Portola, A Love Letter. – Daily Beat

Portola has come and gone, and somehow, in its fifth year, it feels like the festival has found an entirely new gear.

Between the sound, the crowd, the artist selection, and the overall energy across Pier 80, this year stood above the rest. There was a confidence to Portola this time around – a feeling that the festival knows exactly what it is and, more importantly, that the people attending understand it too.

For me, that started before the festival gates even officially opened.

Day Zero: Understanding Despacio

Starting the weekend with Day Zero and having the opportunity to experience Despacio alongside Portola’s five-year alumni celebration was something special.

I had experienced Despacio once before at Coachella in 2023, but at the time, I don’t think I fully understood what it was. I knew the concept and had heard it described as the “club that never existed and never will exist,” but I hadn’t really grasped what that meant.

So when I had the opportunity to experience it again, I jumped at it.

Walking into the space this time, I immediately felt something different. There was a maturity to the room – an understanding and mutual respect between everyone inside it. And the second I stepped onto the dance floor, the entire concept finally clicked.

Despacio strips away nearly everything we’ve come to associate with the modern electronic music experience. There’s no DJ towering above the crowd demanding your attention. No massive LED wall. No visual spectacle telling you where to look. Instead, you’re surrounded 360 degrees by some of the highest-quality speakers and amplifiers in the world.

And everyone is simply moving to the sound, It felt purely instinctual.

There’s a slow burn to Despacio. You aren’t waiting for a drop or watching a screen for the next visual cue. You’re reacting to whatever comes through those speakers and allowing the music to dictate where you go next.

In a strange way, it felt reminiscent of a time I never personally experienced. I found myself wondering if this was what going to a club felt like for my parents – a room where the music itself was enough.

As the night progressed, everything from ’70s funk and disco to house filled the room. Then there was the disco ball. When the light finally hit it, people naturally gravitated toward the center of the floor.

You could look in any direction, move in any direction, dance in any direction, and somehow it still felt like everyone was moving as one.

Leaving that space was difficult.

There was something ethereal and genuinely beautiful about it, and I walked away with an entirely new appreciation for what Despacio is trying to preserve. In a festival world constantly looking for something bigger, louder, and more visually overwhelming, Despacio reminds you how powerful it can be to strip everything back down to its most important element: The music.

Saturday: Portola Hits the Gas

Walking into Pier 80, you could feel the tension building in the best possible way. Everyone was excited. Everyone was happy. There was this collective feeling that we had two days ahead of us and absolutely no intention of wasting them.

For the first set of the day, Fcukers came out of the gates strong.

Their set was pure groove – the kind of performance that makes standing still feel almost impossible. Looking around the crowd, it felt like everyone had fallen into the same rhythm. It was an early reminder of just how good Portola can be at setting the tone for an entire day.

From there, we headed over to Mike D of the Beastie Boys, and boy, did he not disappoint.

For someone who never had the opportunity to see the Beastie Boys in full, this felt about as close as I may ever get. Mike D brought the boom-bap, the personality, and that unmistakable live atmosphere that made it feel, even briefly, like we’d been transported back into an era that no longer exists.

Then came Groove Armada and Max Styler in the Warehouse.

The energy simply didn’t stop. The Warehouse has always had an ability to swallow you whole, and bouncing between those sets made it incredibly easy to forget there was an entire festival happening outside those walls.

Eventually, we pulled ourselves away and made the run over to Bassvictim, which offered a complete change of pace. Their set was beautiful, ethereal, and glittery – a brief moment to float before throwing ourselves straight back into the chaos.

And that chaos came courtesy of KETTAMA.

We caught a few songs, and it was exactly what you’d want: pure adrenaline. No unnecessary buildup, no hesitation – just energy.

But there was one artist I absolutely wasn’t going to miss.

Jigitz was near the very top of my Saturday list, second only to Dog Blood, and from start to finish his performance was absolute bliss. High-energy, unpredictable, and ridiculously fun, everything about the set felt considered without ever feeling overly rehearsed. The ballerinas on stage, his own presence, and the way the performance moved from one moment into another made the whole thing feel larger than simply watching someone play music.

And then there was Dog Blood.

For anyone unfamiliar, Dog Blood is the collaborative project of Skrillex and Boys Noize, and if you know what those two artists sound like separately, their music together is almost exactly as beautifully chaotic as you’d imagine.

Relentless electro house. High-energy, body-moving funk. Flashes of the dubstep that helped make Skrillex a household name, mixed with the newer edges of modern bass music. It was an absolute treat.

I was lucky enough to see Dog Blood the last time around at BUKU in New Orleans, so there was something surreal about standing in San Francisco years later watching the two of them together again. And somehow, it felt like they had never stopped. Skrillex and Boys Noize were seamless together. There was no feeling of two artists trying to find their footing again or attempting to recreate something from another era.

The chemistry was simply there.

Sunday: One Last Dance

Sunday started a little slower.

We knew going in that Day Two was going to be nonstop—back to back to back—so we took our time getting through the gates. By the time we arrived around 3:30 or 4, though, there was no easing into anything.

