If you like your music festivals with a bit of everything — huge names, brilliant smaller acts, questionable British weather, overpriced-but-necessary festival food and enough stage clashes to make you question your life choices — then Victorious Festival 2026 certainly delivered.
Taking place across Southsea Common and Castle Field in Portsmouth over the August Bank Holiday weekend, Victorious 2026 brought together an impressively varied line-up including The Streets, Scissor Sisters, Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Faithless, Dizzee Rascal, Happy Mondays, Kate Nash, Lottery Winners, The Royston Club and Richard Ashcroft, alongside a huge number of local and emerging artists.
As a university student, Victorious is exactly the sort of festival that makes sense: there is plenty to discover without having to spend the sort of money required for some of the UK’s enormous camping festivals, and Portsmouth itself makes the whole experience feel a little less intimidating than disappearing into a field in the middle of nowhere.
But this year’s festival wasn’t perfect. The wind and rain tested everyone’s patience, the stage clashes were genuinely painful, and there were moments when Victorious seemed to be trying to please several completely different audiences at once.
Still, I came away feeling that the good massively outweighed the bad.
Let’s start with the obvious: the weather was not exactly on our side.
Victorious is brilliantly positioned beside the sea, but that also means you are completely exposed when the wind decides to make itself known. Saturday brought showers and a strong breeze, while the wider Bank Holiday weekend was forecast to be unsettled, with the Met Office warning of heavy showers and possible thunderstorms.
There is something uniquely British about standing in a field wearing a waterproof jacket while simultaneously eating chips, trying to protect your phone from the rain and pretending that the weather isn’t bothering you.
The wind also made some parts of the site feel considerably colder than the actual temperature suggested.
But credit where it is due: the weather didn’t kill the atmosphere. People still danced, sang, queued for food and packed themselves into stages to see their favourite artists. If anything, the occasional downpour created that strange festival solidarity where complete strangers start laughing together because everyone looks equally miserable.
The stage clashes were one of my biggest frustrations.
The sheer number of good acts at Victorious is both its greatest strength and one of its biggest weaknesses. There were far too many occasions where I wanted to see two — or sometimes three — artists who were performing at almost the same time.
That is obviously a nice problem for a festival to have, but it still feels frustrating when you’ve got a weekend ticket and realise you must choose between acts you genuinely wanted to see.
For me, the stage clashes throughout Victorious Festival 2026 were one of the biggest disappointments of the weekend. I would much rather have seen some of the bigger acts spaced out slightly differently so that audiences could experience more of the line-up rather than constantly having to sacrifice one performance for another.
And this brings me to Scissor Sisters.
Scissor Sisters were fabulous — but perhaps not the most family-friendly scheduling.
Their performance was outrageous, energetic, camp, sexy and exactly what you’d hope for from Scissor Sisters. The crowd was treated to a proper party, and lots of boob and bum, rather than a polite greatest-hits performance.
However, I did overhear quite a few parents complaining that their children had seen some of the raunchier elements of the performance. I can understand why some parents were uncomfortable, particularly when you’ve got younger children in tow. At the same time, though, I couldn’t help thinking surely everyone knows who Scissor Sisters are? This isn’t a new indie band suddenly deciding to become provocative. Scissor Sisters have always been associated with flamboyant, sexually charged, adult-oriented pop. If you deliberately take very young children into a huge crowd for a Scissor Sisters headline-style performance, some of what you see and hear probably shouldn’t come as a complete surprise.
That said, I do think the festival could have thought more carefully about the scheduling. Their set felt relatively early considering the nature of the performance, and I can understand why some parents felt caught off guard.
Personally? I loved it and wanted more.
Unfortunately, Richard Ashcroft didn’t quite live up to expectations for me as a former Verve fan.
Considering he was one of the three headline acts for Victorious 2026, I went into the performance expecting something special. The former Verve frontman has an extraordinary catalogue and, on paper, should have been one of the defining performances of the weekend. For me, it simply didn’t happen. There were moments where the songs were obviously enormous and the crowd responded accordingly, but overall, I found the performance disappointing compared with some of the other artists on the bill.
This is perhaps the danger of having such a ridiculously strong supporting line-up: when you have acts like Scissor Sisters, Faithless, Nile Rodgers & CHIC and The Streets elsewhere on the weekend, the headline performances have a very high bar to clear.
The Royston Club were a great example of an act that benefited from a festival environment. They brought the sort of energetic indie-rock performance that makes you glad you wandered away from the main stage.
