Victorious Festival: a look back at the August weekend

Victorious Festival has already come and gone for the year, so if you were hoping to catch it this weekend, you are out of luck. The festival took over Southsea Common on the seafront at Clarence Esplanade over the August Bank Holiday weekend, running from Friday 28 to Sunday 30 August, with around 60,000 people through the gates each day. It is worth a look back, though, because the scale of it gives you a good idea of what to expect when it comes around again.

The music was spread across about twelve stages, taking in headliners, emerging names and a real mix of rock, pop, indie, electronic and world music, with a comedy arena and some quieter acoustic sessions tucked in alongside. Friday opened with Richard Ashcroft, Scissor Sisters, Faithless, The Vaccines, The Royston Club, Cast, The Coral, Hard-Fi, Pixie Lott, Vengaboys, Crystal Tides, Kyle Falconer, Freddie Halkon, Good Health Good Wealth, Arkayla, Jessica Winter, GANS, Massaoke and Rudimental. Saturday handed over to The Black Keys, Bastille, Nile Rodgers And Chic, Jessie J, Primal Scream, Happy Mondays, Doves, Lottery Winners, Kate Nash, Dylan John Thomas, The Ordinary Boys, The Clause, Etta Marcus, Freak Slug, Villanelle, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers, Massaoke and Dizzee Rascal. Sunday closed with Kasabian, The Streets, Basement Jaxx, James Arthur, Kelis, Jalen Ngonda, The Enemy, Asha Banks, Reef, Brooke Combe, Sleeper, Goldie Lookin' Chain, Seb Lowe, the guest list, Ben Ellis, Punchbag, Fiona Lee, Bloodworm, Mackenzie, Massaoke and Sigrid. Ashcroft, The Black Keys and Kasabian were the three headliners across the weekend.

It was not just about the main stages. A Kids Arena ran on the Saturday and Sunday with crafts and free games, and the food and drink went well beyond a burger van, with international street food like tacos and noodles alongside classic fish and chips, craft beers and local ciders in the Real Ale Village, plus vegan and gluten-free options. On price, a day ticket was £108.90, a three-day weekend ticket without camping £274.32 and the camping version £285.12. Gates were open from 10:00 to 23:00, with no entry or re-entry after 20:00, and under-15s had to be with an adult aged 21 or over.

For anyone who stayed over, camping was at Farlington Fields on Eastern Road, with General, Family, Accessible, Campervan and Glamping zones and a Camp & Ride shuttle bus running between the site and the festival from 10:00 to midnight on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Getting there was the easy part: trains to Portsmouth & Southsea left you about a 25-minute walk from the site, Portsmouth Harbour was roughly 30 minutes away, and services ran regularly from London Waterloo, Brighton and Southampton. The M27 and M275 feed straight into Southsea, with a Park and Ride at Lakeside North Harbour, and a hovercraft from Ryde takes about ten minutes. Southampton Airport sits 18 miles to the west.

So, if you missed it this August, the best thing to do is keep an eye on the usual channels for when the next edition lands. Southsea Common is a hard site to beat for a weekend like this, and with the lineup and the scale it pulled off, it is one worth planning for well in advance.