Another weekend of Portola at Pier 80 dissolved into a blur of music, movement, lights and more steps than any of us needed to take. Daphni delivered, Kelela slayed, Soulwax put on a clinic, and Jyoty brought so much bass that the Ship Tent briefly became a subwoofer.
But five years in, it’s clear that the soul of the electronic music festival is Despacio, a dancer’s haven of a sound system designed by LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy and David and Stephan Dewaele of Soulwax. The focus of the dark dome is a magnificent disco ball at the center of the checked dancefloor, which is surrounded by seven, 11-foot speakers powered by 60,000 watts of McIntosh amps. The DJ, spinning only vinyl, is tucked away in a small booth to the side, so revelers are fully immersed in the experience of their bodies giving themselves over to the exquisite sound.
Despacio’s popularity at the festival can possibly be attributed to the fact that it also happens to be the warmest place a person can be once the fog rolls in, but the truth is that once you step into the blanket of darkness, it feels like you’ve landed in the purest expression of the ethos of dance music culture. The music never gets faster than 120 bpm (despacio does mean slow in Spanish after all), which might be why it feels like the experience taps into the very biological need for humans to move their bodies to a rhythm. There’s none of the self-consciousness of today’s everything-is-filmed culture where someone losing themselves to the music is at risk of becoming a circulating meme. There’s just pure dancing, overwhelming joy, and big whoops when the disco ball shimmers like a worshipped golden goddess. It’s an increasingly rare space where it’s truly just about the vibes, and honestly worth every Portola penny spent.
Yet even though heaven might be a place called Despacio, there was still a lot of magic to experience at the rest of Pier 80. Here are more of the KALW Music team highlights.
Eryka:
Portola shifted something deep in me, floating straight into a dimension that hasn't existed in a long time. Tiësto dropped a classic trance set that completely transcended the moment, playing those timeless tracks you just had to be present to truly feel. In that crowd, I was straight up Winnie the Pooh leaving my body, weightless and drifting into pure ease. Pure nostalgia, zero heavy thoughts, just light and vibration. ✨🍯 Floating above it all.
Charlotte K:
Kelela was a highlight because she was riding all genres. That felt fresh.
And I loved that Soulwax explained during their synthed-out performance that all their sounds were all analog, yet they had a feel of electronic and digital, but fresher and very human. It’s so important in an AI-saturated world.
Marcus Rosario:
Music has always been one of the biggest connectors between people who don’t speak the same language, and watching that idea come to life through the ASL interpreters during Four Tet’s closing set on Sunday night was one of the most mesmerizing moments of the weekend. Four Tet took everyone on a journey touching upon techno, breaks, dubstep and heavy bassline cuts that touched upon all eras of what modern dance music can sound like from its earliest forms to now. Through it all, the interpreters were right there translating every shift in sound. They’d switch roles every few songs: one would dance while simultaneously signing the drum notes, keyboard sounds, vocal phrases, and grand effects while the other watched Shazam on a tiny screen to catch any lyrics and relay them when needed. Then they’d switch and do it all over again for the entirety of the set. It was almost like watching a super-animated go-go dancer who only used their hands to dance, keeping the beat with their whole body.
If I had a dollar for every “Message failed to send” notification I got on my phone, it still wouldn’t have added up to what I spent on drinks. When your phone barely works and you’re forced to interact and wander the festival grounds on your own, you might actually end up experiencing Portola the way it was meant to be experienced. Jyoty, the London-based DJ, producer, and host who played the Ship Tent Saturday afternoon, sees Portola as a kind of gateway, praising its “really good curation” and the festival’s ability to introduce listeners to sounds beyond what they already know. As Jyoty put it, she hopes people walk away with “a newfound love for the groove” and a little more willingness to “be in the music and be in the moment.”
Five years in, Portola has certainly hit its stride and shown us that maybe that’s the point: put the phone away, get a little lost and see what finds you.