The biggest festival on the South coast (and arguably the best) returned to the stunning seaside location of Southsea this weekend.
Victorious Festival welcomed 80,000 people over the bank holiday weekend, with something for everyone.
Whether it was headline performances from the likes of superstar DJ Fatboy Slim, indie royalty Pixies or Scottish rock legends Biffy Clyro, or laughs in the comedy tent from performers such as Al Murray, Frankie Boyle and Russell Howard, this was an incredible weekend.
The beauty of Victorious Festival is that each day, they open up proceedings with a huge artist, designed to bring the large crowds into the festival gates early.
This year was no exception with Razorlight opening on Friday lunchtime – frontman Johnny Borrell wasted no time blasting through their biggest hits – “Golden Touch”, “Somewhere Else”, “In The Morning” and the number-one anthem “America”.
Keeping the pace going early-on and drawing one of the biggest crowds of the weekend was former One Direction star Louis Tomlinson. This was his first UK festival performance and he certainly didn’t disappoint – the crowd went wild for every tune, whether it was his own solo material, or the 1D classics such as ‘Drag Me Down.’
Bristol’s finest post-punk IDLES followed with an interesting change of pace and total change of genre from Louis – frontman Joe Talbot celebrated his birthday the same day, not that you could tell from the rage and anger as he spat his anti-fascist mantras across the stage. Creating arguable the largest mosh-pit of the weekend, here’s hoping the Louis Tomlinson fans escaped before the carnage and dust flew.
With possibly the ultimate crowd sing-along tunes, Snow Patrol were up next. To the delight of fans, they played their anthem ‘Chasing Cars’ with the huge audience all singing
‘If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?’
Quite a special, moving goose-bump moment!
As usual, at such a large festival as this, there was a clash of sensational headliners. The original funk-soul brother Fatboy Slim dazzled crowds at the main Common Stage with his rockafeller skank, fireworks, confetti canons and light show, while pop-royalty Jess Glynne returned with a stunning show on the Castle Stage, concluding with her huge hits ‘Rather Be’ and ‘Hold My Hand’ – in her own words, there’s no place I’d rather be!
The dreaded UK rain returned Saturday morning, but it did not dampen spirits. Again, the day began with not one but two huge artists.
Tom Walker demonstrated his incredible voice on the Castle Stage, while the Common Stage welcomed a surprise special guest. Last year, McFly delighted fans with their antics, while this year, their supergroup friends Busted took the heralded spot.
Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, professionally known as CMAT came to Portsmouth for the first time and delighted crowds with her Irish charm shortly afterwards, encouraging all the crowds to line-dance before she played her song ‘I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby’ and dedicating her Brit nominated hit ‘Ah Shoot’ to her love of wine! She’s a must-see if you get the chance.
Fresh from supporting Taylor Swift on her legendary ERAs tour, Holly Humberstone followed, before The Lathums, Courteeners and The Amazons all brought their indie music to Victorious.
There’s not many bands which wear the crown as one of David Bowie’s favourites, but the influential Pixies topped the bill on the Castle Stage. Singer Frank Black (or Black Francis if you prefer) still has an incredible voice despite shouting and screaming his way through their impressive back catalogue – fortunately there weren’t too many new songs and they stuck to the classics.
The final day again began with an impressive band who could have easily headlined many lesser events – The Kooks, before Natasha Bedingfield delighted fans with her hits ‘Unwritten‘ and ‘These Words‘.
Northern scallies Yard Act, gave echoes of LCD Soundsystem mixed with Jarvis Cocker – very entertaining, although their set was a little short as singer James Smith advised they had to be back home in Leeds by midnight to be tucked up in bed…
Up next was James Bay who not only had to Hold Back The River, but also hold onto his hat in the strong south-coast winds.
A couple of years ago, Becky Hill was booked to play the smaller Castle Stage, and the crowd size was so large, many people had to be turned away. This year she was back, better than ever on the main Common Stage.
Dressed in an improperly tight mini-dress, Becky focused her set mainly on her new album with its drum’n’bass focus, before concluding with her crowd pleasers ‘Wish You Well’ and ‘Remember’ In her own words, Becky summed up the evening well by saying ‘Massive thank you to the festival organisers for asking me to come back and putting me on this big old stage! You are all amazing!’
Concluding the weekend were two heavyweights.- the mighty Biffy Clyro rocked the Common Stage, with impressive booming anthems, while the new sensation which is Isle of Wight’s finest Wet Leg delighted fans on the Castle Stage. Possibly playing their singalong ‘Chaise Longue’ for the final time, it was a fitting end to their world wind tour – hopefully we can expect a new album if their current roster are to be retired.
James Ralls, Festival Director summed up the weekend well by saying: “It’s been another unforgettable year on the seafront. From huge cruise ships and the return of the Seaside Stage plus incredible headline sets from Fatboy Slim, Jamie T and Biffy Clyro we’ve had it all and it’s great to see so many people enjoying live music, family entertainment and comedy whilst making memories to last a lifetime! We’re sad it’s ended but we’re already excited to welcome everyone back in 2025 for another memorable weekend.”
Tickets are now available at: https://www.victoriousfestival.co.uk
Don’t miss out on this great weekend in 2025.
PHOTOS: GRAHAM TARRANT
WORDS: SAMANTHA MIDDLETON & GRAHAM TARRANT