Chappell Roan fans in Tennessee just got a little bit of good luck, babe.
After realizing that resellers had torn through a chunk of the tickets to her upcoming concert in Franklin, Tennessee, making it difficult for actual fans to nab seats, the 26-year-old pop star took matters into her own hands. “Scalpers and bots bought up all the tickets, so we went through and canceled all the scalper tickets we could,” Roan explained in a pair of videos via Instagram Stories on Wednesday (Sept. 4).
The “Hot to Go!” artist went on to announce that she’d be selling those same tickets back to fans in a limited quantity, directing followers to an online Ticketmaster form where they can request spots at Firstbank Amphitheater on Oct. 1.
“I want to make sure that tickets go to people who actually want to come and are fans,” she continued. “This is the best solution that makes sense to me and my team. I know it’s confusing and it’s so annoying, but I’m genuinely so pissed about the scalper situation and think that people actually deserve to get to my show. This is a larger issue, and we’re dealing with it.”
“I can’t wait to see people who actually deserve to be here,” Roan added. “It means everything to me.”
Roan is far from the first artist to speak out against ticket scalping, a problem that’s reached a fever pitch in the past few years post-pandemic. Many stars — including Taylor Swift ahead of her Eras Tour — have tried out systems of vetting customers before conducting ticket sales, but one of the only proven ways of preventing bots from buying tickets and reselling them at inflated prices has been dynamic pricing, which poses issues of its own.
The Missouri native is currently on tour in support of her debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, which recently reached a new peak at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. Ahead of her concert in Franklin, she’ll perform overseas in Manchester, Glasgow, Dublin, London and Berlin, as well as New York and Maryland back in the U.S.
Amid her rise to stardom this year, Roan has been open about feeling overwhelmed at the speed of her own ascent and recently had to set some boundaries with fans. “I’ve been in too many nonconsensual physical and social interactions and I just need to lay it out and remind you, women don’t owe you sh–,” she wrote in a statement on social media in August. “I chose this career path because because I love music and art and honoring my inner child, I do not accept harassment of any kind because I chose this path, nor do I deserve it.”
“I am specifically talking about predatory behavior (disguised as ‘superfan’ behavior) that has become normalized because of the way women who are well-known have been treated in the past,” she added at the time. “Please do not assume you know a lot about someone’s life, personality, and boundaries because you are familiar with them or their work online.”