[Event Review] Portola Music Festival Electrified Fans Once Again At Pier 80

*Featured Cover Photo Credit: Scott Hutchinson / Portola Music Festival

On the weekend of Sept. 27-28, the Portola Music Festival at Pier 80 in San Francisco once again electrified fans, just like it did in 2022 and 2023. Fans get to experience plenty of world-class Techno, House, Electro-Rock, Drum-n-Bass, and more during those two days and the warm yet breezy weather made it all better. The festival, of course, occurred before the heat wave that is currently affecting most of the Bay Area at this moment.

Aside from the music that turned up the crowds from the first minute the festival gates opened on the 27th to when the last beat dropped on the 28th, there were vast amounts of amenities that satisfied the fans. The diverse array of food, drinks, merchandise, and even accessible accommodations ensured every fan that they received the high-quality service and treatment the festival prides itself upon. Here is the summary of the 2024 edition of Portola Music Festival, a festival that celebrates San Francisco’s love for wonderful music regardless of genre.

Entering Pier 80 To Enjoy Portola Music Festival

Pier 80 is near one of San Francisco’s top nightclubs/entertainment venues, The Midway. In fact, located near The Midway are two entrances that lead to Portola Music Festival, one from Cesar Chavez Street and one from Marin Street. Once fans get past the festival gates and make their first steps inside Pier 80, they can see the importance of the pier in global trade since Pier 80 is San Francisco’s only pier that can support direct unloading of materials from ships to railroad cars for further transportation and distribution of goods. Fans also enjoyed the bountiful food stalls and bar booths spread throughout the festival’s grounds and the same goes for other amenities such as merchandise stands, medical tents, lockers, and restrooms.

The four stages of Pier 80 from the past two editions of Portola Music Festival returned: Ship Tent, Warehouse, Crane Stage, and Pier Stage. To emphasize the diverse offerings of wonderful music at these stages, one can enter any stage and can still feel very happy, even if they did not know who the artist(s) was before. There were plenty of people pulling out their phones, not only to record clips but also to Shazam the tracks so that they could add those tracks to their playlists for future streaming.

Day 1 Highlights

Walking on festival grounds, and hopping between the stages, was a very active and amazing feeling. Nils Hoffmann was the first artist to witness when walking inside Ship Tent and the vibe got off to a mellow yet energetic flow. Getting to see Nala, Mall Grab and Floating Points at Warehouse, Nia Archives at Ship Tent, Snow Strippers and JPEGMAFIA at Crane Stage, and Tycho at Pier Stage when the sun was still out provided a great start to the festival. The Warehouse Stage in particular is the only stage that is for the majority covered up since it is literally a warehouse of Pier 80. However, it is a very memorable venue due to bass-pounding, heart-pumping excitement that the Techno rhythms generate throughout the whole area.

Furthermore, Jamie XX and RÜFÜS DU SOL (especially when the trio played tracks of their upcoming fifth album, Inhale / Exhale) at Pier Stage, Astra Club (a B2B set between Carlita and DJ Tennis) and Four Tet at Warehouse, and Soulwax and Gesaffelstein (especially when he played his tracks from his most recent album, Gamma) at Crane Stage showed why Portola Music Festival is one of this country’s and also the world’s, most exciting electronic music festivals. In this regard, it is very exciting due to the diversity of not just the Electronic music genres that fans got to hear there, but also the inclusion of various genres of Electro-Rock, Rap, and Pop (especially Electro-Pop) as well.

Day 2 pumped the fans even more

Day 2 of Portola Music Festival also provided great, top-notch, fire-enhancing music at Pier 80. Among the highlights of the second day were Panjabi Hit Squad and Ahadadream turning up the volume at Ship Tent, Boyz Noise producing a stellar B2B set with VTSS at Warehouse, DJ Pee.Wee (Anderson .Paak‘s vinyl DJ alias) showcasing his multi-skilled musical repertoire at Crane Stage, and LP Giobbi, Ben Böhmer, and a phenomenal live set from Barry Can’t Swim magnified the atmosphere at Pier Stage.

As the sun started to set, the atmosphere of Day 2 became more enlightened. Disclosure and Justice ensured the fans continued to have blissful emotions at Pier Stage, Chase & Status, M.I.A., and Fisher frequently played top bangers at Crane Stage when giving out those awesomely massive vibes, Glass Beams at Ship Tent played rhythmic, uplifting music to elevate the senses, and Honey Dijon and Sara Landry at Warehouse really cranked up the volume at maximum levels with sense-stimulating Techno vibrating to all corners of this fantastic stage.

A notable live performance from Tinlicker

One of the stand out acts of the festival, Tinlicker, performed their closing set at the Ship Tent on Sunday. The duo did a live performance that included some of their classics alongside new tracks from their newest album. The live elements of the performance really took the songs to an ethereal next level, inspiring strong emotions in the crowd.

Tinlicker released their third album, Cold Enough for Snow, this past February via [PIAS] Électronique. The emotional yet highly danceable release reinforced the duo’s diamond-sharp production skills, alongside indie guitars, soulful vocals, arresting lyrics and orchestral instruments. 

Closing statements

Overall, the 2024 edition of Portola Music Festival showed that the festival is here to stay in the “City by the Bay”. Festival organizers ensured that the sound levels will be at an appropriate amount for the festival attendees to still have a spectacular time dancing their hearts away and at the same time, ensure that the privacy of the nearby residents (especially those living across the Bay) are at ease as well. Hopefully, Portola Music Festival at Pier 80 will become a three-day celebration just like other globally renowned festivals such as EDC, Ultra, and Tomorrowland.

Last but not least, check out the Portola 2024 Official Playlist by clicking ‘Play’ on the Spotify link below. The playlist will allow festival attendees the perfect opportunity to relive their memories of the festival again. For those who did not attend this past weekend’s Portola Music Festival, hopefully the playlist will allow you to imagine that they are moving to the groove at Pier 80.