The fourth annual Portola Festival lucked out with its sunniest weekend yet by being scheduled a week earlier this year, and an estimated 45,000 attendees per day enjoyed sets by LCD Soundsystem, Dom Dolla, Moby, and Christina Aguilera.
If you or anyone you knew went to his year's edition of the Portola Festival, your Instagram feed today is likely filled with images of lasers and disco balls glowing in dark, head-filled rooms, or of massive crowds gathered for the likes of Christina Aguilera and Dom Dolla.
This year's festival came off without any hiccups, though there were some complaints that Ms. Xtina didn't do a ton of live singing. And as KQED notes, sets that were played in the Warehouse were yet again played by acoustic issues, with that echo-y airplane-hangar-sized space on Pier 80 being a fairly shitty venue for music of any kind.
Still, the Warehouse Stage was where headliner Peggy Gou closed out the weekend on Sunday night — a move that may have been made to avoid Sunday night noise complaints from Alameda and elsewhere, which have been a staple of the last couple years. (Though The Prodigy played the bayside Crane stage Sunday night until 10:45 pm.)
The festival has grown significantly since its first outing in 2022, now hosting 45,000 people per day, with an extra-large VIP area and four stages. And this year saw the introduction of the Despacio tent, a vibe-y immersive dance area with an all-vinyl DJ setup, where there was a line to get in all weekend long.
Saturday's lineup included an early evening set by electronic music duo Bob Moses, Caribou, Magdalena Bay, a DJ set by The Chemical Brothers, as well as LCD Soundsystem and Christina Aguilera.
On Sunday, Bay Area native Kreayshawn tore up the main stage in the mid-afternoon, art punk/electronic band The Rapture played the main stage at 5:45 pm, with singer-songwriter-producer Blood Orange on the Crane Stage shortly thereafter, followed by Underworld, Moby, and Dom Dolla.
Below, a few video snippets from the fest.
The crowd dancing to French-born producer Swimming Paul.
Christina Aguilera performing "Genie in a Bottle."
Underworld performing "Moaner/Born Slippy."
Moby performing "Bodyrock."
Kreayshawn:
LCD Soundsystem performing "Someone Great."
Top image: Photo courtesy of PortolaFest/Instagram
