Victorious Festival 2017

29.8.17

On the Saturday of the bank holiday weekend I went to Victorious Festival for the first time. I've wanted to go to Victorious for a long time so it was great to finally go and see what the atmosphere was like over there. It was also my first ever mainland festival as I'm lucky to live on an island where we've had festivals happen for a long time. Victorious Festival is a great family festival that no matter what age you are there's something for everyone and anyone. I went on the Saturday where the headliner on the main stage was Stereophonics and the castle stage headliner was Rita Ora.

When we picked our tickets up it was pretty easy and then we went into the VIP area. I've never been into a VIP area at a festival before so for me it was like when a 4 year old goes to Disneyland for the first time. As we arrived pretty early we had a wonder before it started filling up. We found some giant sunglasses, lots of food and all the other stages. There's a lot of stages at victorious festival ranging from world music to some of the biggest names in music right now.

The day started off with an interview with Will Joseph Cook which is going live this week so keep an eye out for that one. Once that was over Frank Turner started his acoustic set. Frank was doing a special guest appearance on the Saturday.This was my first time seeing Frank and I had no idea what to expect , especially from an acoustic set. He really got the crowd going and singing a long. I'm not the biggest Frank Tuner fan , however I think his music is pretty great. I wouldn't rush over in a hurry to see him again but I think I'd like to see him with a full band just so I can get the idea of what he's like with a full band as well as being acoustic.

When he had finished we headed over to the Castle Stage to wait for Jerry Williams to come on stage. Jerry is from Portsmouth so there is nothing better than seeing a local artist playing the festivals 2nd biggest stage. I think Jerry's music is fab and if you've not listened to her before I really suggest you do. She absolutely killed her set ! She was absolutely great and you could tell that lots of the locals that live in Portsmouth were there in support of Jerry. She looked like she was having a great time performing with her band. Jerry is also on tour in October and she's playing dates in London , Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight.

After Jerry performed we waited for Will Joseph Cook. My favourite bit about Will's performance was the two nana's that were stood in front of me , lapping up the atmosphere and soaking up the sun with a pint in hand. I want to be those people when I get older. Will started a mosh pit and got lots of people dancing and it was great. I really enjoyed his set and it was also great talking to him before his set.

I can't remember what we did afterwards , I think we went to be nosey at the Busterfest stage to see what was happening over there. Not much was happening but a band that sounded pretty cool from the split second of a song I heard had just finished a song when they announced that someones guitar strap had just broke. We plodded to get some sweets from a pic n mix stand , whilst on the way over I witnessed a man nearly get thrown into the bin. We headed back to the VIP area to chill for a bit in time to catch the next performance on the common stage.

Yes the photo above is actually The Hunna ... If you don't know , I don't actually like The Hunna that much. I have tried listening to their music plenty of times but it's just a bit pants in my opinion. I decided to stick around for 3 of their songs and they actually didn't sound awful , they are actually very good live. The crowd absolutely loved them and looked like they were enjoying themselves a lot. The band also said that this was probably the biggest stage they have ever played at a festival.

Feeder were the next band on and I have seen them before back at Isle of Wight Festival in 2012 and they were pretty good. This time around I wasn't so sure , I think they appeal to a more older generation a lot more than people my age although Buck Rodgers was a song I grew up with as it used to be played a lot in car journeys. Also shout out to the guy with the sooty puppets that kept popping up every two minutes.

Maximo Park were after Feeder and I feel like this is a band I should have known about but I literally had no idea who they were. I liked Maximo Park and the singer had a great outfit on too. After their performance on Saturday I think I'm definitely going to listen to them a bit more.

In 2012 I started listening to Jake Bugg. The first time I heard lightning bolt I needed to hear more music from Jake. His voice is so unique and I wasn't sure what he would be like live. Jake was absolutely amazing and I'm so glad I got to see him live. He did a good variety of songs from all of his albums and a lot of them were songs I really liked which was great. Someone also lit a flare during his set towards the end and there was also some toilet roll and a cup of pee flung around as everyone basically lost it to lightning bolt.

After Jake finished his set we had a rather long wait for the common stage headliners , Stereophonics ! This was my 2nd time seeing them as I saw them at Isle of Wight last year and they were pretty good. As soon as the walked onto the stage I was very excited to see what they bring to their set this time round. I got to hear all the songs that I liked which is a great start. They also did a mash up of all these different rock songs and that was pretty cool.

My mind was blown when they played Sunny , which is a track off of their last album Keep The Village Alive which was released in 2015. Honestly the guitar solos and just everything about that song live was just incredible. If you ever get the chance to see Stereophonics then your in for something incredible because wow they are absolutely insane live. They are definitely up there with some of the other incredible bands I've seen live. We did have to leave early so we didn't get to see their entire set but what I saw was incredible.

I think Victorious Festival might possibly be the best festival I've been to in a while. Normally when I go to a big festival like this my anxiety tends to make me feel on edge constantly meaning I can't enjoy myself as much but with Victorious Festival it was a very great experience. It's a very big festival but its very well spaced out not like some festivals I've been to before which is perfect.
I think its a very family festival for sure. I saw a lot of younger kids there and they looked like they were loving it.

Victorious Festival is possibly been the most enjoyable festival I've been to in a long time and I'm so excited to see what the line up for next years festival is like ! You can already buy tickets for next year at the price of just £20 per day which is an absolute bargain considering how expensive a whole weekend ticket for these bigger festivals are. My highlights for this year had to be Will Joseph Cook , Jerry Williams and Jake Bugg for sure as they were all fab live.

I can't believe that was my last festival of the season ! What a great way to end a summer of great music. If you have never been to Victorious and you live near by you have to go next year for sure as your missing out on such a great festival ! Also there are some more photos I took that I wanted to share at the bottom of the post if you want to check those. Also a massive thank you to Victorious Festival for having me !