SINGAPORE — At 1am on Thursday morning (July 6), 28-year-old Tasha Sahidin boarded a bus from Johor Bahru for Singapore, and immediately headed straight for the Sengkang Central post office, where she has been queueing since about 4am for tickets to Taylor Swift’s concert. 

Even though the general sale for Swift’s Singapore concerts, taking place on six nights in March 2024, is only starting at 12pm on Friday, there were already 22 people in the queue outside the Sengkang post office, and Ms Tasha was fifth in line.

“I’ll do anything to breathe the same air as Taylor,” said the student of the Technical University of Malaysia, Malacca, who is cutting class to be in this queue. She chose the Sengkang post office because she has a friend who lives nearby whose home she can use for toilet breaks.

“My friend said even if we get a seat in the toilets at the concert (it’d be ok), anything to be there!”

Queues began forming at several post offices across Singapore as early as Wednesday afternoon, more than 36 hours before the general sale starts.

TODAY visited four post offices on Thursday morning, at Sengkang, Bukit Panjang, Paya Lebar and Pasir Ris.

The longest queue was the one at Sengkang, while over at Paya Lebar there were only three people in line.

Many came with foldable chairs, mats, snacks and items that they believed would bring them good luck, such as vinyl records of Swift’s music and manifestation crystals.

Non-Swifties who were at the post offices for other services seemed bemused by the queues, though none had complaints as the lines were well-managed and quiet.

Housewife Anu Saxena, who was at the Pasir Ris post office, noted that the Swifties did not pose any obstructions. 

“With over a million people queuing up (online, for the pre-sale) yesterday, there are sure to be people who didn’t manage to get tickets queuing up today,” she said. “But this is definitely madness!” 

A 60-year-old commercial pilot at Bukit Panjang post office who only wanted to be known as Mr Young had no idea why the queue had formed until he was approached by TODAY.

“Young people have a lot of energy to do that,” he mused. “I don’t think I could.”

Still, he noted that the people in the line were orderly and not disruptive to other customers of the post office.

Although they will also be sold online on ticketing platform Ticketmaster, many Swifties, as Swift’s fans are called, believe they can boost their chances at procuring the highly sought after tickets by purchasing them at SingPost outlets. 

Competition has been intense. When a pre-sale for United Overseas Bank card members was opened on Wednesday afternoon, all available tickets were sold out in three hours.

Ms Tasha told TODAY that Swift’s music has had a special place in her heart since she was a teen, when a teacher told the girls in her class to listen to the song “15”, “to teach us not to give a boy everything we have”. 

Other Swifties expressed similar sentiments of growing up listening to Swift’s songs and taking comfort in her lyrics. 

“Taylor inspires me to be a better person. Hearing her songs comfort me and they are just relatable when going through different phases in life,” said 21-year-old Casey James, who was the first in line at Sengkang. 

The barista is tag teaming with a friend and they hope to get a pair of tickets after having failed to secure any during the pre-sale. 

“After we failed (to get tickets at) the UOB pre-sale, we took whatever we had on us and got to Sengkang post office,” she said.

“We also queued up here for Coldplay tickets but we like Taylor more, so we started queuing at 5pm instead of at midnight for Coldplay.”

Over at the Bukit Panjang post office, a 12-person queue had formed by 10am. 

The first in line was Mr Elmo Paciencia, a 23-year-old Nanyang Technological University student, who had started queuing at 6pm on Wednesday with his girlfriend.

Equipped with a tent, a Nintendo Switch, two mobile phones, blankets, mats and hygiene products, he aims to secure two Category 1 tickets for the concert.

“When people walk by and see me with my tent, they might think it’s a bit extreme,” he quipped. "But with millions eyeing the tickets and the queue being randomised by Ticketmaster, at least here I have some power to be first in line.”

A student who only wanted to be known as Chloe, 20, was third in the same line, having rushed to the post office at 7.50am on Thursday morning.

The Nanyang Technological University student is already envisioning what she will do when she gets the concert tickets: She has planned a few outfit options for the day and plans to make friendship bracelets to hand out to other Swifties at the show.

When Ms Kyra Nicole Cruze Leynes went to Pasir Ris post office on Thursday morning to mail a package, she could relate to the Swifties although she herself does not plan to fight hard for the tickets.

After all, the 21-year-old has done the same before, queueing at Orchard post office to secure tickets to a concert by South Korean boy band Seventeen. 

“It’s crazy to see the lengths that people will go to just see a concert, but it’s actually quite admirable too.”