Windows will likely rattle everywhere from Potrero Hill to Alameda island Tuesday night, as ravelords Skrillex and Four Tet are playing Pier 80 in a show whose sound check last night indicated that things are going to get very loud.
If you live in the Mission District, Visitacion Valley, or near Daly City, you are well aware that the boom-boom-boom of New Year’s Eve fireworks shenanigans already started Monday night, will continue unabated tonight, and Wednesday night will be the fireworks donnybrook free-for-all that New Year’s Eve always is.
But tonight, you must add to the mix the noise that will come from the dubstep bacchanalia of the Skrillex and Four Tet show at Pier 80, the semi-outdoor venue that is also home to the annual Portola EDM music festival that has notoriously generated hundreds of neighbors’ noise complaints since its chaotic first iteration in 2022.
Pier 80 actually did a sound check for this show Monday night, and oh yes, it was very loud. This SFist correspondent lives less than two miles from Pier 80 (as the crow flies), and the bass-throb and ooontz-oontz were plainly audible from my outdoor back porch, and even somewhat indoors. Last night's sound check went a little past 10 pm, there’s no telling how late tonight's amplified dropping of the bass will go.
Portola Music Festival 🎶 is back in San Francisco this weekend. In previous years, noise could be heard as far away as Alameda @KTVU pic.twitter.com/o6h45HiATa
— Betty Yu (@bett_yu) September 28, 2024
Tonight’s show is at Pier 80 and is organized by Goldenvoice, the same concert promoter behind the Portola Festival. So one would expect pretty much the same levels of volume (and noise cancellation efforts) as encountered with each year’s Portola Festival.
While you expect there to be some noise complaints from the neighboring SF neighborhoods of Visitacion Valley, India Basin, and Bernal Heights, the noise from the Portola Festival was so pronounced across the Bay in Alameda that the City of Alameda tried to shut the Portola Festival down in 2023. Their attempt was not successful.
But Goldenvoice did try out some noise mitigation efforts. The 2024 Portola Festival did indeed draw fewer complaints from Alameda residents in 2024 (albeit while drawing more complaints from SF residents). Then this past September for its 2025 incarnation, the Chronicle reports there was another sharp uptick in complaints from Alameda residents during the Portola fest, with 117 noise complaints from Alameda in 2025, compared to 80 Alameda complaints in 2024.
Goldenvoice did post a "complaints hotline” phone number for their last few festivals, but we tried that hotline today, and it just rings and rings with no answer. The start time of the show is listed as 5 pm, so maybe an early start will beget an early finish. But Skrillex is not exactly known for his restraint, so grumpy residents — and city officials in SF and Alameda — may be in for an earful over whatever happens at Pier 80 Tuesday night.
Image: READING, ENGLAND - AUGUST 25: Skrillex performs during day three of Reading Festival 2024 at Richfield Avenue on August 25, 2024 in Reading, England. (Photo by Joseph Okpako/WireImage)
