5 Best Moments at Portola 2025, Christina Aguilera & Beyond

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It was an embarrassment of riches astatine Portola 2025, with a head-spinning lineup that was bursting astatine the seams with legends, indispensable acts of the infinitesimal and a full batch of rising stars. The upwind much than cooperated, with sunshine and lukewarm winds blowing disconnected San Francisco Bay and onto the astir 40,000 radical gathered for each of the event’s 2 days.

This twelvemonth marked the 4th variation of the event, which much oregon little adopted an if-it’s-not-broke-don’t-fix-it ethos by keeping astir each signifier successful the aforesaid presumption arsenic years past. The lone large disposable changes were an expanded ultra-VIP viewing country astatine the main signifier and much lights and speakers successful the festival’s monolithic warehouse space, which, contempt being built astir wholly from metal, offered a pristine dependable experience.

The Warehouse hosted immoderate of the champion sets of the weekend, with Chris Stussy delivering blase yet unpretentious techno for the Sunday evening assemblage and Japanese phenom Yousuke Yukimatsu playing an inventive acceptable connected Saturday nighttime (and spotted taking photos with fans successful the assemblage aboriginal that evening).

Meanwhile, unstoppable Dutch prima Mau P drew a monolithic assemblage to the main signifier connected Saturday, and Dom Dolla did the aforesaid the nighttime after, with the assemblage and the shaper alike seeming to instrumentality peculiar pleasance erstwhile helium dropped 2019’s “San Frandisco.” Peggy Gou closed retired the play during a packed acceptable successful the warehouse, darkwave duo Boy Harsher cemented their prima presumption with an electrical Sunday nighttime show, The Prodigy thrilled a mega-packed assemblage with their signature marque of hard-edged rave euphony and Hamdi lit up the Ship Tent (so named due to the fact that it’s virtually successful beforehand of a elephantine ship) during a hyphy golden-hour acceptable that featured hits similar his Skrillex collab “Push.”

Toward the extremity of the weekend, Moby summed it each up erstwhile helium told the assemblage that “in my bosom of hearts, I americium inactive a small rave kid, and immoderate of the astir joyful, transcendent moments of my beingness person been astatine experiences similar this, surrounded by tens of thousands of people, everyone happy, everybody celebrating this benignant of collectively created utopia, truthful I would similar to dedicate this adjacent opus to everyone present who creates utopia for everyone else.”

To wit, successful a play of overmuch joyousness and galore highlights, these are 5 of of the standout moments from the Sept. 20-21 festival.