Eight tiers, every one sold out
Portola Music Festival ran Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September 2026 at Pier 80 in San Francisco. The organiser's home page carries a post-event thanks line, and its past-lineups page lists 2022 through 2026, so the edition just closed was the fifth.
The pass page carried eight tiers and every tier read Sold Out. Saturday general admission was $269.95 and Sunday general admission was $299.50. Two-day general admission was $399.95. Saturday VIP and Sunday VIP were $459.95 each. Two-day VIP was $779.50. Two four-packs were priced per pass at $399.95 and $699.95.
The order terms on the same page read "Upfront Pricing: No Added Fees" and "No difference in tiers other than price". The organiser ran a payment plan: $49.99 down, then equal biweekly payments through July 31, 2026, with a $4 fee per installment on orders over $100.
Ten hours a day, one 1 p.m. gate
The FAQ states "Venue doors will open at 1 pm PT each day. Curfew will be 11 pm PT." Ten hours each day, twenty across the weekend. Both days were 21-plus and entry required a physical government-issued photo ID. Re-entry was not allowed. The floor was cashless.
The free Portola shuttle ran a loop between Pier 80 and the 24th St. Mission BART Station from 12:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. That window opened 30 minutes before the 1 p.m. gate and closed 30 minutes after the 11 p.m. curfew. The organiser states "THERE IS NO FESTIVAL PARKING AVAILABLE AT PIER 80." Rideshare drop-off and pick-up sat at Pier 70. Muni's T Third line stops at Third and Marin, one block from the pier.
The pier is a working cargo terminal
The Port of San Francisco publishes the terminal at Pier 80 as a working facility. Its cargo page lists the Pier 80 Break-Bulk Terminal at Cesar Chavez and Maryland Street at 69 acres, with three 40-foot berths totalling 2,700 feet, Shed A at 224,000 square feet and Shed D at 170,000 square feet. The same page states that the Auto-Processing Terminal at Pier 80 operates under Pasha Automotive Services and handles vehicle imports, exports and processing.
The festival's own FAQ states "The Festival will take place INDOORS and OUTDOORS at Pier 80." The two sheds are the indoor space.
The hotel partner publishes its terms
The festival's plan page names W San Francisco as the Official Hotel Partner. The block was headed "Shack Up Near the Pier" and linked a Portola Festival Rooms Package. That link resolved to a Marriott event-reservation page for the property.
The package page lists VIP access to Brunch, Bites & Beats presented by Ninja Tune, hosted cocktails by NEFT Vodka, local experiences from San Franpsycho, a curated welcome gift, optional round-trip transportation to Pier 80, and 2 p.m. late checkout. The same page carried the booking terms. A credit card reserves the room. "You may cancel your reservation for no charge before 11:59 PM local hotel time on September 22, 2026 (3 day[s] before arrival)." The exclusion line reads "Portola Music Festival Passes are not included." No room rate appeared on the page.
The citywide rate record
Engine publishes a San Francisco citywide average of $165 a night across 3.1 million public rate observations from May 2024 to April 2026. September reads $192 on the same page, 16 percent above the city average. The page states that these are par rates, the cheapest publicly available price at the time of each search, and that its observations are taken 10 to 180 days before check-in. The page states that it carries no per-property figure.
The position
The sold-out ladder priced the pier. A festival whose published approach was a shuttle loop and one Muni line cleared all eight tiers, two four-packs included, against a gate that opened at 1 p.m. and a curfew at 11 p.m.
Three published times carry the hotel side of that record. The 12:30 p.m. shuttle start and the 11:30 p.m. shuttle end bracketed the guest's day at both ends. The partner package's cancellation line fell on 22 September, three days before arrival and four days before the first gate.
The last mile decided the booking. A property on the 24th St. Mission BART loop or on the T Third line sat on the two published routes, and those two routes carried a Portola ticket holder to and from the gate. A guest attending both days slept the Saturday night between them. The 11 p.m. Sunday curfew and the 11:30 p.m. shuttle end left the Sunday night open for a Monday departure. The Saturday night was the floor for a single Saturday ticket.
The festival publishes no attendance figure and no capacity figure on any page read. The organiser's own FAQ line is that some areas will have limited capacities.
Two published numbers frame the rate conversation. Engine's September figure of $192 against a $165 city average is the market line the weekend sat on. The 22 September free-cancellation cut-off is the date the partner chose.