As the 2025 festival season unfolds across California’s vibrant music landscape, we reconnected with Danny Bell, Senior Vice President at Goldenvoice and the visionary founder behind Portola Music Festival. Bell provides a rare glimpse into the complex planning process that underpins this year’s highly anticipated event, while sharing his evolving perspective on the future of experiential music gatherings.
Since our last conversation with Bell, Goldenvoice has continued to distinguish itself in the competitive festival market. Under his direction, Portola has earned acclaim for its meticulously curated lineups and implementation of boundary-pushing technologies that elevate the traditional concert experience. The 2025 edition promises to further this legacy, introducing carefully crafted elements designed to stay one step ahead of shifting audience expectations and emerging industry paradigms.
The following conversation offers insights directly from one of the key architects behind California’s premier music festival experiences.
What approach did you take to curate this year’s lineup?
With this year as the fourth year, we’ve decided to take a route where you can see some of the hottest up-and-coming dance acts across various spaces, as well as the pioneers who inspired them from the very beginning. It’s a celebration of the past, present, and future, all in one; although I hate saying “past”. These are the best and most influential acts ever in dance music.
Pioneers such as Underworld, The Prodigy, and The Chemical Brothers (who are returning with a DJ set in a warehouse setting), along with LCD Soundsystem and Moby (performing live), are foundational electronic music artists, and all of them represented in one show is something really special.
Moby hasn’t played live in San Francisco in over a decade. He did an amazing arena tour last year in Europe, celebrating the 25th anniversary of PLAY. I watched that show, and I was blown away by how amazing and musically immersive it was. I can’t wait for him to bring that energy and level of production to San Francisco.
We also have some of the best newcomers in the scene on the bill, such as Brutalismus 3000, coming out of Berlin. Chris Stussy, who is growing at a rapid pace and is the DJ of the moment. Artists like Propsa, Kettama, Kumo 99, and The Dare. Mau P is also exploding and putting out killer track after track. This lineup is unique because it celebrates breakout artists and the artists that inspired them all in one show.
What activities, experiences and amenities will be at Portola this year? Anything new?
Music is our biggest priority, followed by making people comfortable. We want people to be able to eat, drink, and have a place to sit while taking in the surroundings. This year, we are working to expand the food and beverage footprint, and we have plans to partner with a few higher-end local restaurants on-site. Stay tuned for more announcements.
Despacio is coming for the first time to San Francisco at Portola. It’s amazing how many fans have been requesting it, so we finally made it a reality. For those that don’t know, it’s a unique analog sound system that was designed by the Dewaele Brothers (from 2manydjs and Soulwax) and James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, in partnership with Macintosh. It features seven massive speaker stacks arranged in a circle inside a tent, delivering their ideal club sound and environment. The Dewaele Brothers and James Murphy will perform exclusively on vinyl for eight hours per day, with people coming and going as they please. It’s very cool that we’re able to host it at Portola for the first time in the city. That is what makes the job extra fun for me. I get to make sure that we’re providing great artists the proper canvas to produce and play off their show, while bringing new experiences to fans.
What advice would you give to a first-time Portola attendee?
If you don’t live in San Francisco, bring a sweatshirt! If you live in SF, wear what you wear every day. SF’s weather is great if you like wearing a jacket (and I love jackets), but be prepared if you don’t. Come ready to have a good time and wear comfortable shoes. It’s a beautiful setting, but keep in mind that the festival is located on an asphalt pier. Also, come early! We have some phenomenal artists opening the festival, including Loukeman, 1TBSP, Marie-Davidson, Shee, Nick Leòn, and DJ Gigola. Followed by great music, all day long!
What’s the vision for Portola next year and beyond?
I’m already deep into plotting and having discussions with great artists’ teams about future lineup opportunities. My goal is to continue booking exciting lineups that lean into the past, present, and future of dance music. I want to create a shared weekend experience that friends and strangers from around the world will remember forever. For me, it’s about sticking to the ethos, the core of music first, and the curation. There are a lot of exciting artists who would like to play the festival, and other acts that I have my eyes on, and I’ll travel around the world to attempt to convince them to play at the festival.
I’m also toying with the idea of how to expand Portola Week. I like how we’ve been able to create a program where you can find the party at any moment of the day and create special moments outside of the festival, encouraging people to make a trip to San Francisco. This year, I’m working on getting artists who aren’t playing at the festival to join the party. We’re looking to use Portola Week as an opportunity to expand the festival and collaborate with artists we’d love to include in our programming, pushing the bar higher each year.
Thanks Danny. Thanks for your time and touching base to discuss the ever-evolving, growing Portola Music Festival. Can’t wait to get out to Pier 80; with our jackets at the ready. :-)