On a podcast titled “The Birth of the LA Jazz Festival,” Martin Ludlow touted Airbnb, a company that paid him nearly $3 million to politically canvas for its cause

Weeks before the abrupt cancellation of a massive musical extravaganza slated to feature 175 acts at events over 17 days in every corner of the city, the endeavor’s founder, Martin Ludlow, went on a popular jazz podcast to tout “The Birth of the LA Jazz Festival.”

“We finally found a courageous title sponsor,” Ludlow told musician Rob Cope, the co-host of “The Jazz Podcast,” last month, to explain how the ambitious festival came together. “That being Airbnb.”

Ludlow then went on to talk about the company being the “perfect partner.” The company, he said, offers an opportunity to a community that doesn’t often have a chance to experience “leisure and vacation in the way that you can with Airbnb.”

“You have to book and Airbnb now,” Cope responded. “To put the money back in that they funded.”

Ludlow’s Airbnb commercial continued.

“The other person who really wins is the homeowner,” Ludlow continued with another hard push for Airbnb. “A lot of people on fixed incomes … are able to put their homes up on those platforms like Airbnb. It’s a triple net win for everybody.”

Cope agreed about the convenience, adding: “Unashamedly, I’m really on this Airbnb train.”

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What the podcast host likely did not know is that Airbnb’s relationship with Ludlow, a former Los Angeles City Council member who became a felon when he pleaded guilty to federal and state public corruption charges in 2006, went far beyond the company’s $750,000 sponsorship for the LA Jazz Festival, which was abruptly canceled hours before it was slated to begin on Aug. 7 without explanation.

Ludlow, Los Angeles reported, through his company Bridge Street Inc., was paid $2.3 million by Airbnb to “canvas” for a “Save our Services” campaign in L.A. in 2025 and 2026. Airbnb’s political action committee also contracted Bridge Street in January, paying Ludlow $300,000 for “San Diego Ordinance Activations,” according to a filing by the company.

Even in the lucrative world of lobbying, a corporation paying nearly $3 million dollars to a single company owned by a convicted felon is unusual, even as Airbnb has dramatically expanded its political footprint in Los Angeles. Not only has the company poured $19 million into the “Save Our Services” campaign aimed at rolling back short-term rental regulations, but it also hired the son of Herb Wesson, a longtime political power broker and former L.A. City Council President who had also led the California State Assembly as its Speaker, as the lobbyist spreading around that money.

Before becoming the Strategic Public Policy Manager for Airbnb, Justin Wesson spent years working for his dad at City Hall before moving over to the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

Wesson was working as the Fed’s Chief of Staff in 2022 when City Hall was rocked by a leaked audiotape from a meeting a year earlier at the union’s headquarters that captured then City Council President Nury Martinez, along with fellow Councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León and labor federation President Ron Herrera, engaging in incendiary racist rants while plotting redistricting.

The leaked tapes sparked protests in the streets, ended the careers of a slew of top pols, and even had former President Joe Biden himself wagging a finger of shame at City Hall. Even Wesson’s wife suffered setbacks in the chaotic aftermath. Alexis Wesson lost her job working as the Chief of Staff for Martinez, who stepped down as the city erupted in fury. [Alexis Wesson is now Chief of Staff for City Councilmember Adrin Nazarian.]

As part of the fallout of that scandal, Justin Wesson left the Fed in April 2023 and started his public policy job at Airbnb the following month.

The company was looking for inroads into L.A.’s City Hall to push for rollbacks of the city’s strict short-term rental policies passed in 2018. Wesson quickly turned to Ludlow to help Airbnb’s campaign to make that happen. “Across the country and state, we back causes and candidates that champion building local economies,” an Airbnb spokesperson told Los Angeles this week about the spending with Ludlow’s company, “including a tourism economy that doesn’t just benefit big, corporate hotels, but also everyday homeowners looking to make extra money by sharing their home.”

Martin Ludlow avoided jail time by testifying against a former friend and union official but is now coming under fire for leaving artists, vendors, and venues in the lurch Credit: Courtesy of the LA Jazz Festival

Since Ludlow abruptly canceled the Airbnb-sponsored jazz fest hours before its opening event in Leimert Park, he has refused to answer questions from artists, vendors and venues who have been left high and dry. Mayor Karen Bass, who has seen $1.5 million in Airbnb contributions flow into two separate political action committees pushing for her reelection, has also refused to comment on the upheaval caused by the cancellation of the festival she touted alongside Ludlow in February on the City Hall steps named for the elder Wesson.

“The silence is deafening,” said Jennie Proctor, a Marina del Rey resident who was hoping to attend one of the dozens of concerts that were scheduled, including a beach concert to close the festival with headliners John Legend and Janelle Monáe. “It’s entirely disrespectful to the people of Los Angeles.”

However, at the end of the podcast that aired in July, Ludlow hinted at what was to come. “We’re a long ways away from being financially secure,” Ludlow said, adding that Airbnb got the festival off the ground, but “we need to fund the landing.”

It was an ominous statement. It is now clear that Ludlow did not pull permits, as required by the Los Angeles Police or Fire Departments, for events in public spaces. When he tried to negotiate with civil services at the last minute, he couldn’t make the financials work, Ludlow said in the one public statement he has made about the disastrous failure. “Due to significant, unanticipated last-minute public safety and municipal costs associated with the final permitting of the On The Beach Festival, we have reached the decision to unfortunately postpone this year’s inaugural LA Jazz Festival.”

It’s unclear what the financials for the LA Jazz Festival were at the end. The festival was registered by Ludlow as a 501c3 nonprofit under the umbrella of his company Bridge Street. The required 990 filings for the charity were last filed in 2023.

Many artists are calling the failure of the jazz festival “L.A.’s Fyre Fest,” a nod to the failed luxury concert that sent its founder to prison for looting $27 million from the event. Airbnb has also expressed disappointment in its cancellation. “We were incredibly excited to be one of the top sponsors for LA JazzFest to help put Jazz culture and history in a much-deserved spotlight this summer,” an Airbnb spokesperson told Los Angeles on Thursday. “We share the disappointment of the artists, vendors, and other community members and likewise demand answers from those involved in the planning failures of this event.”