Madrid MAD COOL music festival leads to ride-hailing price festival

October 30, 2023

English, GAMES Econ, Press Release, Taxi sector, Report

Extracted from the report “EFFECTS OF THE MAD COOL MUSIC FESTIVAL ON TAXI AND PHV RIDE PRICES IN THE CITY OF MADRID”, prepared by GAMES Economics for the Professional Taxi Federation of Madrid (FPTM) and the National Taxi Association (ANTAXI). See full report in Spanish here.

The sixth edition of the MAD COOL music festival was held from 6 to 8 July, 2023, in Madrid, in the southern neighborhood of Villaverde. The venue gates opened each day at 5 pm and closed at 2 am, after the last concert. The festival drew in between 65,000 and 70,000 attendees. Even though Madrid City Council’s mobility plan already foresaw an attendance of 70,000 people each day, the public transport infrastructure to get to and back from the festival (subway, commuter rail and bus shuttles) proved insufficient and thousands of people opted for taxi and Private Hire Vehicles (PHV) services. This generated long waiting lines and sharp price hikes for PHV services.

Friday, July 7th, six in the evening: The first chords of “I Summon You”, a song by the Texas indie-rock band Spoon, started to play on the main stage of MAD COOL 2023. As the first festivalgoers started to arrive, prices for PHV services started to surge. By seven in the evening, a ride from Calle Atocha (in downtown Madrid) to the MAD COOL venue (12 km) cost €36.04 on UBER versus €19.60 for a taxi. UBER had increased its minimum price by more than two times and a half.

By one in the morning, the British folk rock band Mumford & Sons ended their concert with the prophetic “I Will Wait”: It was time to patiently wait for the ride back home. At three in the morning, a ride from MAD COOL to Plaza de Castilla, in northern Madrid (23 km), cost €93.30 on BOLT compared to €37.15 for a taxi. BOLT had increased its minimum price by more than four times.

Cause I will wait, I will wait for you

And I will wait, I will wait for you

“I Will Wait” (2012), Mumford & Sons

On Saturday, July 8th, history repeated itself: At 6 pm, while the sentimental pop of American duo Sylvan Esso played on the main stage of MAD COOL, prices for PHV services skyrocketed again. Once again, UBER set new highs: The price of a ride from Plaza de Castilla to the MAD COOL venue reached €65.46 on UBER, almost three times its minimum price. The price for a taxi at the same time was €42.60.

At the dawn of Sunday, the veteran bandRed Hot Chili Peppers ended their concert with “By The Way”. Before the encores, the crowd began to leave the venue in order to secure a ride back home. At three in the morning, the price of a ride from the MAD COOL venue to Calle Atocha reached €43.48 on CABIFY. CABIFY prices increased by more than two and a half times. The price for a taxi remained practically unchanged at €23.20.

Get there quick

By street but not the freeway

“By The Way” (2002), Red Hot Chili Peppers

Meanwhile, what was going on in the rest of Madrid? The rest of Madrid was not oblivious to the festival. PHV ride prices in the rest of Madrid increased at the same hours as those rides with origin and destination in MAD COOL. At seven in the evening on Friday, a ride from Calle Atocha to Calle Velázquez (both in downtown Madrid) cost €10.38 on UBER, more than double the price of a few hours later (€5.21 at ten o’clock at night). At three in the morning on Saturday, a ride from Calle Velázquez to Calle Atocha cost €12.45 on BOLT, more than double the price of a few hours earlier (€5.05 at eleven o’clock at night). The rest of Madrid had caught on to the PHV price festival.

Sunday, July 9th, four in the morning. Night falls in Madrid. The lights of the 2023 edition of the MAD COOL festival are turned off. The PHV price festival is over.