You might have heard us mention Portsmouth’s Victorious Festival once or twice and perhaps wondered what it’s all about? Well, we spoke to two Swiss LSI/IH Portsmouth students, Birgit and Mike, about their experience there last month. The Victorious Festival has been held in Portsmouth for nearly 10 years now and attracts tens of thousands of music fans from all over the place. It was originally set up by three local guys who started out running their own pub in Albert Road, Little Johnny Russell’s, now called Lord John Russell’s.
Read on to hear from Birgit and Mike and see some great photos of the event…
Written by Birgit & Mike from Switzerland:
From 11am to 11pm at the Victorious Festival
What’s happening in Portsmouth!? There were so many people on the streets, they were looking a little bit strange and most of them had face paint on their face! The Traffic was horrible. But the Pompey locals were still in a good mood. You could see happy faces everywhere and hear lots of laughing. Everything pointed to a special occasion and that’s because for 3 days the Victorious Festival was on and we were very excited to go there. But first we queued up to get in!
Once we were inside, we had a great view of this huge festival area with several stages. The sea view makes this place unique. There were many food and drink stalls and other sales attractions for your wellbeing.
We didn`t know where to go first. Should we go straight to the Common Stage? or visit one of the smaller stages first? We decided to start with the smaller “Beats and Swing” stage where there was an older (but in his heart still young) DJ who blasted bass around our ears.
We enjoyed this special festival atmosphere which was added to by this beautiful sunset.
In the evening, the whole thing was topped once again by famous names on the stages, such as Rag’n’Bone Man, Manic Street Preachers and The Streets.
At the end of the day, after a lot of dancing and singing, we went back to our homestay family feeling exhausted but very happy! It was a wonderful, exuberant and peaceful party atmosphere. One day we will surely return!
There you have it!
Thank you to Birgit and Mike for sharing their own experience of the Victorious Festival with us and we certainly do hope to see them in Portsmouth again in the future.
If you’d like to visit the festival during your summer course next year, you’ll need to be around over the August Bank Holiday which next year falls on 26- 28 August and tickets are already on sale. In case you want to check out other summer music festivals in the south, you could have a look at the following:
- The Isle of Wight Festival: A world famous music festival with a Woodstock vibe first held in 1968 and attended by anyone who was anyone! This event is usually held in June but will take place in September this year due to a date change caused by the pandemic. Acts this year include David Guetta and Tom Jones!
- Boomtown: A music festival with a theatrical feel in which festival-goers dress up in theatrical style to be a part of the ‘story’. Set near Winchester, this festival is particularly unique.
- Weyfest: A small family-style music festival in nearby Surrey which describes itself as a music festival without the mud!
Check out our site to see what courses we offer year round or get in touch with one of our friendly staff if you have questions about LSI/IH Portsmouth or our city!