City of Alameda Issues Request to Discontinue Portola Music Festival

Residents of Alameda are looking to send San Francisco’s Portola Music Festival on its way due to noise complaints.

With its debut edition having taken place just last year, Portola is a newcomer to the Bay Area festival scene, but it has not found allies with nearby residents. The Pier 80-based event ends at 11pm local time, but Alameda neighborhoods situated roughly five miles from the festival grounds reported disruption throughout the day and into the early evening.

Now, a social media post shared by the City of Alameda has formally petitioned the San Francisco Entertainment Commission to take the decisive action to discontinue Portola going forward.

In anticipation of the festival this year, both the City of Alameda and the Alameda Police Department posted identical social media announcements, alerting residents about potential noise concerns and Portola organizers’ efforts to address them. However, it appears these measures were not sufficient as residents continued to report disturbances.

At the time of writing, neither Portola’s proprietors nor the San Francisco Entertainment Commission have addressed the City of Alameda’s request to discontinue the festival.