"On Saturday afternoon at Portola Music Festival, hundreds of fans queued up outside an unassuming white tent, snaking from the north side of Pier 80 nearly all the way to the Crane Stage. When 3:15 p.m. struck, they slowly marched inside to a room cloaked in near total darkness, aside from seven glowing green McIntosh logos perched atop Stonehenge-esque speaker stacks."
"The '80s funk of Edwin Starr's "Get Up Whirlpool" pulsed throughout the room, a remix by Rub N Tug's Eric Duncan adding some extra oomph to the kick drums and dubbing out the bass lines. When the chorus hit, a sunrise worth of spotlights blasted at the biggest disco ball I've ever seen, washing the crowd in light as cheers erupted."
"This is Despacio, an audiophile dance environment that was arguably the best addition to the Portola Music Festival this year. Created by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem and the Belgian brothers David and Stephen Dewaele (known as 2ManyDjs or Soulwax), it's an entirely analog club experience that MusicTech called "the world's greatest soundsystem" back in 2019. The soundsystem was first unveiled at Manchester International Festival in 2013, and later became a fixture at Coachella."
Despacio offered an immersive, analog audiophile dance environment within a closed tent at Portola Music Festival, drawing long queues throughout the day. The room was dark except for seven glowing McIntosh logos atop massive speaker stacks, and the system played deep remixes such as Rub N Tug's Eric Duncan edit of Edwin Starr's "Get Up Whirlpool." Sunrise-style spotlights and a massive disco ball punctuated choruses, bathing the crowd in light. Despacio was created by James Murphy and the Dewaele brothers, first unveiled in 2013, and has since toured globally, becoming a sought-after festival attraction.
Read at SFGATE
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