Victorious 2024 - The Review

Victorious festival bills itself as the largest urban music festival in the UK, boasting a daily capacity of 80,000. Speak of an urban festival and immediately your mind probably goes to images of a venue hemmed in by tower blocks with the sound of cars going past, punctuating the performances. The truth is quite different however – sited on Southsea Common, Portsmouth, one side adjoins the coast while the other is more Victorian seafront than urban sprawl. If fact it’s easy to forget that you are in a city at all.

As a festival, it offers no great surprises – the layout is pretty standard if you’ve been to any large festival – two main stages with a smattering of smaller stages spread out among food stalls, clothing, and craft stands. Two things it does have to its credit is, firstly is with the exception of the Castle areas it is completely flat - having negotiated many hills and vales (anyone remember Bestival’s hill of doom?) Gentle walks are a nice change. Second it has a decent kids area – this is one of the only festivals that doesn’t feel like it pays lip service to being family-friendly, or a new way to fleece cash-strapped parents. There are plenty of activities for toddlers to teenagers, almost all of which are completely free. A stage here provides plenty of kid friendly performances.

Food and drink is pretty plentiful, with a good, if pricey, selection. The cost of living crisis continues to drive home and this is not a cheap festival - alcoholic drinks are £7.90 for a pint, or £15 for a cocktail. A can of coke will cost you £3.50. Food is similarly high, with a burger and chips setting you back £15 to £20 depending on how ‘posh’ you want to go. I wasn’t really drinking, but still managed to spend about £60 a day. I could imagine that going ‘full booze’ would see you rapidly into three figures.

I appreciate that festivals are expensive, and the events need to recoup their cost from more than just the tickets, but it does make you wonder how much value a cheaper ticket really is – currently Victorious is selling tickets for 2025 for £145 for the weekend. This will rise to about £225 nearer the event. But it feels like a hidden cost if by buying a cheap ‘early bird’ you then have to pay over the odds for everything once on site.

Musically the festival doesn’t have a particular dominant style or type, instead offering a range that will appeal to everyone whether you are a pop princess or a hardcore metalhead, there’s plenty that will appeal to everyone. This does mean that occasionally people get caught out by sudden gear changes. For example ex-One Direction star Louis Tomlinson’s Friday set saw the front of main stage awash with teenage girls waving homemade banners. Then those same girls were then treated to the experience of being in the middle of a full-blown mosh pit for Idles – security were pulling shell-shocked teens out of the crowd almost constantly during the set.

Generally each day was a good selection of performers, with solid headline performances from Fatboy Slim, The Pixies, Jamie T and Biffy Clyro, backed up by a mix of well-known favourites such as Lightning Seeds, James Bay, The Kooks, and Snow Patrol. Alongside those were up and comers such as Royal Otis, Baby Queen, Lottery Winners, and The Lathums.

The festival has also drifted into the realm of ‘secret sets’ and after 2023’s excellent performance by McFly, the organisers clearly hoped that lightning would strike twice by booking Busted, sadly their show didn’t quite hold up, with the band giving a fairly uninspiring run through their hits. Perhaps it was the rain that fell on the crowd during their set that dulled things, but whatever it wasn’t the high point that was promised.

Weather was a big deal this weekend - and after a glorious sunny Friday, rain moved in overnight, leaving a damp site on Saturday – thankfully the worst of the rain passed through in the morning, and the sandy ground saw most of the rain drain away before the ground turned to mud. The weather wasn’t finished with us as both Saturday and Sunday saw pretty strong winds blow through (one of the downsides of a coastal venue is it has no shelter) – the great British summer gave us a fairly chilly weekend. Again.

One of the big highlights for me was Panic Shack on the Castle stage – this punk band bring to mind the classic punk of the 80s, angry, loud and raw. But also infused with a self-deprecation and humour that you can’t help but warm too. This five-piece deserve a larger audience, with the potential and energy to get even the most worn out festival goer up and bouncing along.

It’s easy to spend the weekend hanging out by the big stages and have a great time, but it’s also worth taking some time to visit the smaller stages too. African rhythms from Juanita Luka, and bright Salsa from Zena were highlights. But the big discovery for me was Tom A Smith, whose set was a delight – imagine if The Arctic Monkeys formed up with Jimi Hendrix – mixing bouncy indie rock with virtuoso guitar work. If he’s not billing high on main stages in a couple of years I’ll be very surprised.

Comedy fans are also well served by the festival - it’s been a recent development for the festival, but provides a welcome change from just bands. Headline sets from Russell Howard, Frankie Boyle, and Al Murray were supported by some great up and coming comics, particularly Saaniya Abbas whose routine on different hells was genuinely hilarious and sharp.

All too soon the weekend seemed to be over, and to close our our festival we opted for Wet Leg over Biffy Clyro - the last time I saw them live was just as Chaise Longue was breaking on the radio, in a small venue with a 100-strong crowd. I was pleased to see that the quirky nervousness that made that performance so endearing has scaled up well. Despite being 20,000 people now they still managed to make it feel like an intimate setting.

Victorious festival is one of the highlights of the year for us - for a large festival it manages not too feel packed - even when your at a main stage for a headliner. In fact it has more of a village fete air about it - welcoming, easy to navigate, and a lot of fun. Yes it could be cheaper on site, but I guess the same could be levelled at most festivals at the moment. If you’re only looking to do one festival in a year, then you could do worse than choosing Victorious. In fact we’ve already bought our tickets for next year - maybe we’ll see you there?

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