I think out of the Superstruct festivals, Victorious and Boardmasters have always been the better of the lot. Rest of them are still too similar to each other lineup wise, I think.
I think they've slowly been shifting tbh. If you think about the trouble they had with the year that The Streets headlined and all the issues with security that year. The problems on Castle Field with Sophie Ellis-Bextor. The guys that run it have always wanted it to be like old school V-Fest/early 00 Reading vibes, and the nostalgia angle is definitely leaning towards it.
It slaps the face out of IoW this year, though.
Some of these mid-sized festivals have really upped their game this year at providing a bit of variety and difference in the line ups (to their usual offerings). If I wasn’t at the Maccabees show I’d have been all over this.