Glorious Victorious: Madness, Vampire Weekend, Kings of Leon and more thrill festival goers
Victorious festival was a glorious weekend in the British sunshine...
Madness on Friday (22.08.25), Vampire Weekend on Saturday (23.08.25) and Kings of Leon on Sunday (24.08.25). It is the nature of the beast that with three stages you cannot see everything and everybody but there is, it seems, something for everyone at Victorious Festival with artists as diverse as Mel C, Craig David, Bloc Party, Shed Seven and Travis.
Shed Seven's Rick Witter joked to the crown all through the band's set / Credit: Tom Langford
Eighty thousand people are splayed across Southsea Common and everyone and all sorts turn up - from teenage gaggles, to families, to the glittered up middle aged and smiles abound. It is the local must go to event and the cross harbour ferry from Gosport buzzes with pre match excitement and pre-loading drinks.
Somehow Victorious escapes from any hierarchy of hipness. Someone somewhere will find some reason not to like the big day out in Portsmouth. There is no Oasis and there is no Taylor Swift but people watch great live music, smile, dance a little, or lot and enjoy themselves. If you want a break you can sit on the sea wall and watch the sun go down.
You can sing along to Scouting for Girls or dance in the moment to Nelly Furtado or Valerie singing The Zutons and somehow find Jasper Carrot doing comedy.
The sun shines and things are so well organised that you do not have to queue for a toilet and you can eat whatever you want from an array of food trucks all day long. There is no golden circle and everybody has to walk miles from stage to stage.
Vampire Weekend singer Ezra Koenig will never know that someone had caught a coach from Croydon to sing every word to every song. Not everyone will understand the Public Service Broadcasting tales of Spitfires, Space Travel and Everest, but those that do love every moment.
Then the sun goes down over the Solent, the sky turns orange and its a long day at the English seaside doing what we do best. Its another Victory to the Victorious.
Victorious revellers enjoyed incredible music as the sun set on
