Victorious 2021

[atomised]

36 minutes ago, EssexIndie said:

Question that someone may be able to help with. I’m going to tomorrow but my wife who was due to go with me now can’t. Her name is on her ticket. Is there likely to be an issue if I bring someone else to use her ticket? 

Personally I've found the checks to be pretty laid-back so would think you'd be ok 

[seanz25]

Didn’t massively enjoy it today, just seemed way too busy everywhere.
 

Seems like there’s been some cost cutting, Toilet situation is just a disgrace really, especially given Covid/hygiene etc.

Oh and the parking we ended up driving through a bike route after sitting for a good 45 mins in standing traffic 

[atomised]

Spent a lot of time in the kids area today so not too many issues toilets wise. An awful lot of can't handle their alcohol types around though

[U08ad15]

hi guys not sure if this post is allowed but is there anywhere to pick something up.

[the wonderwhy]

16 hours ago, seanz25 said:

Toilet situation is just a disgrace really, especially given Covid/hygiene etc.

To be fair this is the same everywhere. The country's entire portaloo population appears to be stuck on testing sites and whatnot 

[WhoOdyssey]

The toilets seemed absolutely fine for me today, I went several times and never really had to queue! (for the gents at least...)

[Dancers Stand Very Still]

Sunday was much better than Friday and Saturday. There were significantly fewer people (and most of those who'd gone seemed to be the dickheads), which seemed to be about the right number for the facilities available. Very short or non-existent queues and less rowdy/boisterous people (those two are probably connected!), which led to a much better and friendlier vibe all round as people were chilled and less irritated. 

The setting of the festival is spectacular, especially with sunny weather like this weekend. I loved watching the sunset from the castle, with the ferries drifting by. The good choices were plenty good enough, with more vegan options than I was expecting. And brownies. Yum, brownies. 

One final gripe from me though on the bookings and stage times. Now, I knew the line up and half the reason I went was to see bands I wouldn't normally, so that's not an issue. However, giving bands such as Porridge Radio, Pigs x7 and Black Honey strict 30 minute slots seemed like a waste. Also, the 'othering' of most bands which weren't 'white guy does guitar' to the 'world music' stage did not sit well. 

[EssexIndie]

Went yesterday and loved it from start to finish. Seen some of the horror stories from the Saturday but didn’t experience any of that on Sunday. Fantastic setting for a festival-loved just wandering around the site, great choice of acts across a range of stages, queues for food/toilets wasn’t an issue at all and getting in and out of the car park was fine. Weather just topped it off. 

[atomised]

7 minutes ago, EssexIndie said:

Went yesterday and loved it from start to finish. Seen some of the horror stories from the Saturday but didn’t experience any of that on Sunday. Fantastic setting for a festival-loved just wandering around the site, great choice of acts across a range of stages, queues for food/toilets wasn’t an issue at all and getting in and out of the car park was fine. Weather just topped it off. 

Was there all weekend. We didn't find the queues too bad, that said yesterday was a massive improvement and the site on the whole seemed quiet. The food at Southsea skate park cafe was tasty and reasonably priced (£4 burgers, £5 for 20 chicken nuggets) and never had to wait long there. Wasn't impressed by the number of bars just selling cans but charging pretty much the same as a pint. 

Really enjoyed being able to go round the d day museum and the landing craft too. 

[JSmurphy]

Great day yesterday. Pigs x7 smashed it so far out of the park. Best act of the day by a mile.

[WhatADin]

35 minutes ago, JSmurphy said:

Great day yesterday. Pigs x7 smashed it so far out of the park. Best act of the day by a mile.

They were brilliant. That banner 😂

[more matey]

Can’t comment on Fri/Sat as wasn’t there. Sunday was excellent throughout - no queues, great mixed aged crowd, little/no anti social behaviour other than the norm.

Fantastic value for money - I watched 10 full sets which given my ticket cost £40 works out at £4 per act!

My Top 5:

1. Pigs x 7 (absolutely superb performance!!! Prob in my top 20 all time gigs. I now have a battle on my hands to get into their sold out C2 show in Brighton)

2. Fontaines DC (band on fire, MUCH better than when I’d last seen them pre-Covid)

3. Liz Lawrence 

4. Royal Blood

5. Supergrass

Edited August 30, 2021 by more matey

[EssexIndie]

The amount of people near me that quickly disappeared after Pigs x7 started playing-not sure what they were expecting!!

