Victorious Festival 2024 10th Anniversary

[rseamer]

I’ve been to every one (I live within walking distance of the site so seems silly not to).

 

Felt this year’s was on par with the last few overall. Something for everybody from hardened festival goers to local teens on their first solo day out with friends.

 

Saw full sets by the following : 

 

Do Nothing • Bellah Mae • The Murder Capital • Lottery Winners • Idles • Mackenzie • Fatboy Slim • Busted • Echobelly • CMAT • Holly Humberstone • Lexie Carroll • Eaves Wilder • Welly • Pixies •   Personal Trainer • Panic Shack • Red Rum Club • Immy • Yard Act • Soft Play • Arlo Parks • Wet Leg

 

Idles a bit underwhelming for me - think I’ve seen them a few too many times. 

 

Loved the first 20 minutes of Pixies but felt it dipped after that until the last 2 songs.

 

Lexie Carroll had sound - technical issues

 

Standouts: CMAT (not only great songs but hugely entertaining), Lottery Winners, Wet Leg, Soft Play and Fatboy Slim(just for the party vibe) 

 

No real complaints. For me Victorious is a ‘budget’ festival as I don’t have to pay for camping and whilst I’m not a fan of the corporate Starbucks / Lidl etc aspect, I just ignore them and get on with enjoying the music. 

[Dales]

Had a great festival without being blown away by anyone. I made the fatal mistake of bailing out late on from Biffy as my partner wanted to see the last few Wet Leg songs. Well we saw a few as no surprise they finished early, we could hear that Biffy played a good few more songs.

 

Enjoyed Busted but the rain was crap, also thought the Pigeon Detectives were fun as usual.

 

From who I saw The Royston Club, Soft Play, Crystal Tides stand out and a bit of a mention for Michael Aldag who I have enjoyed seeing a few times this year.

 

We wereright about Sugababes should have been high up on the main stage.

[Dales]

19 hours ago, FestivalJamie said:

Fatboyslim & sugababes seemed to get the biggest crowds of the weekend - also went to see the Pixies who were good but their lack of audience interaction was really noticeable- don’t think they wanted to be there to be honest 

 

So agree with Sugababes it was well full.

 

Pixies were their usual selves in not really talking and don't think any of their fans expect them to, well I did'nt anyway.

I thought we were in for a treat when they rattled through some of their more well known songs at the start but overall I thought they were a little flat in general. I thought that of a lot of acts over the weekend and so it might just be a case of its me, I'm the problem it's me.

 

 

[Ryan1984]

18 minutes ago, Dales said:

 

So agree with Sugababes it was well full.

 

Pixies were their usual selves in not really talking and don't think any of their fans expect them to, well I did'nt anyway.

I thought we were in for a treat when they rattled through some of their more well known songs at the start but overall I thought they were a little flat in general. I thought that of a lot of acts over the weekend and so it might just be a case of its me, I'm the problem it's me.

 

 

That wind didn’t help on Sunday. Imagine it was similar the rest of the weekend?

[Ryan1984]

4 hours ago, Rusty Spoon said:

Went for the day yesterday, Biffy doing a lot of heavy lifting on that lineup for me. Not really anyone I was fussed for outside of Soft Play (who I ended up missing anyways). 

 

Ended up catching The Kooks then leaving the site and came back in to catch the end of Barrioke, Becky Hill and then Biffy. 

 

Becky Hill was fun, her crowd were full of wee bams more interested in getting off their face and causing fights though. Biffy were stellar as usual, crowd was awful.

 

Probably won't be back unless there's another one of my favourite bands headlining a day.

Why do you say the crowd was awful for Biffy? Seemed fine for me and I was fairly near the front - lots of singing but no real moshing etc but that’s probably due to conditions and the Biffy fan base getting a bit older.

[kelstar]

As soon as the line up was I knew this year wasn’t going to be a good one (music wise for me) However I’m a local, always buy the weekend early bird on first release. So did things a little differently this year, had later starts, an early finish and ate in Palmerston Road. Which made things a lot cheaper! And caught the few bits I wanted to see.

