We love Victorious Festival, but it is safe to say that the weather hasn’t always been kind to us.

This year, it was positively glorious, with wall to wall sunshine from beginning to end and not a drop of rain in sight.

Victorious is the UK’s Biggest Metropolitan Festival which is set on Southsea Common, over looking the Solent.

The festival starts on Friday afternoon, but due to work commitments we travelled up to Portsmouth on the Saturday and Sunday, taking advantage of their park and ride facilities.

We started both days getting our faces painted or glittered and making floral headdresses before exploring so see what was going on.

Victorious is a brilliantly family friendly festival and has a large Kids Arena open from 10am-6pm on Saturday and Sunday, which is a mini-festival in itself.

The Kids Arena features an abundance of family-friendly activities including face painting, karaoke, mini fairground rides and even a gaming zone, all of which are completely free to mini festival-goers! 

We spent a good portion of both days in the Kids Arena, with one of the kids favourite activities being the Lidl Mudder event.

This area was filled with fun challenges for them to try, like launching into a foam pit, or beating the vertical wall.

Sebby’s favourite activity from last years festival was back and he took his Jedi Training very seriously!

Most of the activities are all run by local groups and there was also the chance to pose with football trophies from Portsmouth FC, make nutcrackers with the theatre company and various other craft activities.

The only downside to the kids arena is there is not enough to do for older children like Isaac who is too old for many of the activities on offer, but isn’t quite at the age where he wants to relax, explore and enjoy the music.

We did find that the D-Day Museum was open and free to enter, which all the kids enjoyed exploring.

It was also air conditioned, so the perfect place to cool down and avoid spending too much time in the hot sun.

For music lovers, there are numerous stages offering music from local performers and music from around the world, to artists we all know and love from the charts.

There are two main stages: The Common Stage, which is set on Southsea Common and the Castle Stage, which sits adjacent to Southsea Castle.

This year, Victorious Festival staged a bit of a coup and had booked Lewis Capaldi. I don’t think I have ever seen the Castle Stage so packed.

He put on an amazing show, although if taking young kids to see him, be aware that he is a little bit sweary.

Getting from the Castle Stage after his performance to see James Bay on the Common Stage was a challenge, as it seemed most of the audience had the same idea.

Other acts we enjoyed seeing over the two days were All Saints, Professor Green and Razorlight.

We would have liked to stay and watch Rudimental and New Order, but by 8pm the kids had had enough and wanted to head home.

5 things you need to know before you go

Kids Arena

The Kids Arena is not open on Friday, so if you are planning on doing all three days, be aware that there isn’t much for them to do on Friday.

The Kids Arena is open from 10am to 6pm, but be aware that you may have to queue or book time slots for popular activities.

Camping

There is family camping available, but it is not onsite and is a good half an hour bus ride away, so you can’t just pop back to the tent to recharge your batteries.

Food and Drink

Probably our biggest bugbear was that you are not allowed to take your own food and drink inside – they even confiscated a bag of Maoams.

Take empty water bottles with you and fill them up at the free water stations which are dotted around the festival.

There is plenty of food and drink available to buy. I would advise you to shop around as the prices differ throughout the site. Most places were taking payments by both cash and card.

Shade and Shelter

The Kids Arena is set amongst the trees so is lovely and shaded, however, the rest of the festival is open with no shade, so make sure you take hats and/or umbrellas.

Fairground

The teen / adult fairground costs extra per ride (£2.50pp), so factor this into your budget.

Victorious Festival will be back on 28th/29th and 30th August 2020. Tickets are on sale now and cost from £25

Do you enjoy going to festivals?

Disclaimer: We were guests of Victorious Festival for the purpose of a review. All thoughts and opinions are our own

• hampshire
• review
• Southsea
• Victorious Festival