Likewise, Lottery Winners were hugely enjoyable again this year and had exactly the kind of upbeat, communal energy that works brilliantly at a festival.
This is where Victorious succeeds particularly well. It isn’t just about ticking off famous names from a poster. Some of the best memories can come from stumbling across an act you didn’t know much about beforehand.
Dizzee Rascal brought the energy.
Dizzee Rascal was another act who understood exactly what a festival crowd needed. The set was energetic, familiar and ridiculously easy to get swept up in. Even if you aren’t necessarily a massive Dizzee fan, there is something about hearing those tracks in a massive outdoor crowd that works. It was one of those performances where the nostalgia factor and the live energy came together perfectly. Shame the weather couldn’t have held off for this one, a bit of sun and thousands of people chanting Bassline Junkie would’ve been just the ticket.
Happy Mondays were surprisingly good.
I must admit that Happy Mondays surprised me. I wasn’t expecting them to be one of my standout acts, but they were genuinely good fun. There was something chaotic and old-school about their performance, and the crowd seemed to embrace it completely. Sometimes the acts you have the lowest expectations for end up being the ones you enjoy most — and Happy Mondays were that for me.
Nile Rodgers & CHIC were pure festival joy.
If there was an act practically engineered for a festival, it was Nile Rodgers & CHIC.
The combination of disco, funk and enormous singalong tracks created one of the most universally enjoyable atmospheres of the weekend. There is something almost impossible to dislike about hearing those songs performed live in front of thousands of people. Even if you arrive claiming that disco isn’t really your thing, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain that position once everyone around you is dancing.
Massaoke: gloriously ridiculous in the best possible way
Massaoke deserves a mention because it was exactly the kind of silly, communal entertainment that makes festivals fun. It’s impossible to take it too seriously — and that’s precisely the point. In between the major artists, having something where the crowd can simply sing along, have a laugh and forget about everything else is genuinely valuable.
Kate Nash and the politics of a festival audience
Kate Nash was probably the most divisive performance I saw. She was outspoken, swore quite a lot and expressed political opinions that clearly didn’t sit comfortably with everyone around me. Personally, I agreed with most of what she was saying. But agreeing with an artist doesn’t mean you can’t recognise that the audience wasn’t particularly receptive.
There were people around me who looked and sounded uncomfortable or annoyed, and it created an interesting atmosphere. Festivals are strange places politically because you have thousands of people with completely different backgrounds and opinions standing together in one field. For some people, that makes political expression exciting. For others, they have paid a considerable amount of money to escape from politics for a weekend.
I also couldn’t help wondering whether some of the reaction was still influenced by what happened at Victorious Festival 2025.
The Mary Wallopers controversy still casts a shadow.
For anyone who has forgotten what happened last year, the Mary Wallopers controversy at Victorious Festival 2025 was considerably bigger than a normal festival disagreement. During their performance, the Irish band displayed a Palestinian flag and voiced support for Palestine. A festival crew member intervened and removed the flag, after which the band’s sound was cut. The band subsequently said they had been stopped from performing because of the flag and shared video footage of the incident.
The festival initially gave a different explanation, saying the set had been stopped because of what it described as a discriminatory chant. The Mary Wallopers rejected that account and argued that the footage showed the sound being cut following their pro-Palestinian chants and the dispute over the flag. The backlash was significant.
The Last Dinner Party, The Academic and Cliffords withdrew from the 2025 festival, while other artists publicly criticised the organisers. Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig also spoke out about the incident.
Victorious subsequently apologised, acknowledging that the situation had not been handled sensitively enough and saying that it supported artists’ right to express their views within the law and the inclusive nature of the event. The festival maintained that its longstanding ban on flags of any kind was a general event-management and safety policy rather than a ban on political expression. It also pledged a substantial donation towards humanitarian relief for Palestinians.
So, did that controversy affect Victorious Festival 2026 ticket sales?
There isn’t enough publicly available evidence to say that it did, but I did ponder whether the sparse crowd at times over the weekend was due to more than just the wind and rain. In fact, Victorious was still selling tickets immediately before the 2026 festival, and reports said the event attracted more than 150,000 attendances across the weekend.
That doesn’t prove the controversy had no effect — some people may well have decided not to return — but there is no reliable public sales data showing that the 2025 incident caused a significant fall in 2026 ticket sales. It would therefore be unfair to claim that it damaged attendance without evidence. And even though I left Victorious Festival early last year, it remains one of my sweet spots of Summer and over the years, the acts they’ve managed to snag have been amazing overall.
