The promoters of the Portola music festival announced a “feral” deal Monday via email and through social media: A 25% discount ($100 dollars off) on tickets courtesy of their “friends at Waymo.”
It’s the sort of partnership that ride-hailing companies froth at the mouth over: Lyft proudly boasts about its Outside Lands partnership. Lollapalooza, in 2024, had an Uber tent with AC at the festival. In the lead up to festivals, there are Instagram Reels, influencer activations, and corporate blog posts that celebrate these link-ups.
But Waymo has been strangely mum about the whole deal. No videos of DJs riding in Waymos; no cross-posted stories from the company about its Portola collab. Curiously, none of the promotional material advertising the discounted tickets bear Waymo’s “W” insignia. Waymo declined to provide comments to Gazetteer regarding the promotion.
One possible reason why Waymo might not want to be too closely linked to this discount: Portola festivalgoers who already secured their tickets through preorder are feeling like they got screwed over. Tickets for pre-order holders — effectively Portola’s most loyal base — cost more than $400, including fees. Comments abound on Instagram expressing outrage at this late discount: “How about you hit back the early bird purchases with 25% off?” asks one. “This is really a middle finger for your early supporters,” says another.
The whole Waymo thing notwithstanding, this last-minute discount has an air of desperation, suggesting that the festival’s ticket sales are struggling. Goldenvoice, which runs Portola as well as Coachella and Stagecoach, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
General admission passes for Portola are still up for grabs at full price: $300 for one day, $400 for two. (So are the $1,600 VIP XL tickets, of course.) A whole host of resale passes are available on the festival’s classifieds page. It seems that even a $50 discount for residents in the immediate vicinity of the festival has done little to bring the crowds. None of these tickets have any fees, either.
It’s not an uncommon practice for veteran festival attendees to buy last-minute passes on StubHub or another third-party resale site in the hopes of securing a big discount. It’s peculiar, however, for a festival organizer to offer a sale on its own tickets seemingly bankrolled by an outside company.
With only 10 days left until the festival, which this year features LCD Soundsystem, Moby, and Christina Aguilera, this last-minute push has fueled speculation about low attendance and if Portola will continue to have a future. After all, if you burn your diehards, then who else is left? Portola is hardly alone in having trouble bringing in concertgoers. This year’s Outside Lands didn’t sell out, and sales for Coachella and Lollapalooza, arguably the two most popular multi-day music functions in the country, slumped this year.
Portola has been a welcome newcomer to the festival scene since its launch in 2022. Held at Pier 80, it’s perhaps the best curated party in San Francisco: a panoply of Y2K pop divas, left-of-center artists on the brink of the mainstream, and beloved electronic acts across scenes and generations.
Even if the Waymo discount sale bolsters turnout, the perception is that Portola and Waymo have done festivalgoers a bit dirty.
