Even before it happens, San Francisco’s Portola Festival has a hold on history. Here’s where The City’s new music fest got its old name.
While it's San Francisco’s newest major music festival, this weekend's Portola Music Festival sourced its inspiration from the annals of local history.
The original 1909 Portola Festival was designed to honor Juan Gaspar de Portolá’s discovery of San Francisco Bay in October 1769. In a nod to Portola’s homeland of Catalonia, red and yellow were chosen as the festival colors. At the time, The San Francisco Call, which was eventually bought by The Examiner, wrote that"in figure, face and bearing he is specially well qualified to fit the character."
A $25,000 contribution and then another $100,000 contribution were fundraised. Residents could also make extra money by letting visitors stay in their homes during the festival.Dressed as Portolá, Covarrubias entered by sea through Golden Gate and landed at Pier 2 before leading a procession down Market St.