 

generally everything was done really well. Although we all have gripes about things…..main one for my friends was cans, we missed the good ole pint (unless you went to Acoustic stage or Thatchers)

another one was the d-day car park felt a bit like dead space, think I was expecting more toilets when I heard it was just going to be loo’s)

Was happy the comedy tent got the outside screen! Well done Victorious, very much needed after people fainted due to overcrowding.

 

Roll on 2025!

[FestivalJamie]

3 hours ago, Dales said:

 

So agree with Sugababes it was well full.

 

Pixies were their usual selves in not really talking and don't think any of their fans expect them to, well I did'nt anyway.

I thought we were in for a treat when they rattled through some of their more well known songs at the start but overall I thought they were a little flat in general. I thought that of a lot of acts over the weekend and so it might just be a case of its me, I'm the problem it's me.

 

 

TBH no one really stood out to me, I didn’t get butterflies in my stomach for any of the acts let’s just say that. Sugababes were good fun and a lot of classic songs so probably my no.1. Of the weekend but they aren’t a band I would particularly go to see in their own concert.

 

The first 1/3 of the pixies set was amazing - and I would say it ended on a high as well. But in the middle it really really dropped off, up until the point where they messed up the song and just skipped over it haha. Then I feel like it picked up a bit again. It was my first time seeing them so I was just surprised they don’t really engage with the crowd.

 

for next year I would really hope for some more exciting names - maybe Stereophonics back, Florence & the machine, Raye, Wolf Alice, Foals, Catfish & the bottle men, Chvrches, Jungle- just artists with lots of energy- I wasn’t quite feeling the energy this year.

 

its always hard with victorious to know who to expect with their bookings 

 

 

[TheFellaLondon]

I always enjoy Victorious, and this year was no different, although agree the lineup wasn't the strongest, particularly for what was being hyped as the 10th Anniversary.

 

Saturday was particularly weak, not helped by the weather. Thought they needed a bigger/more popular headliner, although appreciate is all down to personal taste. I thought the comedy tent had strong headliners this year, if that is your thing, with both Al Murray and Frankie Boyle being hilarious. Again, imo.

 

Great choice of both food and drink throughout the site, though agree it would be good to have pints rather than cans. And what was the score with those plastic cups?! And a bit of a cheek charging pint prices for a 440ml can when a pint is nearly 570ml.

 

Be good to have something going on in the car park area where the Beats & Swing stage used to be. Someone mentioned a beer festival or similar, which would be good, although handy to have some more toilets!

 

Lastly does anyone know where the castle bit (Henry's House) was just over 18s this year? Not a big deal, but my younger teenage kids used to love going into that area and walking around the ramparts, etc. Appreciate it has more of a clubby vibe to the rest of the festival, but this didn't seem to matter in the past.

[PSi]

Agree with most of what people above have said!

 

Did think the sound 'bleeding' between some stages was slightly worse this year. Under The Trees struggled with noise from Introducing at times, as did the World Stage from the Main Stage. Doubt there's much to be done about those though.

 

Thought there were lots of useful extra little cut-thrus / short cuts between stages this year, which was really helpful for those dashing between all the stages all day. Hope they keep those!

 

Thought Biffy were amazing and a perfect way to end the festival. 

 

Really enjoyed the acts that interacted more with the audience - giving something a bit different to just listening to the songs at home. CMAT, Lottery Winners and Pigeon Detectives all did that well.

 

Dependably good performances from the likes of Futureheads (who needed longer than 30 minutes!), Courteeners, The Kooks and Arlo Parks. 

 

Enjoyed discovering lots of new (to me) bands / artists too, like The Clockworks, The Covasettes, Do Nothing, bby, Natty, Molotov Jukebox, Minque and The Optimists.

 

All in all, really enjoyed it and have come back with a long "to buy" list of new stuff which is always my marker of a good festival! Booked for next year already - good shout of theirs to freeze at £145 again.