Portola
- Dates
- Expected September
- Status
- Confirmed
- Venue
- Pier 80
- Price
- $269 to $399Payment plan available
- Camping
- None on site
- Last checked
- Aug 23, 2026
Portola comes to Pier 80, San Francisco, CA, Expected September, with Dog Blood, Four Tet, Robyn, plus 3 more. Froligo tracks the confirmed lineup, current ticket prices, attendee feedback and travel details.
The experience
What's special
Portola is Goldenvoice's electronic-leaning festival staged on the industrial waterfront of Pier 80 in San Francisco, mixing house, techno and nostalgic dance acts with indie and pop across roughly four stages plus Despacio, the roving audiophile club tent. Set among the site's cranes, ships and a cavernous warehouse, it trades the desert-and-grass template of its Coachella siblings for raw concrete and metal. The draw is a sharply curated dance-music lineup in a distinctive, unglamorous urban setting
What people love
Attendees single out the lineup curation and the Despacio tent as highlights, and note that the sprawling 60-acre pier rarely feels crowded, with recent editions praised for smooth entry, manageable lines and plentiful bathrooms. The most persistent complaints are inconsistent sound at the warehouse and pier stages, where thin metal walls scatter the bass, and a flat industrial setting short on greenery, art and shade. Recurring ticketing and presale problems are a further sore point
Last time around (2025)
The 2025 edition, Portola's fourth, returned to Pier 80 under sunny, mild skies, with attendees noting markedly smoother logistics -- easy entry, manageable lines and plentiful bathrooms -- and standout sets from Christina Aguilera, Underworld and The Chemical Brothers. Sound remained uneven, praised at the Ship and Crane stages but still muddy in the Warehouse and at the Pier stage. A bungled presale and a later discount code left some early buyers feeling shortchanged, and a minority reported pushing crowds and even muggings, though the overall reception was positive
Listen
Tap an artist to play them right here.
No official playlist linked yet. Find Portola on Spotify.
Lineup
Getting there
How do I get to Portola?
By car
Most people drive to Portola. Check current road and traffic conditions before you set off, and see parking below.
By train
No direct passenger rail to the venue was found. Drive, fly in, or use a shuttle instead.
By bus & public transit
From SFO, BART runs direct to San Francisco. For the venue-specific last mile: Portola runs a free shuttle from 24th St Mission BART Station to Pier 80 (confirmed on the official Caltrain guide page for the festival). Caltrain riders should use 22nd Street Station (not ADA accessible use San Francisco 4th & King Station for accessibility) and walk east on 22nd St, south on 3rd St, then east on Cesar Chavez St to Pier 80
Book / info →The T Third line runs from Union Square/Market St. Station (or Chinatown/Yerba Buena-Moscone) to Third/Marin, two blocks from the Pier 80 entrance. SFMTA keeps those downtown stations open late (until 1am) on festival nights and stages extra T Third trains downtown from 9pm-12:30am for the exit crowd. Muni routes 48, 19, and 15 also stop within a 10-minute walk
Book / info →Taxi & rideshare
Rideshare pickup/drop-off for Portola is a few blocks from the entrance at 23rd and Illinois Streets a designated zone, not curbside at the gate. Waymo robotaxis cannot reach this pickup location per official reporting
Book / info →Taxis and rideshare such as Uber and Lyft can be limited near the venue, especially late at night or in rural areas. Agree a pickup point and time in advance and keep a backup plan.
🅿 Parking
No festival parking exists at Pier 80 and the festival explicitly tells attendees not to drive. SFMTA's official page for the venue's neighborhood echoes this: parking will be extremely limited during the event, with enforcement focused on not blocking multi-unit-building driveways. Rideshare (Uber/Lyft only, not Waymo) picks up at a designated zone several blocks away (23rd & Illinois St), not at the gate. The official 2026 festival page notes full BART/Muni/Caltrain/bike/rideshare details are still pending closer to the Sep 26-27, 2026 dates this draft uses the confirmed 2025-cycle pattern (same venue) plus what's already published for 2026, and should be re-checked once Portola's 2026 transportation page is filled in
🚙 Car hire
Compare car hire
Festival explicitly discourages driving to the venue and offers no on-site parking car hire is not the practical option for this event; useful only for attendees combining the festival with wider Bay Area/California travel
Search car hire →Live price search coming soon.
Where
Venue
The venue has its own page with capacity, accessibility and parking.
Camping & Accommodation
Where can I stay near Portola?
No on site camping. Here is where to stay nearby.
Hotels nearby 5
Within a few minutes of Caltrain's 22nd St Station walking route to Pier 80
Link coming soonShort Muni/T Third ride to Pier 80
Link coming soonDirect T Third access to Pier 80 from this station per SFMTA's official festival transit page
Link coming soonClose to the Caltrain 22nd St Station walking route to Pier 80
Link coming soonShort Muni/rideshare distance to Pier 80
Link coming soonAirbnb & private camping
Late September in San Francisco coincides with a major citywide 2-day festival at a fixed downtown-adjacent venue
Search Airbnb →21+ two-day urban waterfront festival with no camping component and no nearby rural land
Search Hipcamp →Accessibility & comfort
What the organiser or venue publishes about getting around, and what they do not.
Portola publishes a full accessibility page at portolamusicfestival.com/ada, run by Goldenvoice. On terrain, the organiser states the event is held on primarily cement terrain at Pier 80 in San Francisco and that the venue is navigable for people with mobility disabilities, but there is no transport between stages, so you cross the site independently or with a companion.
Read the full notes
Wheelchairs, scooters, crutches, walkers and canes are permitted, and no mobility devices are rented onsite. Motorised mobility devices and medical equipment can be recharged at an Accessibility Services Hub or at the Pier and Crane stage accessible viewing areas, using your own cords, on a 110 volt 20 amp circuit.
On parking, the organiser says there is no designated festival parking at all for this event and strongly advises a rideshare service or a drop off and pick up; the rideshare and loading zone details and any offsite accessible shuttles are both listed as to be updated 30 days before the event, so recheck close to the date.
There is a designated accessible entry lane at the festival entrance. Accessible viewing areas are provided at designated stages for a guest and one companion, first come first served, with no spot saving and a one hour absence rule.
Access is managed through two Accessibility Services Hubs, one outside next to the Box Office before the scan lanes and one inside the venue, where you collect an accessibility wristband and register a service animal. There is no accessibility pre registration and no accessibility ticket to buy; one companion wristband is issued per guest with a disability.
All concessions are accessible and there is a central medical site. Service animals are permitted but must be credentialed at a Hub; emotional support and therapy animals are not allowed. Access contact is [email protected]
American Sign Language interpreters can be available for select performances on request. Closed captioning, braille or large font print, guided tours and other forms of effective communication can also be provided on request.
Read the full notes
Requests must be emailed at least 30 days before the event using the Effective Communication Request Form, and the organiser gives a deadline of 27 August 2026 for the 2026 festival. Check in at an Accessibility Services Hub onsite to be connected with the interpreting team.
Assisted Listening Device systems are available; contact [email protected] or ask at a Hub
Confirm your specific needs with the organiser's access team before you travel.
Checked 2026-09-03 · source
Pricing
Price history and tiers
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