Portola Fest Is Full Of Promise… And Room For Improvement
The love for dance music in the United States is at an all-time high. In the mainstream, pop stars like Lady Gaga and Dua Lipa have long kept dance music as a backdrop for their soulful vocals, but in more recent months, Drake and Beyoncé have even hopped on the bandwagon.
For those of us who’ve been entrenched in dance and electronic music for years, our festival choices have been limited to more EDM-leaning events. Electric Daisy Carnival, Electric Forest, and Hard Summer are sprinkled across the states for ravers to flock to. But for fans with more eclectic tastes, the choices are much more limited. ARC in Chicago, Movement in Detroit, Making Time in Philadelphia, and Dweller Fest in New York City are some of the few festivals to attend if EDM is not your style.
Enter: Portola Music Festival. I’d never seen such a visceral reaction to a line-up from the dance music community. Not only did the schedule include longtime legends Jamie xx, Four Tet + Floating Points, and Kaytranada, but exciting new acts like Fred again.., TSHA, and PinkPantheress blessed the newly-formed festival announcement. Portola wasn’t just about house music, though. The variety was impeccable, boasting artists like Arca, The Avalanches, Yves Tumor, and DJ Shadow on the bright blue poster. With so many acts from both the US and the UK endowing these fresh festival stages, there was no option but to fly to San Francisco and end my summer with what could be the best US dance music festival of the year.
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As you walk down a seemingly normal San Francisco street, you hit Pier 80, the location hosting Goldenvoice’s brand new two-day event. The festival jitters hit as I wait in line for my wristband, hoping nothing goes wrong so that we don’t miss our first set, Ross from Friends. Luckily, my group arrives at 2 pm, just in time to scope the settings and make sure the rest of the night goes smoothly.
The space is massive. A 14,000 capacity Warehouse is the first stage you’ll hit once you enter the pier, and it’s a bit empty until you walk about seven minutes down and find the rest of the fest. On the left, the outdoor Pier stage is covered in turf to give the illusion of a park-like setting. On the right side, a huge ship aptly identifies the Ship Tent, and at the very end, a large crane signifies the Crane tent.
The ship tent was the home base for my friends and me… but probably only because we couldn’t get to the Warehouse for the sets we wanted to see. All weekend. We tried for Fred again.., Jamie XX, and Channel Tres. It seemed like a time waste, with anxiety-inducing crowds overpacking the entrance of the small doors to the stage. Avoiding the Warehouse like the plague ended up being the right move, seeing as reported crowd-control issues had non-attendees texting me to make sure I was alright after day one.
SF Gate reports that for Fred again.., “Thousands of fans were waiting outside to enter, and their frustration inspired a full rush over the fences and up the walls. Like a scene out of a zombie movie, fans crawled over the barriers and hoisted one another up so they could get into the venue.” We could have been those people, until we got to the back of the crowd and I panicked, telling my friends that we should just see someone else instead. We danced on the side of the Warehouse for about ten minutes before deciding to go to the Pier early for Kaytranada instead.
Despite the missed Warehouse sets, the music was undeniably incredible. Ross from Friends set the bar high off rip, teasing us with tracks from his latest album, ‘Tread’, while blending in live mixing from the musicians standing on either side of him who were playing saxophone, electric guitar, and keyboard. There were a few people waiting for Caroline Polachek to take the stage after him, but die-hards were in the front, taking in the sounds of the dreamy synths and hypnotic live instrumentals.
DJ Shadow was my most-anticipated set of the weekend. On the second day of Portola, the sample-flipping San Francisco icon had a huge horde come to his set even though it was pretty early on in the evening. People were screaming after he ended each song and even for me, I couldn’t help but stare in admiration, watching the turntablist scratch his own tracks in real time.
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To replace M.I.A., the festival got another prominent name, experimental electronic producer, Oneohtrix Point Never, who composed the scores for A24 films Uncut Gems and Good Time. To put it simply, what 0PN was doing on stage was indescribable to me, but better spoken by my friend Yousef Srour, who turned to me and said, “This is what memory sounds like.”
But new memories were made at Four Tet and Floating Points’ closing set. Knowing the festival was almost over was bittersweet; it had not only brought artists from across the globe, but it also brought together my friends from all over the world. The two-hour-long set started and ended with Four Tet’s slow-burning bootleg of 3LW’s ‘No More’, but in between it was madness. Somehow, my friends and I managed to get on the stage, right behind the performers for the entirety of their set. We watched as the two legends bounced off of each other effortlessly while also engaging with the small crowd behind them, making everyone feel welcome.
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The erratic lights, pulsating sounds, entrancing song selection, and dancing bodies around us were intoxicatingly disorienting. Whether it was whatever substances, everyone else, or just me – I honestly felt like I had no idea what was going on. All I knew was that I was dancing with two of the best producers of our lifetime and any electronic music lover would understand that I was actually watching history in the making.
Moments like these are rare, even for those who do this for a living. And it absolutely reminds me why I love electronic music in the first place. Others might think that it’s just pressing buttons or making a playlist, but when you have the chance to experience something like what Portola was able to curate, first-hand, you’ll understand why.
Words: Arielle Lana LeJarde
Photos: Rae Gao
