The best and worst of Portola Music Festival 2023

rewrite this content and keep HTML tags Festivalgoers dance to Charlotte de Witte in the Warehouse at the Portola Music Festival at Pier 80 in San Francisco on Oct 1, 2023.Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATEThe second year of the Portola Music Festival has come to a close with stunning performances amid a festival site that still needs some sprucing up.Organized by the team behind Coachella, Goldenvoice’s two-day celebration of electronic dance music at San Francisco’s Pier 80 felt like a well-oiled machine compared with its rocky first year, but it was a machine built for one thing only: music. The booking was masterful and the sound improved, with memorable performances of all stripes, from understated and playful warehouse DJ sets from Todd Terje to the “Euphoria” melodramatics of Labrinth. There was a nostalgia spike available no matter what era of dance music you grew up on, from Underworld to Nelly Furtado to Skrillex.Nelly Furtado performs at the Portola Music Festival on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023.Charles Russo/SFGATEAdvertisementArticle continues below this adThe biggest issues of last year — warehouse stage access and sound issues — were well addressed. Cell service was still spotty but serviceable, and food and bathroom lines were some of the shortest I’ve seen at a festival. Still, it seemed like many experiential elements of the event, like art and seating, were afterthoughts, making it feel like a great big concert rather than a proper festival. For such an established brand, whiffing on softballs like putting out benches or a few murals is a perplexing oversight, but given the quality of the acts, most festivalgoers seemed to be willing to forgive the lack of creature comforts and aesthetic attention of a more art-forward festival like Outside Lands. Here are the highlights and lowlights from the three SFGATE reporters who attended the two-day event.Festivalgoers watch Skrillex perform at the Portola Music Festival at Pier 80 in San Francisco on Oct. 1, 2023.Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATESkrillex burned down the house, rebuilt it and burned it down againAdvertisementArticle continues below this adFestivalgoers dance to Basement Jaxx at the Crane Stage at the Portola Music Festival at Pier 80 in San Francisco on Oct 1, 2023.Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATEIt was about time that somebody played some dubstep. Nobody’s drops jackhammer like Skrillex’s, and he proved it again and again for each of the 90 minutes of his headlining Sunday night set. He doled out something for everyone, switching back and forth between his newer work and early-aughts hits. The transition from “Chicken Soup” to “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites” made my eyes roll back in my skull. — Timothy KaroffR.Cups cut festival wasteNext to the trash and recycling cans was another bin exclusively for reusable mugs called r.Cups. Using recycled plastic, the hardened cups were served with cocktails at the concession stands. The company retrieves the loaded bins after the fest, sanitizes the cups and repeats the process at the next event. It’s an attempt to mitigate excess use, and AEG Presents, which owns Portola’s promoter, Goldenvoice, has started contracting with r.Cups around the country. — Silas ValentinoAdvertisementArticle continues below this adLittle Simz performs on the Pier Stage at the Portola Music Festival at Pier 80 in San Francisco on Oct. 1, 2023.Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATELittle Simz proved her greatnessHalfway through her set, Little Simz proclaimed that she knew that she was great; she then clarified that wasn’t out of arrogance but rather confidence. And boy did she have it, flexing through a history book’s worth of hip-hop styles, with beats that effortlessly evolved from playful Avalanches B-sides to skittish trap bangers. She closed with a neo-soul set of songs flanked by a pair of hot-shot musicians, even picking up a guitar herself at one point. All that, plus “Gorilla” featuring the best a cappella verse I’ve heard outside of a Freddie Gibbs show, made for my favorite performance of Sunday. — Dan GentileKarl Hyde of Underworld performs on the Crane Stage at the Portola Music Festival on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023.Charles Russo/SFGATEAdvertisementArticle continues below this adThe timetable was rock-solidAt stand-alone concerts, it’s standard practice for sets to start 15, 30 or even 60 minutes late. But Portola operated like a Swiss watch. Cobrah showed up for her 8 p.m. set at 8 p.m. sharp. Underworld played from 9:55 p.m. to 10:55 p.m., just as promised. The reliable timetable made bouncing from stage to stage easy to plan. — Timothy KaroffRina Sawayama performs at the Portola Music Festival at Pier 80 in San Francisco on Oct. 1, 2023.Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATERina Sawayama pulled out all the stopsAdvertisementArticle continues below this adThe cyberpop star’s set was a “performance” in the best sense of the word. Sawayama and her perfectly choreographed backup dancers looked like the friend group that you wished you were cool enough to join in high school. With at least three outfit changes, props, carefully rehearsed banter and a live band, Sawayama proved that a festival set can be as much about theater as about music. — Timothy KaroffFestivalgoers arrive at the Portola Music Festival at Pier 80 in San Francisco on Oct. 1, 2023.Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATESpeedy navigation between stagesAt a festival like Outside Lands or Hardly Strictly, the time it takes to travel between stages means you’ll inevitably miss one of your favorite artists due to a scheduling conflict. But at Portola, the stages were so close, and without any bottlenecks, that it was actually possible to see every artist on the bill if you were willing to put in your steps. It reminded me of the VIP superpower of an Outside Lands golf cart and made the $380 weekend pass feel like a much better value. — Dan GentileAdvertisementArticle continues below this adYoung Fathers slay the afternoonThe Scottish trio Young Fathers appeared on the main stage in the middle of the afternoon Saturday and launched into “Queen Is Dead” from an early EP released in 2013. Over pummeling percussion, they howled “The Queen is d-d-d-d-dead” into three microphones propped up on center stage. Rich melodies poured from an electronic keyboard while cymbals crashed in a cadence of audio fireworks. Friends since they were teenagers, Kayus Bankole, Graham “G” Hastings and Alloysious Massaquoi share a kinship akin to brothers and funnel their camaraderie into distorted electropop. They provided a refreshingly human voice to a day stacked with lyricless performances. — Silas ValentinoThe San Francisco downtown skyline visible from the Portola Music Festival at Pier 80 in San Francisco on Oct. 1, 2023.Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATEAdvertisementArticle continues below this adNo seats to be foundA lack of seating may seem an odd complaint for a dance music festival, but after a few hours traversing a 60-acre concrete pier, you’re going to need a place to relax, a “chill out room” if you will. Aside from a couple of tables near the food vendors, there was almost nowhere to sit. I know the raw, industrial nature of the site is part of the appeal, but Goldenvoice could put out a few benches or, at the very least, bring back last year’s blue AstroTurf. — Dan GentileModel/Actriz kicks off the day as the first performance at the Portola Music Festival on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023.Charles Russo/SFGATEModel/Actriz couldn’t match the hypeAdvertisementArticle continues below this adThe buzzy Brooklynites Model/Actriz had a hard hill to climb. As the first band to perform on the main stage Saturday in the early afternoon, it was difficult to deliver its brooding, industrial music to a listless crowd. “Some of you look like you needed more sleep,” singer Cole Haden scolded before continuing to rummage through Trent Reznor’s dirty laundry for any unexploited, jet-black charisma. The band’s debut album, “Dogsbody,” released earlier this year, sounds promising, but it’s a long road from the studio to the stage. — Silas ValentinoThe Brilliant Sticker Show and Rave Flyers provided an oasis of art in an otherwise gray landscape at the Portola Music Festival.Dan Gentile / SFGATEBrilliant flyers and missing artMany festivals these days bill themselves as “music and art festivals.” Portola is not one of them. There’s almost nothing to look at on the grounds except concrete, cranes and ships. Is it that hard to set aside $10,000 and pay 10 local artists to make something cool for people to look at while they walk around all day? The one exception was the Brilliant Sticker Show, a gallery exhibit hidden in an easy-to-miss site that collected sticker art from the likes of Shepard Fairey, plus vintage rave posters from around the globe, including many classic San Francisco events. It was a perfect homage to DJ culture and served as a colorful…

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