It’s always great to spend a Bank Holiday by the seaside, but even better when it’s accompanied by 9 stages of music and an array of kid’s entertainment. Victorious Festivals took over Southsea seafront for another full weekend of tremendous music, boasting big names such as Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Manic Street Preachers and Mark Ronson, not bad when the early bird ticket price is only £25 a day (Combined Saturday and Sunday tickets only £45).

We arrived on the Saturday to the sound of the Boomtown Rats, not the usual calibre of band you hear on the main stage at 1.45 in the afternoon, a perfect indication of what the weekend was to offer. Not sure you can get a better welcome to a festival than to the sound of the legendary ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’.

Victorious Festival site is so much bigger than you would expect, stretching along the seafront commons and parks of Southsea. There are two main stage areas and in between small stages including a World Music Stage and a Silent Disco Tent, a huge array of food stalls, market and craft stalls and lots of activities for kids, including a kid’s stage, fairground rides and a skate park. Something for every taste and age.

After a good look around and with the sun well and truly out we found our way to the Seaside Stage Arena, where from the slopped banking we had an amazing view out to sea and the slightly bizarre view of cruise liners going passed! With the Casemates Seaside Stage to entertain us and situated next to the Real Ale Village we spent a little longer than planned there, unfortunately missing Teleman, The Selector and Wretch 32. But with so much to see and do is was bound to happen.

Although not exclusively from the 90s and 00s, Saturday afternoon bought together some of the best bands from that period of British Music, with The Coral, Travis and Manic Street Preachers on the Common Stage and Editors on the Castle Stage.

The Coral kicked off getting the crowd well and truly in the mood for a night of singing, playing classic tracks.

With such an amazing line-up there were bound to be a few clashes and the big decision of the weekend was whether to see Travis on The Common Stage or The Editors on The Castle Stage, two bands I love in equal measures. As I was already at The Common Stage Travis won. Victorious Festival was really helping me tick off some of the bands I wished I’d seen. A real highpoint of my summer has seeing ‘Sing’, ‘Driftwood’ and an acoustic version of ‘Flowers in the Window’ performed live.

The Manic Street Preachers are one of the biggest bands from the last few decades, but I have to admit they’ve never been high on my ‘must see’ list. They opened with ‘Motor Cycle Emptiness’ followed by ‘Everything Must Go’ and went on to deliver a raucous close to Saturday that even I enjoyed.

Victorious Festival doesn’t offer camping (this is due to change next year) so we stayed with friends along the coast in Hayling Island. I have to admit it made a lovely change to wake up for day 2 of a festival in a bed. Although getting to the site wasn’t as easy, with an accident on the motorway meant we had to opt for the ferry from Hayling Island to Southsea (which took all of 4 minutes) and a lovely 3 miles walk along the seafront. A bit of a pain but a novel way of getting there.

Sadly due to the morning delays we missed Will Young, which I have to admit I was quite looking forward to, he’s always great fun.

Our first band of the day was Space on the Common Stage, and though their performance and style of music was a little eclectic they put on a catchy set which included the hits ‘Female of The Species’ and ‘Neighbourhood’.

My new discovery of the weekend was Milky Chance. I had listened to them before we came sand I wasn’t all that keen but they killed it live, and I’ll definitely be going back to their albums for a second listen! I’d have to say they were one of my stand out acts from the weekend.

The 2^nd big clash of the weekend was whether to watch Public Service Broadcasting or Ash. I’m a huge fan of PSB and they are always amazing live, but as I will see them at Ramsbottom Festival in September I opted for Ash. Another band of my youth that I never got chance to see and even after 20 years the songs I remember so fondly sounded fantastic, with them performing ‘Girls from Mars’, ‘Shining Light’ and ‘Burn Baby Burn’, I sang and danced the night away. Another band ticked off my wish I’d seen list.

I stayed around the Castle Stage to check out Wolfmother. I have to admit that I’d not really heard any of their music and had assumed they were a heavy rock band. Rock yes but heavy no, they reminded me of Led Zeppelin and I love Led Zeppelin, I’ll be listening to more of them in the future.

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds headlined Sunday and closed the festival and what a treat it was for us all. Noel’s Oasis tracks were always my favourites and I haven’t kept up to date on his work with High Flying Birds, but there’s no doubting that Noel’s ability to write sing along anthems hasn’t diminished. Mixed amongst the High Flying Birds tracks we’re several crowd pleasing Oasis tracks, and I can’t think of any better way for a festival to end than with several thousand people roaring out the anthemic ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’.

So with year two of Victorious Festival under our belt I think it’s well and truly etched in to our festival diary. Great music, great entertainment, great food all at a fantastic price.

A limited number of early bird tickets are now on sale now  Day Tickets £25 and Weekend Tickets £45.

Review by Charlotte Greenwood
Photos courtesy of Victorious Festival