Great day all round. My pre festival must see was Glasvegas (favourite band), small crowd but everyone there really got into it which was good. But Fontaines set was by far the most impressive for me, absolutely owned that stage-they are going to be huge. Was meant to see them twice before but covid cancellations both times meant that it didn’t happen. 3rd time definitely lucky.

Insane value for money as others have said. Where are you going to watch the calibre of acts there for a fiver a band? 

[sedra]

We normally buy 1st early bird tickets for sat and sun as for £35.00 per day you can’t really go wrong. This was the 4th year - Saturday was by far the busiest and took us a good hour and half to get from arriving in Portsmouth to the car park. But we were running a bit late leaving Bournemouth so didn’t get in until 2.30pm. There were long queues to get in on 2 of the gates but the gate round the back by the sea  was no queue. They went for a mix of compost loos and portaloos this year - there were long queues but could have been avoided by better management. The portaloos at back of The Common stage seemed ok and 5 mins queues. 
Bars both days were straight in- they seem to have had more bars this year. Wi-fi was a bit dodgy so some stalls only taking cash. Other food stalls had long queues. Prices very high in some places. Amstel £6 a pint. 
Excellent sets from Frank Turner and The Streets on Saturday, and pigs x7, Annie Mac, The Snuts, Fontaines DC, Supergrass and Royal Blood on Sunday. 
Sunday was less busy and more chilled. It was the first year they have sold weekend tickets and full weekend/camping package. We never go Friday as it’s not worth it for just 1 stage when there are 6 or 7 stages and more going on on Saturday/Sunday. 
Saturday was definitely more busy and there was a full on fight right behind me which was not good. Overall ok 2 days - tickets have gone up to £45 per day for Sat/Sun for next year as I guess they need to recoup losses from last year. Still good value for money though.  

[retrokev]

just back from another great victorious.yes there were queues ,and bad fri as only common open,but walk around and you find less queues . drinks prices were mad but what choice do you have and you know they are going to be. what you save on ticket price for weekend early bird,you give back on drink. great weather  and music for me was hookie and feeder fri.sat lathums blossoms stereo mcs  streets sunday  best day by far. struts and glassvegas ,miles kane, fontaine dc.supergrass and royal blood who have come a long way and owned the stage/crowd.hoping they headline iow next year. great to get out meet people and enjoy music .roll on 22

[WhatADin]

The toilet queues were huge on Friday definitely but other than that I never really had to wait too long. Even the actual cleanliness I found fine, never came across a loo without paper either. I had to laugh at a young girl refusing to go into a loo because it was “disgusting”  , thought I’d chance it and it was absolutely fine. I think my tolerance for festival toilets is quite high. Lol. Music highlights for me were definitely Pigsx7, Royal Blood, Peter Hook and the Light, The Manics and Mel C. Also that Tibetan food stall was amazing. The Southsea skatepark was great to feed the kids for cheap too. Brilliant weekend and I’ve already bought our early birds for next year. 

[sisco]

So back from our first Victorious (as a family)and I have to say we really enjoyed it.  Yep the queues were long on Friday and similar but more spread out on Saturday.  Sunday was very different and seemed a lot more relaxed.  Food and drink was ridiculously expensive but I sort of expect that.  

My daughter has type 1 diabetes and we have to fill in forms prior to going for exemptions to take in food/drink for her.  They literally didn’t look in our bags.

Music was really good for the money.  Our personal favs were The Kooks, The Streets, Supergrass, Blossoms and Rag n Bone Man.  Watched a few of Royal Blood and they’re really good but the weekend had took it’s toll on the kids so we left early.

If we can find somewhere reasonably priced to stay we’d certainly think about going again. 

[thewayiam]

25 minutes ago, sisco said:

So back from our first Victorious (as a family)and I have to say we really enjoyed it.  Yep the queues were long on Friday and similar but more spread out on Saturday.  Sunday was very different and seemed a lot more relaxed.  Food and drink was ridiculously expensive but I sort of expect that.  

My daughter has type 1 diabetes and we have to fill in forms prior to going for exemptions to take in food/drink for her.  They literally didn’t look in our bags.

Music was really good for the money.  Our personal favs were The Kooks, The Streets, Supergrass, Blossoms and Rag n Bone Man.  Watched a few of Royal Blood and they’re really good but the weekend had took it’s toll on the kids so we left early.

If we can find somewhere reasonably priced to stay we’d certainly think about going again. 

I'm going to look at this festival next year maybe again as I went for a day last time and really enjoyed it. Just very far away if not enough bands to see. 

