City officials in Alameda, California have issued a request to discontinue Portola Music Festival, one week on from its second edition.
In a post on Facebook last week, Alameda’s local government declared that the 2023 edition of the two-day, San Francisco-based festival—which just wrapped up on October 1—caused “significant noise impacts to Alameda residents.”
The post goes on to say that the noise impacts from Portola 2023 happened “despite changes made by the operator to try to address the noise impacts experienced last year.”
The City of Alameda has now issued a formal request to the San Francisco Entertainment Commission asking that they discontinue Portola in 2024, or “move it to an alternative venue that ensures Alameda residents will not be impacted.”
Both editions of Portola have taken place at Pier 80, a bayside, 60-acre site on the East side of San Francisco, roughly four and a half miles across the bay from Alameda. This year, the event finished at 11PM each night.
Ahead of this year’s event and in light of noise complaints from last year, Alameda police encouraged community members affected by the noise to contact a designated community hotline, adding that Portola’s organizers were working to “mitigate the sound,” but that Alameda residents “still may hear bass from across the bay.”
In the formal complaint from last week, locals have been encouraged to share their concerns by contacting the San Francisco Entertainment Commission directly.
In response, Bay Area music fans are coming together to prevent Portola from being discontinued, urging one another to email the commission in support of the event.
“If you had a great time at Portola 2023 and would like the SF Entertainment Commission to approve Portola 2024 in spite of Alameda noise complaints, you can email the SF Entertainment Commission directly,” one Reddit user posted to the Portola Subreddit.
Portola Music Festival welcomed high-profile acts like Skrillex, Eric Prydz presents HOLO, Chris Lake B2B Armand Van Helden, and more this year.
Featured image from Portola Music Festival.
