the handclap emoji on my keyboard, I’d begrudgingly use it now.

So I guess my schedule for Tuesday and Wednesday just freed up.

Anyone got a suggestion for what I can do instead of seeing Fred Again?

**sniff**

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