[Bubblepopelectric]

Our first time at Victorious, we normally do Reading but wanted a smaller and quieter (in the camp) as we are not kids anymore. Was not prepared for the size of the site! And soooooooo many people! I thought the capacity was around 65k but there was definitely more than that there. Still apart from the usual grumbles about the loo situation and the huge cost of the food (we went out of the site and sat on the beach when we wanted to eat) we thought it was superb!

Surprise highlight of Saturday was Craig David. Not normally my thing but he was just so good, got so many people bouncing for the whole set. Thought Madness was all over the place, Manics were ok but Supergrass and Royal Blood were outstanding. Everything else we saw were good too, such a bargain festival in an amazing location. We will be back next year (although depends on the line up I guess). Weather was just right. Bloody fantastic weekend. 

 

Out biggest complaint was the sh*tshow of the campsites shuttle buses. The queue on Sat night was just horrendous and a complete free for all with pushing and shoving going on. Spoke to one camper who said they were at the back and when they got to the front they were told to make their own way back as the buses had finished! Not on - cost them £35 for an Uber. I had also paid £15 for parking yet no steward was there to check to see had paid, people literally parking where they could. Lots of cars had nothing in their windscreen so wasn't sure if they got away with not paying or not. Shambles. 

Edited August 30, 2021 by Bubblepopelectric
typo

[sisco]

49 minutes ago, thewayiam said:

I'm going to look at this festival next year maybe again as I went for a day last time and really enjoyed it. Just very far away if not enough bands to see. 

I used to worry too much about lineups.  You can have a good time just seeing the odd band you know here and there

[atomised]

38 minutes ago, sisco said:

I used to worry too much about lineups.  You can have a good time just seeing the odd band you know here and there

So true. I really enjoyed this weekend not worrying about who to see.

Saw utter joy on my kids faces too many times to count, enjoyable first camping trip for them. The eldest shocked me by enjoying Royal Blood. The younger curled up at my feet and slept through them. 

We watched Jaguar Skills as the sun set and ferries passed by. I'd rather have those moments than worry about schedules.

They met princesses and paw patrol and hey duggie, they danced and sang all weekend.

Bizarrely I went with plans in mind but they all went out of the window by early Saturday morning and enjoyed it all the more.

[thewayiam]

10 hours ago, sisco said:

I used to worry too much about lineups.  You can have a good time just seeing the odd band you know here and there

Oh I know. But the amout of travelling for me to get down that far for me I just want more than that.

[Dales]

This was my first visit to Victorious and I thought Friday and Saturday were far to busy with all the issues that creates. Sunday was a lot better and so a more pleasurable experience. I am in my 50's and so it takes a lot to impress me and I am often even more critical of artists I like. I though Madness were poor and I ama fan. Even more dissapointing was Manics who I serious like but they were just ok nothing to get excited about. The highlights for me muscially were Blossoms, Fratellis, Glasvegas, Black Honey, The Snuts & Jade Bird.

Enjoyed lots of other stuff like Feeder,The Kooks, Royal Blood and Hookys Karaoke.

I was going to make a comment about Pigs x7 but they seem popular around here, so maybe not. Oh well, I will ask anyway. Are they spinal tap? I am seriously missing something there. I thought they where just going to be bad and then all of a sudden shock the audience by being good. As soon as they put up the Pigs X7 logo, I commented to my partner they will not like that.

Very funny band but as the set went on I stated to doubt it was a joke and are they may be a "serious band" ? well in the world they live in. Anyway found them great fun but trully aweful at the same time. I was leaving to get something to eat when they started talking about headlining and the logo in Royal Blood font. I did not go to far so could eat andstill soak up the "experince" of the badness of the rest of the set. Still can not work out whether putting them on the main stage was a stroke of genious or just complete madness.

 

 

[sisco]

Haven’t stopped listening to Kawala since I’ve come back.  Brilliant happy summery band 

[Dales]

2 hours ago, sisco said:

Haven’t stopped listening to Kawala since I’ve come back.  Brilliant happy summery band 

I saw them them on the Thursday night before Victorious supporting Bombay Bicycle Club at Islington Assembly Hall and not overly impressed by them.

We went around early to the Castle stage to watch The Snuts/Glasvegas/Jade Bird and saw Kawala's set. We certainly did not go the Castle Stage for them but what  a surprise. It was almost like watching a completly different band to the one we saw a few days earlier. Their upbeat attitude, songs and all round performance was perfect for a summer's day. Funny how some times your first impression can be wrong.