Portola Music Festival

Last updated
Portola Music Festival
Genre Electronic dance music
DatesEnd of September
Location(s) Pier 80
(San Francisco, California, U.S.)
Years active2022–present
Organised by Goldenvoice
Website portolamusicfestival.com

The Portola Music Festival, also referred to as Portola, is an annual music festival held at Pier 80 in San Francisco, California. The festival made its debut in 2022. It is presented by Goldenvoice, the same company that promotes Coachella. The event primarily features electronic dance music. Limited to people over the age of 21, it is intended to "present electronic music in an adult way". [1] [2]

Contents

The festival is named after the October 19-23, 1909 Portolá Festival and Portola Road Race, events thrown by the city of San Francisco to demonstrate its recovery from the 1906 earthquake. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

Noise complaints

The event received noise complaints from residents of the city of Alameda which is located across the San Francisco Bay from Pier 80. [10] The city requested that the festival be discontinued or moved to a different location due to the various noise complaints from its residents. [11] The highest sound level recorded by sound monitors located in Alameda was 61.4 dBA, which is below the city's noise ordinance of 70 dBA. However, the dBA scale, A-weighting, attenuates low frequency audio by as much as 40 decibels, implying the actual noise level at the lowest audio frequencies could have been as high as 101 decibels. [12]

The 2023 festival received 235 noise complaints and the 2024 festival received 224 noise complaints, despite mitigation efforts. [13] [14] The festival on Sunday went until 10:45 pm in 2024, compared with 11:00 pm in 2023.

Festival summary by year

EditionYearDatesHeadlinersAttendance or salesRef.
1st2022September 24–2530,000 (attendance) [15] [10]
2nd2023September 30–October 1— [16]
3rd2024September 28–2942,000 (attendees per day) [17] [18]
4th2025September 20–21— [19]

References

  1. ↑ Price, Emily. "Portola Music Festival 2023: Everything you need to know". SFGATE. Retrieved May 14, 2024.
  2. ↑ Mayer, Phil (2022-05-16). "New music festival 'Portola' comes to SF in September". KRON4. Retrieved May 14, 2024.
  3. ↑ "Re-interpreting the Discovery Site". www.nps.gov (U.S. National Park Service). Retrieved 17 September 2025. In 1909, San Francisco held the Portolá Festival, a month-long event celebrating the city's history after rebuilding from the 1906 earthquake.
  4. ↑ Hauser, Herbert (October 17, 1909). "Amateur Sports Fill Each Day OF Festival". San Francisco Call Sunday Magazine, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. p. 48. Retrieved August 7, 2013.
  5. ↑ Zoeth Skinner Eldredge, The March of Portolá and the Discovery of the Bay of San Francisco (San Francisco: The California Promotion Committee, 1909), "This Book is published with the approval and endorsement of the Executive Committee of the Portolá Festival."
  6. ↑ Salazar, James (September 20, 2022). "San Francisco's historic Portola Festival inspired S.F.'s newest musical offering". San Francisco Examiner. Retrieved May 14, 2024.
  7. ↑ "The Portola Festival: A Closer Look". www.opensfhistory.org. Retrieved May 14, 2024.
  8. ↑ "Portola Fest. 1909". www.postcard.org. Archived from the original on 31 May 2009. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  9. ↑ Edgar D. Peixotto
  10. 1 2 Goeres, Kelsey (October 4, 2023). "Updated: Portola Music Festival Rocks Alameda for Second Year in a Row". Alameda Post. Retrieved May 14, 2024.
  11. ↑ Tolentino, Aaron (October 6, 2023). "Alameda formally requests SF's Portola Music Festival to be discontinued". KRON4. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  12. ↑ Ege, Mike (October 11, 2023). "Alameda Relents on Demand to Close San Francisco Music Festival". The San Francisco Standard. Retrieved May 14, 2024.
  13. ↑ "MSN". www.msn.com. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  14. ↑ "Portola Music Festival receives 224 noise complaints, despite mitigation efforts". Yahoo News. 2024-10-01. Retrieved 2024-10-04.
  15. ↑ Bain, Katie (2022-05-16). "The Chemical Brothers, Flume, M.I.A. & Kaytranada Lead Lineup for San Francisco's New Portola Festival". Billboard. Retrieved 2025-05-23.
  16. ↑ Bain, Katie (2023-05-18). "Skrillex, Eric Prydz, Jai Paul & Nelly Furtado Lead Portola 2023 Lineup". Billboard. Retrieved 2025-05-23.
  17. ↑ Bain, Katie (2024-05-13). "Rüfüs Du Sol, Justice, Gesaffelstein & Disclosure Are Bringing the Party to Portola 2024: See the Lineup". Billboard. Retrieved 2025-05-23.
  18. ↑ Katsuyama, Jana (2024-09-30). "Portola Music Festival receives 224 noise complaints, despite mitigation efforts". KTVU FOX 2. Retrieved 2025-05-23.
  19. ↑ Bain, Katie (2025-05-12). "LCD Soundsystem, The Prodigy, Christina Aguilera & More Set to Headline Portola 2025: See the Lineup". Billboard. Retrieved 2025-05-23.
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