There was major Swedish dominance at this year's edition of the Portola Festival, with Robyn, Swedish House Mafia, Tove Lo, and Zara Larsson being particular highlights of a very oontz-filled weekend.
The fifth annual Portola Music Festival brought a legion of electronic music fans to the southeastern edge of San Francisco on Saturday and Sunday, and acts like Robyn, Tiesto, Swedish House Mafia, Parcels, Fatboy Slim, and Zara Larsson brought crowds to a frenzy with consistent energy all weekend long.
This year's festival also featured a return of the extremely popular, alternative tent attraction, dubbed Despacio — an analog sound space designed by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, David and Stephen Dewaele of 2ManyDJs/Soulwax, and sound engineer John Klett. Despacio made its debut at the 2025 festival, with a central dancefloor surrounded by seven speaker stacks with glowing McIntosh amplifiers. It's meant to give the kids — and adults who who prefer record players — a soulful experience of warm, hi-fi, analog sound that is unlike the digital sound we've all grown accustomed to.
And Despacio proved popular enough, once again, that there was a long line to get in each day virtually from when it opened at 2:45 pm into the night, with crowds grooving to everything from Sister Sledge's "Lost in Music" to "Baiana" by Barbatuques.
Among the many highlights of the weekend was when Robyn, who headlined in a 7 pm slot on Saturday, popped back in to join fellow countrywoman Zara Larsson on stage for Larsson's song "Puss Puss" on Sunday.
See some photo highlights below.
Join the conversation
Comments
Comments load automatically as this section approaches.