Taylor Swift has criticised Ticketmaster after her fans said they waited hours and were repeatedly kicked off the firm’s website while trying to get tickets for her upcoming US tour.

The popstar said she and her team had been assured by ticket sellers that they could handle a surge in demand for her Eras tour – her first in five years.

Ticketmaster handled ticket sales for most of the shows on the 20-city, 52-date tour, although SeatGeek sold tickets for a few performances in Texas and Arizona.

In a statement on Instagram, she said: “It’s really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse.

“There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets and I’m trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward.

“I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could.”

She added: “It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets but it really p***** me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.

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“And to those who didn’t get tickets, all I can say is that my hope is to provide more opportunities for us to all get together and sing these songs.

“Thank you for wanting to be there. You have no idea how much that means.”