On the weekend of the 23-24th of August Kieran Lewis and I headed to Portsmouth for the magical Victorious Festival!
From the Nevada Acoustic Stage to the Seaside Stage we not only saw loads of great performances, but we caught up with a plethora of acts throughout the weekend; including Kelvin Jones, Imperial Mammoth and Lewis Watson.
Being from Portsmouth myself, I was surprised to see the transformation of Southsea seafront into a fully capable festival. The response to the festival was extremely positive; perfect for festival go-ers looking for somewhere different to families wanting the festival experience from a friendly, smaller and less hectic environment than one would get at Bestival, for example and catered for everyone with the local food stalls to the pop up fashion tents, to of course, the music.
One really intriguing area was the ÔÇ£Casemates StageÔÇØ, a variety of acts performed on this tiny platform which you were greeted with upon entry with a general acoustic and Bluesy sounding act playing a set from 11am. For bands such as Eagle & Weeks this resounded with a HUGE audience response as they covered the headliner Dizzee RascalÔÇÖs ÔÇ£BonkersÔÇØ, drawing in more of a crowd than the nearby Nevada Stage.
However, we spent most of our time over by the Seaside stage, which unsurprisingly was the closest location to the Seafront with the area dominating the Bandstand and a lovely view of the water. For many acts, such as Felt Tip and The Van Susans, this gave the opportunity to play on a much larger stage than they were familiar with. I thought this was brilliant to see and evidently gave these smaller bands a helping hand in regards to gaining new fans being the most popular stage regarding audience size.
My ÔÇ£OneÔÇÖs To WatchÔÇØ from Victorious include:
Kelvin Jones (of Good Morning America fame
Felt Tip (who have been on the Topshop/Topman playlist)
Kassassin Street (psych-rock with a Southsea cult following who will be snapped up v.soon)
Lewis Watson (who was also a very lovely guy)
Van Susans (folky and stuff)
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All content written by Jessica Campbell