In its third year, AEG Presents’ Danny Bell discusses the success of Portola Lineup festival | Entertainment

Since first beginning Portola on the edge of the water on Pier 80 in the San Francisco Bay, Danny Bell at AEG Presents had a robust premonition for what the festival may turn out to be. The VP of Talent Buying ran quite a few dance music occasions in the Bay Area (together with Porter Robinson’s Second Sky festival), however Portola was his crown jewel. Now getting into its third 12 months this weekend on Sept. 28 and 29, Bell has outdone himself and curated a near-perfect lineup for dance music fans.

The lineup boasts performances from Justice, Bicep, Jamie xx, Gesaffelstein, Disclosure, Soulwax, Rüfüs Du Sol, Barry Can’t Swim and numerous others. Among followers and members of the music business alike, the major challenge they face heading into the festival is managing the set conflicts.

In earlier conversations with Pollstar, Bell has emphasised his use of comfy footwear to run from stage to stage, his goal to catch at the very least slightly bit of each efficiency. This 12 months, Bell received’t be the just one operating between phases, with Four Tet and Gesaffelstein conflicting between the Crane Stage and Warehouse, Jamie xx conflicting with Natasha Bedingfield, Bicep conflicting with Soulwax and Rüfüs Du Sol – and that’s all on the first day.

“The festival site is not that big and it’s very easy to navigate,” Bell says. “So keep moving and go see as much as you can. The most fun festival days I’ve ever had are the ones where I’ve seen 20 artists in a day. You see 20 or 30 minutes of each set when the vibe is right, or you catch a magic moment and just stay. But the good news is there are no wrong choices, so just keep moving and have fun.”

Bell says the timing of this 12 months lined up completely, with so many influential dance artists simply taking place to be on tour at the similar time. Justice, Gesaffelstein and Jamie xx all launched new albums this 12 months, and Portola, getting into its third 12 months, now has sufficient of a popularity to turn out to be a must-attend occasion for a lot of in the business. “It’s just one of those years where things clicked,” Bell says. “Everything fell into place.”

Bell is worked up about the whole lot. From the new manufacturing rig, lighting, LED wall, air-con, lavatory, to the lineup. Some of the artists he’s been working with for years, and he’s trying ahead to seeing their latest reveals.

“Gesaffelstein, I’ve been working with since he first came over when I was at HARD,” Bell says. “He’s a special artist. He makes this amazing, dark, and passionate music. The live show he put together and debuted at Coachalla is stellar, so it’s really exciting to have him come and close the newly-designed Crane Stage on Saturday.”

Rüfüs Du Sol went to Portola final 12 months, and Bell requested in the event that they wished to play the occasion in 2024. They determined to solely play Portola on this aspect of the 12 months, as the group is getting ready to move out in help of their newest album, Inhale/Exhale, due for launch on Oct. 11.

To have Justice acting at this 12 months’s festival additionally means an incredible quantity to Bell, who grew to become a fan of digital music as a result of of them.

“My love for this genre started right in 2007/2008, that’s right when they were putting together their first light show,” Bell says. “The way they’ve developed and evolved their live show over the last 15, 16 years is phenomenal. And their current live show is beautiful. It’s a spectacle.”

Bell shares his final purpose for the lineup was to make the whole lot match collectively, the place every stage would have a special vibe however may simply circulation from one to the subsequent. He emphasised he doesn’t need followers of one style to remain solely at one stage the complete day, and that individuals ought to transfer round to expertise all the festival has to supply.

“Every year you try to do better than you did the previous year,” Bell says. This 12 months, we made just a few stage enhancements. We discovered from final 12 months we’re hypercritical of ourselves. We’ve added a VIP space in the warehouse, we’ve modified the location of the VIP space at the Crane Stage. We’ve expanded it and really have it merged with a brand new VIP viewing space by the Ship Tent.”