We went straight to Marlon Hoffstadt. And boy, did he bring the European techno crowd with him.

From the moment we arrived, it was nonstop bounce, high energy, and bodies in motion. There was an infectious simplicity to it: fast, fun, and completely committed to making people dance. Whatever sluggishness we had walking into the festival disappeared almost immediately.

From there, we bounced over to Mochakk, which was exactly what we needed after Marlon.

Pure groove.

Mochakk moved effortlessly in and out of these swinging house rhythms, weaving ’90s vocal clips through bouncy, dance-forward grooves that seemed to constantly pull the crowd back in. It wasn’t necessarily about waiting for one massive moment. The fun was in the flow of the set itself.

Then we made our way over to Ben UFO.

Almost immediately, we were hit with a wave of dubstep.

From there, the set seemed to move wherever it wanted—drum and bass, dubstep, bouncy techy house—and Ben UFO made every transition feel completely natural. That unpredictability is part of what makes watching him so much fun. You never quite know where you’re going next, but you’re more than willing to follow.

After Ben UFO, we headed to Ninajirachi.

And this is where our plans started falling apart in the best possible way but we just couldn’t get ourselves to leave.

Her set occupied this beautiful space between ambient, technical, melodic, and completely explosive electronic music. There were moments that scratched the same part of my brain that artists like G Jones and Porter Robinson have over the years, while still sounding distinctly like her own world. The moment felt especially significant because the last time I remembered seeing Ninajirachi was years ago in Oakland, when she was much earlier in her career and playing an opening slot. Now I was watching her command one of Portola’s bigger stages.

Seeing that progression firsthand was genuinely special. The growth was undeniable, and her placement on that stage felt completely deserved. Of everything we saw Sunday, this was one of those performances that stayed with me.

Afterward, we finally had a little breathing room. We wandered around, took in the festival, and allowed ourselves to experience some of the atmosphere outside of sprinting from stage to stage and eventually, that wandering brought us back to the Warehouse for Overmono.

This was my second time seeing Overmono at Portola, and both times have been inside that room. Somehow, they just keep getting better.

Their ability to build groove while constantly moving in and out of these darker, more technical pockets makes their sets feel alive. Nothing sits still for very long, yet nothing feels rushed either. By the time the familiar records started coming through that massive Warehouse system, I was completely locked in.

But there was still a lot of night left.

Of course, we had to make our way over to Swedish House Mafia.

They understood the assignment.

The set was packed with the records people came to hear, but what surprised me were the new edits woven throughout. One of the biggest moments came from an edit of M83’s “Midnight City,” which hit like pure nostalgia in physical form.

For a group with that much history behind them, the set didn’t feel like they were simply leaning on it. They gave the crowd the massive Swedish House Mafia moments everyone wanted while still finding ways to make those moments feel fresh.

And then, finally, we came to Four Tet.

The closing set of Sunday.

The closing set of Portola.

And what felt like the crowning moment of the entire weekend. Four Tet shines in an environment like the Warehouse because his music doesn’t need to fight the room. It becomes part of it. There was this incredible intimacy despite being surrounded by thousands of people. The sound, the darkness, the scale of the Warehouse, and especially the lighting all worked together to create something that felt less like watching a DJ set and more like being inside of it.

At one point, I looked up and the lighting above us had taken on this translucent, almost underwater quality.

Then something started moving. A massive lighting bar stretching across the Warehouse began slowly lowering toward the crowd. Within seconds, it felt like it was only a foot or two above our heads.

Everything went black and then it began to warp and twist.

The crowd absolutely erupted.

Suddenly the ceiling itself felt alive. As Four Tet moved through these incredible house records, the structure above us would rise, fall, twist, and reshape the space around the music. Something as simple as changing the height of the lights completely transformed the room. It was one of those rare production moments where the technology wasn’t distracting you from the music.

It was pulling you deeper into it, and that felt like the perfect way to end Portola.

After spending an entire weekend moving between massive stages, legendary artists, intimate performances, pounding sound systems, and thousands upon thousands of people, the final moments weren’t about fireworks or some enormous spectacle. They were about a dark room, a brilliant DJ, an incredible sound system, and a crowd completely surrendering itself to the music.

In a way, it brought me right back to where the weekend started with Despacio.

Strip enough of everything else away, and you’re left with the reason we were all there in the first place.

The music.

Five Years In

All things said, this year was absolutely incredible from start to finish.

Five years in, Portola feels like it has truly found itself. So many of the little kinks that come with building a festival of this size have been hammered out, and what remains is something that feels confident in its identity. The sound, the artists, the people, the spaces, and the energy all came together in a way that made this year feel particularly special.

And if this is what year five looks like, it makes me even more excited to see what year six has in store.

This weekend reminded me why I fell in love with festivals in the first place. It’s not just about who’s playing or how big the production can get. It’s about those moments when you look around and realize thousands of complete strangers are experiencing the exact same thing you are.

For a few hours, everyone is moving together.

That’s what I’ll remember about this year.

So, thank you, Portola.

I love you!