Portola Music Festival returns to San Francisco this September, bringing another stacked weekend of electronic music, left-field club sounds, live performances, and a few bookings you simply won't see at every other festival.

Taking over Pier 80 on September 26–27, 2026, Portola once again delivers a lineup built for serious music fans. Robyn and Swedish House Mafia lead the bill, with Tiësto, Zara Larsson, Fatboy Slim, Four Tet, Soulwax, Overmono, Mochakk, KETTAMA, Tove Lo, Parcels, Skepta and plenty more spread across the weekend.

With that much music packed into two days, conflicts are inevitable.

These are five acts we're making a priority at Portola 2026:

Dog Blood

If there's one set at Portola that carries true "you had to be there" potential, it's Dog Blood.

The collaborative project between Skrillex and Boys Noize returns to the stage at Portola for their first performance together in seven years. That alone makes this one of the weekend's most anticipated sets.

Dog Blood has always occupied a particularly chaotic corner of electronic music, smashing together electro, techno, breaks, bass, and whatever else Skrillex and Boys Noize decide belongs in the moment.

And that's exactly what makes this set so exciting.

Rather than knowing exactly what you're going to get, the appeal is not knowing at all. With two producers who have spent their careers pushing dance music in different directions, their reunion at Pier 80 has all the ingredients for one of Portola's defining moments.

Don't miss if you like: Skrillex, Boys Noize, electro, techno, bass music and controlled chaos.

Soulwax

There are DJ sets, and then there is Soulwax live.

David and Stephen Dewaele have spent decades blurring the boundaries between electronic music, rock, disco and club culture. But it's their live performances that turn that experimentation into something completely different.

Expect drums. Lots of them.

Soulwax performances have become legendary for their precision, intensity and ability to transform electronic productions into a full-scale live experience.

Portola has always felt like a festival built for artists who exist somewhere between the club and the concert stage, making Soulwax an almost perfect match for Pier 80.

If you've never experienced them live, change that this year.

Don't miss if you like: live electronic music, indie dance, electro, disco and ridiculous percussion.

Four Tet

At this point, Four Tet needs very little introduction.

Kieran Hebden has become one of electronic music's most unpredictable festival performers, capable of moving from delicate ambient passages into house, techno, garage, bass music and complete curveballs without ever losing the dancefloor.

That's the magic.

A Four Tet set can feel intimate one minute and absolutely massive the next. His ability to ignore traditional genre boundaries makes every performance feel different, and Portola's musically adventurous crowd should give him plenty of room to explore.

Don't spend too much time trying to predict what he'll play.

Don't miss if you like: house, UK garage, techno, experimental electronic music and DJs who refuse to stay in one lane.

Overmono

Few electronic acts have captured the feeling of modern UK club music quite like Overmono.

Brothers Tom and Ed Russell combine breakbeats, garage, techno, emotional vocal samples and enormous low-end into music that manages to feel nostalgic and futuristic at the same time.

Their tracks can hit hard, but there's an emotional weight underneath them that separates Overmono from a typical festival dance set.

That contrast is exactly why they're such a natural fit for Portola.

Pier 80's industrial surroundings have always been part of the festival's identity, and hearing Overmono's atmospheric, bass-heavy productions against that backdrop should be something special.

Don't miss if you like: UK garage, breaks, techno, bass and emotional club music.

DJ Shadow

This isn't just another DJ Shadow festival appearance.

The Bay Area legend comes to Portola celebrating the 30th anniversary of Endtroducing....., his landmark 1996 debut album and one of the most influential sample-based records in electronic music.

That gives this performance a little extra weight.

Portola regularly balances what's happening next in electronic music with artists who helped create the foundation underneath it. Watching a Northern California icon celebrate a defining record three decades later in San Francisco feels particularly fitting.

Between the history, hometown connection and opportunity to hear material from Endtroducing..... in a festival setting, this is the kind of set that's easy to overlook on a massive lineup and regret missing afterward.

Don't make that mistake.

Don't miss if you like: trip-hop, turntablism, breakbeats, instrumental hip-hop and electronic music history.

Picking only five artists from this lineup isn't easy, and that's kind of the point.

Beyond these sets, Portola 2026 brings Robyn, Swedish House Mafia, Tiësto, Fatboy Slim, KETTAMA, Mochakk, Daphni, Groove Armada, Kelela, SG Lewis, Marlon Hoffstadt, Prospa, Ninajirachi, VTSS and dozens more to Pier 80.

And then there's Despacio, the custom sound system created by James Murphy, John Klett and Soulwax's David and Stephen Dewaele, returning to Portola for another weekend of vinyl-fueled dancefloor bliss.

Our advice?

Build a schedule — and then be prepared to completely abandon it.

Some of the best festival memories happen when you wander into a stage with no expectations and leave with a new favorite artist.

Portola Music Festival 2026 takes place September 26–27 at Pier 80 in San Francisco. The festival is 21+.

Tickets available HERE