Alameda seeks to unplug San Francisco's Portola Music Festival over noise complaints

The Portola Music Festival in San Francisco, a two-day electronic music event held on the city's waterfront last weekend, has struck another sour note with the city of Alameda, which is now looking to have discontinued because of the noise thumping across the bay.

The festival was held at Pier 80 last Saturday and Sunday, with set times lasting until 11 p.m. on both nights. The site is about five miles from Alameda neighborhoods and about three-and-a-half miles from the western tip of Alameda Island.

On Wednesday, a social media post from the City of Alameda said the festival "caused significant noise impacts to Alameda residents again this year" and that the city would be formally requesting the event be discontinued next year or moved to another location that doesn't impact Alameda residents.

The post also urged Alameda residents to make their concerns about the festival known by emailing San Francisco's Entertainment Commission directly. 

The Portola Festival, which this year featured acts like Nelly Furtado, Dom Dolla and Skrillex, received a number of noise and crowd control complaints last year for the festival's debut, but organizers said it was a learning experience. Organizers said this year the sound would be monitored and changes enacted to mitigate the problem.

Days before the festival, both the City of Alameda and the Alameda Police Department posted identical social media posts alerting residents about the noise concerns and that event organizers had adjusted stage and speaker configurations along with hiring a sound monitoring consulting group. The post also included a link where people could purchase tickets to the event.

Subsequent posts also provided a hotline for residents to call with noise complaints. Among the comments on the posts: 

"... it has sounded like someone is jackhammering my walls with bass."

"Tonight it was at least as loud as last year ..."

"our walls were vibrating. I can't imagine how loud it was if you were actually there"

"It's horrible out here on Alameda Point!"

The Alameda Post reported the city's police department was overwhelmed by complaints of noise during last year's festival and noise complaints flooded social media. The fallout from last year's event prompted organizers to send a letter to residents apologizing for the noise and acknowledging that organizers didn't properly anticipate how sound travels across unobstructed bodies of water and could affect areas outside of San Francisco, the Alameda Post reported.

When asked for comment, the San Francisco Entertainment Commission's Executive Director Maggie Weiland issued the following statement:

"The San Francisco Entertainment Commission takes the City of Alameda's and their residents' concerns seriously regarding the sound impacts from Portola Music Festival.  We hope to hear more about the City of Alameda's concerns when we meet with city officials next week and discuss how the festival can continue to improve should Goldenvoice choose to bring the festival back next year.  We want to be good neighbors with Alameda, and I know that Goldenvoice wants the same thing.  Major destination music festivals like Portola are an important part of what makes the SF Bay Area a world-class cultural and entertainment capital. Our region benefits from these major events in terms of economic impact and quality of life – they draw huge numbers of locals and tourists with spending power and create joyful experiences. We will continue to share the City of Alameda's feedback and public comments with our seven-member commission."

The Portola Festival organizers have not yet responded to a CBS News San Francisco request Friday morning for a reaction to the City of Alameda's request to pull the plug on the festival.

In:
• Alameda
• San Francisco