SAN FRANCISCO — Portola Festival offered up its annual display of freedom of love and expression and celebration of all things electronic at Pier 80 over the weekend. Music lovers crowded around four stages—rearranged as a result of numerous noise complaints filed in neighboring Alameda— while festival producers enhanced VIP offerings with improved viewing areas, lounges and table service.

French electronic music duo Justice performed to a massive crowd that rushed across the festival grounds to watch Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé’s set. A duo’s white lit cross illuminated the stage as it set upon material from 2007 album Cross. They kicked off with an extended mix of “Genesis” as light pulsed from between massive speakers. An arch-shaped lighting rig above alternated between showering Justice in streams of white light and erupting in colorful displays. Appropriately, the duo blended in “Let There Be Light.” They stayed deep in the groove for several minutes, playing with the mix of the two songs, which featured wobbly organ sounds and keys laden with heavy distortion.

Next, Justice took it back to 2006 with Simian collab “We Are Your Friends.” The fast-paced tempo slowed down momentarily before ramping back up, emphasizing bass drops and euphoric highs. Touching upon some of their Tame Impala collaborations, Justice performed “Neverender” and “One Night/All Night.”

An elaborate stage setup was in place for M.I.A.’s performance. The outspoken artist began with “Double Bubble Trouble,” from 2013 album Matangi. Flanked by two dancers, Maya Arulpragasam wore a gold mesh jumpsuit with a bright silver corset underneath and a bright red bob wig covered by a gold doo-rag. She was soon joined by more dancers in tight silver outfits for “Bad Girls.”

Full of bravado and rapping while keeping up with the choreography, M.I.A. was joined by the audience, which rapped along to the chorus: “Live fast, die young; bad girls do it well.”

“I had this wig before Nicki Minaj had this wig,” she announced. “I had this wig before Rihanna had this wig. I had this wig before Kamala Harris.” She then took off the doo-rag and defiantly shook out the red bob.

M.I.A. continued with “F.I.A.S.O.M., Pt. 2” and other songs from 2022’s MATA. She commanded the stage with the confidence of a seasoned performer, without the need for backing tracks.

For “Time Traveller,” she rapped from the top platform high above the stage.

“I wanted to come here and preach; that’s right!” she yelled before running through several more songs and then capping off the performance with “Paper Planes.”

“We are Disclosure, and it feels good to be back!” the U.K. duo of Howard and Guy Lawrence announced. “We love it here. We missed you guys! We wanna take it back to 2016, last time we were here.”

The duo then began with “When a Fire Starts to Burn.” The brothers Lawrence kept the uptempo vibes going, moving right into Gregory Porter collaboration “Holding On.” Guy manned the keyboards while Howard played drums.

They moved on to their duet with Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara, “Douha.” The bright, euphoric tones of the disco-heavy house track was matched with rainbow-colored visuals. Howard Lawrence amplified the next track, “I Need You In My Arms,” with animated tapping on the cymbals.

Encouraging Portola Festival crowd participation, the brothers had the crowd crouch low and jump as the bass dropped.

“We are going to slow things down just for one song, but we promise you it will be worth it,” Guy Lawrence announced as he picked up a guitar for “Help Me Lose My Mind.” But just as quick, they picked up the tempo and kept the crowd going through songs like “White Noise” before ending the set with breakout hit “Latch.”

Earlier in the day, rapper Anderson .Paak performed a DJ set as “Pee Wee.” Wearing a silver suit and shiny black wig, he spun records from a variety of genres and decades, from late ’70s soul to ’80s and ’90s pop with a little house music mixed in between. He brought in a trumpeter who enhanced the horn sections of many of the songs, playing along to the music. .Paak spent a bit time at the mic, rapping and singing to a remix of Busta Rhymes’ “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See.” He even drummed a bit.

 

Although she was first known as a kid for a terrible song that went viral, Rebecca Black has transformed herself into a complete artist over the past 12 years. During her set, she combined performance art and live music. Black entered the stage inside a red box, into which her dancers “cut” with a rhinestone-encrusted chainsaw to free her. As she pranced across stage, she performed “Read My Mind,” “Sick to My Stomach” and “Destroy Me.” Black even sang to the chainsaw. And yes, she concluded the set with “Friday.”

Pop musician LP Giobbi kicked off the second day of Portola Festival with fun and upbeat dance music. She enthusiastically performed songs off her upcoming album, like “Love Come Through” and “So Nice To Be in Love.” All of them had a high BPM count and got the crowd moving while the sun was out. It was a nice touch when she played piano on the otherwise electronic set.

DJ duo Chase & Status performed its own brand of dubstep-heavy mixes. Adding in quite a bit of U.K. drill to make it interesting, it played a nonstop flow of high-energy beats. Attendees hopped to the flow while Saul Milton and Will Kennard bobbed along to their rhythm.

Follow Mel Bowman at Twitter.com/melmichel and Instagram.com/coco_michel_coco. Follow photographer Gavin Legaspi at Instagram.com/batang.gabino.