What I do think is fair to say is that the incident remained part of the festival’s recent history. After what happened with the Mary Wallopers, Kate Nash’s outspoken political comments inevitably felt like part of a bigger conversation about what artists can say on stage and how much political expression festival audiences actually want. And perhaps that’s not necessarily a bad conversation to have.
The People’s Kitchen was my food choice once again this weekend.
Festival food can be wildly hit and miss. For me, the standout was The People’s Kitchen, next to the People’s Lounge. Their vegan thali was brilliant. And it’s a stall I make a Bee Line for every year.
As a student, finding something that is genuinely tasty, filling and a little different from the endless rotation of burgers, chips and pizza is always appreciated. The thali was one of those meals that made me actively seek the stall out again rather than simply grabbing whatever was closest to whichever stage I happened to be standing nearby. My personal winner for best food at Victorious Festival 2026.
Don’t ignore the local acts.
One of my favourite things about Victorious is the opportunity it provides for local and emerging musicians. Among the acts that stood out was Lebbs, another reminder that a festival doesn’t need to be dominated by household names to be worthwhile. His smooth vocals, clever lyrics and soulful grooves drew me over and I instantly followed him on Spotify.
These performances are particularly important for younger festivalgoers and students. Seeing an artist on a relatively small stage and realising that they could potentially be playing a much bigger one in a few years is part of what makes live music exciting.
For me, the local acts added personality to the festival rather than simply filling gaps between the big names.
Faithless delivered
Faithless were another highlight. Their performance brought a completely different energy to the festival and worked brilliantly once the evening atmosphere started to settle in despite the wind and rain. There is something particularly effective about electronic music at a festival because you don’t necessarily need to know every track. The atmosphere does a lot of the work.
But The Streets were the absolute highlight for me.
If I had to choose one performance from Victorious Festival 2026, there is absolutely no competition. The Streets were the highlight of my entire weekend. Mike Skinner and The Streets performing A Grand Don’t Come for Free in full was always going to be one of the most exciting things on the bill, but seeing it live exceeded my expectations.
There was something incredibly nostalgic about hearing those songs with a huge festival crowd, while also appreciating how well the album still works as a complete piece of storytelling. It wasn’t simply a collection of hit songs.
It felt like an experience. Goosebumps, tears, excitement and throwing shapes in a field with thousands of strangers side by side, whilst the wind inflated my poncho and the rain washed away all my cares for the duration of their set was incredible.
The atmosphere, the crowd and the familiarity of the songs combined to create the sort of festival moment that you remember afterwards — the reason you put up with the rain, the queues, the expensive food and the logistical nightmare of trying to get from one stage to another.
The Streets were, without question, my Victorious Festival 2026 moment.
Final verdict: was Victorious Festival 2026 worth it? Yes. Absolutely!
Despite the wind, rain, stage clashes and a few performances that didn’t quite live up to expectations, Victorious Festival 2026 was a genuinely enjoyable weekend.
The line-up was impressively diverse. There was something for indie fans, rock fans, dance fans, pop fans, nostalgia fans and people who simply wanted to stand in a field by the sea with their friends.
The festival also gets something important right: discovery.
For every massive name like Scissor Sisters, Nile Rodgers & CHIC, Dizzee Rascal, Faithless or The Streets, there were smaller artists and local performers waiting to be discovered.
Would I change things? Definitely.
I’d rethink some of the stage scheduling, particularly the frustrating clashes, and I’d consider whether Scissor Sisters’ wonderfully raunchy performance really belonged in such an early slot given Victorious’ strong family-friendly branding. I’d also like to see the festival continue demonstrating that it can handle political expression and disagreement more confidently after the Mary Wallopers controversy.
But festivals aren’t supposed to be perfect. They’re supposed to give you memories.
And between dancing to Scissor Sisters, being unexpectedly impressed by Happy Mondays, discovering smaller acts, eating an excellent vegan thali, surviving the British weather and watching The Streets absolutely own the weekend, Victorious Festival 2026 gave me plenty of those.
Victorious Festival 2026 rating: 4.5 / 5
Best act: The Streets
Biggest surprise: Happy Mondays
Best party: Scissor Sisters
Best dance performance: Nile Rodgers & CHIC
Best food: The People’s Kitchen vegan thali
Best discovery: Local and emerging acts such as Lebbs
Biggest frustration: Stage clashes
Most controversial moment for the crowd goers: Kate Nash
Would I go again? Absolutely.