The Portola Music Festival, or simply 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".
The Despacio tent debuted at Portola in 2025. Long lines were reported in 2025Five years in, Portola heats up, Gazetteer, by Eddie Kim, September 2026 and 2026.Portola 2026 review: The pops, the flops, the drops, 48hills, by Adrian Spinelli, October 2026
Origin 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.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."Edgar D. Peixotto
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. The city requested that the festival be discontinued or moved to a different location due to the various noise complaints from its residents. 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.
The 2023 festival received 235 noise complaints and the 2024 festival received 224 noise complaints, despite mitigation efforts. 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.2022September 24–2530,000 (attendance)2nd2023September 30–October 13rd2024September 28–2942,000 (attendees per day)4th2025September 20–215th2026September 26–27
References
See also Despacio (audio)
External links Portola Music Festival official website