Portola music fest plans to be quieter
To address noise complaints from the first two years of the Portola Music Festival, organizers are proactively seeking feedback from Bay Area residents on how to lessen the expected disturbance from this year’s concert.
Goldenvoice, the promoter behind the two-day outdoor event, has distributed a letter to Alameda residents and city officials announcing plans to host the electronic music festival at Pier 80 in San Francisco for the third consecutive year. The festival is scheduled for Sept. 2829, with outdoor performances from 1 to 11 p.m. each day. Sound checks are planned sporadically Sept. 25-27.
The promoter, also known for producing the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the Stagecoach country music festival in Southern California, initially drew complaints in 2022 for excessive noise levels across San Francisco and the East Bay. Organizers apologized to Bay Area residents, admitting their inexperience in managing sound travel across the region.
Despite attempts to address the issue, Alameda city officials reported no improvement in 2023 and criticized the “significant noise impacts” caused by the waterside festival. They petitioned San Francisco’s Entertainment Commission to pull the plug on the annual event or move it elsewhere.
In response to the complaint, Maggie Weiland, executive director of the San Francisco Entertainment Commission, emphasized the festival’s economic benefits to the city.
This year, Goldenvoice has again pledged to improve the situation.
“We are committed to making this event even better than last year for not only the patrons but the neighborhood and the city as a whole,” the promoter wrote in its letter. “Understanding that sound was a factor that had an impact on the community, we will continue focusing a significant amount of energy and resources in creating better solutions this year.”
Some of the measures Goldenvoice plans to take include ending all outdoor music by 10:45 p.m. on Sundays, reducing
volume and bass levels, making programmatic adjustments, altering stage placement, conducting pre-festival sound checks, monitoring audio levels strategically, and setting up a community hotline for real-time sound adjustments during the event.
“We welcome and encourage feedback from the community as it helps us understand the positive and negative impacts from last year, which will allow us to continue doing what worked and develop solutions for what didn’t,” Goldenvoice stated in its letter, which shared the email address info.portola@goldenvoice.com for airing concerns. Situated on Pier 80, San Francisco’s primary cargo terminal sprawls more than 60 acres with performances hosted in tents labeled as the Ship Tent and Crane Tent, as well as a vast 400,000-square-foot warehouse about 5 miles away from Alameda. Last year’s festival included performances by pop star Nelly Furtado, dubstep producer Skrillex and English electronic duo Underworld, among others.
The lineup for the 2024 edition of the festival has not yet been announced.
The permit application for this year’s event were to be reviewed by the San Francisco Entertainment Commission on Tuesday, April 16.