Phoebe Bridgers is replacing headphones and ordinary concert halls with stars, lasers and enormous planetarium domes for the first public presentations of her new album.
The singer-songwriter has partnered with Spotify to launch the Lost Weekend Planetarium Experience, a collection of listening sessions taking place at more than 40 venues across North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
The events will begin on 10 August and continue through 14 August, the day Lost Weekend is scheduled for worldwide release through Dead Oceans.
These sessions are not concerts, and Bridgers is not expected to perform or attend. Instead, audiences will hear the album from beginning to end through planetarium sound systems while specially designed visuals surround them across the dome.
Participating venues will offer one of two different presentations. The first is a night-sky experience created by photographer Babak Tafreshi, whose work documents astronomical landscapes and natural phenomena from locations around the world.
His presentation uses real imagery rather than computer-generated environments, transporting audiences between star-filled skies, auroras, storms and distant landscapes while the album plays.
The second option is an immersive laser programme created by Laser Fantasy. It uses animated light, abstract colour patterns and aerial beam effects to transform the planetarium into something between an observatory, an art installation and a music venue.
The combination reflects the visual identity surrounding Lost Weekend, whose artwork and promotion repeatedly use celestial imagery, darkness and feelings of physical or emotional distance.
Every session will be phone- and camera-free. Attendees will be required to place recording devices, smartwatches and mobile phones inside secured Yondr pouches before entering the dome. They will keep the locked pouches with them and regain access to their devices after leaving.
The restriction is intended to prevent early recordings of the unreleased music from spreading online. More importantly, it creates an environment in which audiences must experience the album without filming, messaging or immediately turning individual moments into social-media posts.
That approach challenges the normal release culture surrounding major albums. New music is usually consumed privately through headphones or divided into short clips and individual tracks. Bridgers’ planetarium programme asks listeners to remain with an entire album in sequence.
The communal setting may also change how the music is understood. A quiet song heard alone on a telephone can feel intensely personal; the same recording played beneath a vast artificial sky becomes a shared experience among strangers.
Lost Weekend is Bridgers’ third solo studio album and her first full-length solo release since Punisher in 2020. During the intervening years, she achieved further success as a member of boygenius and collaborated with several prominent musicians.
The new project contains 16 tracks, including “Lost Boys,” “The Outside,” “Bobby,” “Still Standing” and the title song. Its full emotional and musical direction will become clearer when audiences hear the complete sequence inside the planetarium.
After the album’s release, Bridgers is expected to begin an extensive concert tour. The planetarium events therefore function as a quieter introduction before the songs move into conventional live venues.
The initiative also demonstrates how artists are experimenting with new methods of encouraging focused listening. In an industry dominated by streaming algorithms and short-form content, presenting an album as an uninterrupted audiovisual work gives the release a sense of occasion.
For participating planetariums, the partnership creates an opportunity to reach visitors who might not normally attend an astronomy programme. It combines music, photography and immersive technology while introducing audiences to the visual power of dome projection.
The experiment ultimately asks listeners to do something increasingly unusual: surrender their phones, sit in darkness and give one piece of music their complete attention.
