We dipped our toes back into festival life at the beginning of the summer at Camp Bestival and it felt almost back to normal after a year of lockdowns and restrictions.
Victorious Festival was held at on the Friday / Saturday and Sunday of August bank holiday weekend at Southsea seafront Portsmouth.
This year was slightly different, for obvious reasons, as we had to show proof of a negative lateral flow test before entry, which meant a bit more queuing than normal, but everyone seemed in good spirits and were just looking forward to getting inside.
All of our favourites were back, including face painting, balloon modelling and making festival flower crowns.
In the past, we have enjoyed Victorious Festival for their large kids arena, which is packed full of fun, free activities to keep the small people happy.
The kids are a bit older now and this year they found that the activities, with the exception of the games tent, were too young for them.
Thankfully, as they are that bit older, they enjoy the music and exploring the site.
Victorious always has a fabulous line up of musicians, with two main stages; Common and Castle, as well as smaller, more eclectic stages. They didn’t disappoint this year, with a line-up that featured the likes of Royal Blood, The Streets, Fratelli’s, Annie Mac, Mel C and festival favourites Madness.
My husband was over-the-moon to see Morcheeba, whilst the kids really enjoyed the DJ set from Craig David, which got the party started on Saturday afternoon.
We did find Victorious a lot busier than in previous years, with extremely long queues for food and drink – you are not allowed to bring your own. In fact, by the end of the afternoon, it was uncomfortably busy, especially for us trying to negotiate the crowds with children in tow.
It is worth paying the extra to access the premium enclosure, as it is a good place to shelter from the crowds.
The premium enclosure also offers a covered viewing area, its own bars and food stands, plus proper toilets – always a bonus at a busy festival.
Despite the crowds, we enjoyed Victorious and the highlight of the whole festival for all of us was seeing Rag ‘n’ Bone Man, who had the whole crowd singing along with his anthems.
Victorious Festival will be back on 26/27/28 August 2022 and if you buy early bird tickets now, you can pay as little as £4 per month.
Have you been to Victorious before?
Disclaimer: We were guests of Victorious Festival. All thoughts and opinions are our own
What a line up! This was a real taste of post-lockdown freedom… I feel like I need to get some festival action. Especially for that insta Ely good face painting