Phoebe Bridgers is about to have her new album played beneath a 75-foot dome in Golden Gate Park, and it will not be a concert. Starting next Monday, the Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences becomes the only Bay Area stop on a worldwide series of listening parties timed to the release of her third solo album, Lost Weekend, with sessions running from next Monday, August 10, through next Friday, August 14.
The tilted, 300-seat dome — one of the world's largest all-digital planetarium screens — will play Lost Weekend in full alongside either a custom dome film or an alternative laser show, though organizers have not said which visual presentation will be shown in San Francisco, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The rollout is produced in partnership with Spotify, and Bridgers herself is not expected to attend the San Francisco event, per the Chronicle's reporting. San Francisco showtimes and ticket prices have not yet been announced, leaving the event's exact ticketing model unclear for now.
A Global Album Rollout Lands Under One Dome
Lost Weekend marks Bridgers' first solo studio album in six years, following 2020's Punisher, and features 16 tracks co-produced by Tony Berg, Ethan Gruska, Jack Antonoff, and Bridgers herself, according to The Guardian. Lost Boys serves as the album's first single, and the record is set for release on the Dead Oceans label on Friday, August 14. Beyond the planetarium tour, more than 300 midnight release parties are planned internationally, including additional California events in Sacramento and Costa Mesa, the Chronicle reports.
The planetarium campaign spans more than 40 venues worldwide between August 10 and 14, according to Pollstar News, placing the Morrison Planetarium inside a genuinely international experiential release strategy rather than a one-off local booking. The custom dome film paired with the album was created by National Geographic Explorer-at-Large Babak Tafreshi, who founded The World at Night astrophotography project in 2007; the footage draws on night-sky and natural-phenomena imagery Tafreshi has captured across nearly 20 countries. The alternative laser version, developed by Bellevue, Washington-based Laser Fantasy, pairs the album with animated and abstract laser imagery instead.
Lock Up Your Phone Before You Listen
Attendees will be required to secure phones, smartwatches, cameras, and other recording equipment in lockable pouches supplied by San Francisco-based Yondr before the show, keeping them locked until they leave the planetarium. Yondr, which introduced its magnetic pouch technology in 2014, was founded by Graham Dugoni to cut down on phone distractions at live events, according to Monocle. It is a notably analog protocol for an event built around one of the most technologically advanced screens in the world.
Morrison Planetarium's regular programming typically uses astronomical data to represent stars, planets, and galaxies for daytime visitors, and those standard shows require free reservations in addition to museum admission, which starts at $49 and can rise to $55 on peak dates. The Bridgers listening party arrives as the planetarium's current schedule already leans on externally produced or licensed programs rather than in-house productions — a shift with roots in a difficult year for the institution.
Layoffs Reshaped What the Planetarium Can Produce
In April, the California Academy of Sciences laid off 53 employees, roughly 9.3% of its workforce, to address a projected budget deficit exceeding $8 million for fiscal year 2026, following a $7.3 million shortfall the year before, according to SFGATE. The Academy cited production costs that were not being recovered through attendance, and museum leadership pointed to declining San Francisco tourism and rising operating costs as contributing pressures. The Academy said at the time that it would stop producing new original planetarium shows and plans to reduce or restructure programs going forward.
Those layoffs eliminated the institution's internal planetarium production team entirely, forcing the museum to rely on externally licensed, rented, or contracted programming going forward, according to Speak Out Socialists, which reported that union workers raised concerns original science programming would be replaced by commercial rentals. The fallout also reached the top of the organization: Executive Director Scott Sampson resigned on April 29 following employee rallies and union calls for a city audit into executive compensation, according to The San Francisco Standard, which reported Sampson had earned $885,000 in fiscal year 2025 before stepping down.
Seen against that backdrop, the Bridgers presentation could offer an example of a partnership generating new revenue sources for a museum still absorbing the cost of those cuts, per the Chronicle's reporting by Aidin Vaziri. The Morrison Planetarium itself dates back to a 1952 predecessor called the Theater of the Stars, and was rebuilt into its current form when the Renzo Piano-designed California Academy of Sciences building reopened in Golden Gate Park in September 2008. Whether a phone-free pop-up album debut becomes a regular feature of that dome's future remains an open question, but for one week in August, Lost Weekend will be the only thing playing beneath it.
