Victorious reviews by the numbers
So, we got our pet AI to scan 17 Victorious 2026 reviews and over the course of 26,670 words it counted 74 of the festival’s acts getting a mention from the writers.
Unsurprisingly these majored on the big names on the big stages.
And that’s what AI is good at…it gives us some useful names and numbers to chew over.
While reading through many festival reviews we find they can often blur into a monotone hiss of everyone talking about just a handful of headliners.
The Summer Festival Guide pretty much exclusively writes about the big hitters… plaintively admitting at the end that: “What makes Victorious stand out is the sheer variety of acts across the weekend…” Admitting that they hadn’t “even had chance to cover other artists across the many stages, including up-and-coming Brummies GANS, Preston from Big Brother’s return with The Ordinary Boys, or Welsh rap ‘legends’ Goldie Looking Chain.” (The Summer Festival Guide)
Elsewhere, some publications focused in tightly on just a few favourites:
Tony Palmer of Melodic Mag, wrote simply, “Our pick of favourites spanned recent breakthrough bands including The Royston Club, Seb Lowe and The Lottery Winners, to established artists including Bastille, The Vaccines and Sigrid.” (Melodic Mag)
Beyond the big names
But once you get past the likes of Nile Rogers, Scissor Sisters, The Black Keys, Happy Mondays and Kasabian (who notched up detailed mentions in between 9 and 11 of the reviews we found) it’s not that much further down the leader board when you start to find writers giving page-space to GANS, The Royston Club, Matt Hennessy, The Love Buzz, Good Health, Good Wealth, and Bloodworm.
Or The Guest List, who Ivan (Gigs With Ivan) cleared rated: “Best New band I have seen in a while and we booked to see them on tour, while still in the festival on Sunday afternoon. Yes, that good. (Gigs With Ivan)
And in the middle are acts like The Streets, who rack up some serious thumbs ups…
“The Streets played A Grand Don’t Come for Free in its entirety,” wrote eFestivals, “and the crowd it pulled was enormous. Mike Skinner’s 2004 album has aged into something close to a national text, and hearing it run start to finish, a narrative record played as a narrative, justified the format completely.” (eFestivals)
Victorious In context
The veteran festival website also put Victorious into the wider national bank holiday context, saying: “Reading/Leeds preys on the summer trying to game-theory what a seventeen-year-old will want by August, and reshapes itself accordingly. All Points East books for east London and prices for it. Meanwhile, Victorious Fest books Scissor Sisters and the Vengaboys and unapologetically aims for broad mainstream appeal.” (eFestivals)
This mainstream but also offering more left field choices approach was echoed elsewhere, with Wessex Student putting it this way: “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.” (Wessex Student)
And The Upcoming described:”…a fun first day of two halves at Victorious, encompassing both thrilling crowd-pleasing indie and nostalgic pop.” (The Upcoming)
Household Names
With everyone writing up and rating Nile Rogers and Chic so highly here’s just one line we pulled out of the hat:
“Nile Rodgers and Chic arrived and showed exactly how it should be done. Note-perfect, full of energy and actively encouraging everyone to sing along – whether they knew the words or were making them up as they went.” (Breaking Glass)
Although not getting so many review-inches our eye was also caught by this write-up of Primal Scream:
“Primal Scream [are a] band who are undoubtedly amongst the key keepers of the flame of classic rock ‘n’ roll. Having had more than their share of losses and casualties over the years, they’re still here, fronted by the irrepressible and seemingly indestructible Bobby Gillespie. Whilst their reputation for rock ‘n’ roll excess and general bad behaviour may precede them, that actually belongs a long time ago in the past.” Brighton and South East Music)
It’s a lottery win
Snapping at the heels of the household names we also found this comment on Lottery Winners’ performance, making us as sure as we have ever been that they will one day be playing the veteran slots:
“In 2021, The Lottery Winners opened up the Common Stage around midday to a sparse crowd. In 2026, the field was full and this year (as I believe the young people say) they shut it down. They were imperious.” (Louder Than War)
After all, any band who can pull off throwing new material successfully into a festival set has to be worth their salt, as Brighton and South East Music noted:
“Thom then mentions that [Lottery Winners] are going to put out a new album next year and asks the crowd to join in with the new song, ‘Steady We Go’. As with all songs by the Lottery Winners, it’s a catchy melodic tune that sounds anthemic and gets the crowd swaying. Thom says, “That’s a hit song, right? Ed Sheeran is shitting himself.” (Brighton and South East Music)
For (in-common) Scissor Sisters were the definite high point of Friday. “We had the perfect warm-up to their crazy, camp show a couple of hours earlier with The Venga Boys bringing the party to an absolutely packed Castle Stage crowd. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bigger crowd at the Castle Stage for an afternoon performance.” (in-common)
From GANS to Eurovision
But Louder Than War went the other way, claiming that: “Friday’s highest points came mostly away from the big stages. The Under The Trees Stage provided us with The Love Buzz, Good Health Good Wealth and GANS.” (Louder Than War)
We would always have to agree with GANS getting that rating, and we couldn’t have said this better ourselves:
“GANS delivered the set of the weekend. Under The Trees briefly became the Haribo Overdrive Stage as they tore through an ultimately indescribable and thoroughly irrepressible genre-rich set.” (Louder Than War)
And Erazer was on point with this description:
“GANS brought a darker, more alternative flavour to the day. Their set provided a welcome counterpoint to the more established festival names, demonstrating the breadth of Victorious’ programming. There is always a risk at a large festival that newer artists can feel like filler between the big names, but GANS had enough presence to make their slot feel worthwhile in its own right.” (Erazer)
Whilst we didn’t catch this set, it’s also worth sharing the only write-up we found of our poor old Eurovision wannabe:
“One of the day’s most gloriously unconventional appearances came from Look Mum, No Computer. In a festival environment that can sometimes favour polished, predictable performances, his set felt like a welcome injection of eccentricity.” (Erazer)
Upsetting the neighbours
Elsewhere, a couple of acts did cause writers pause for thought in terms of the appropriateness of material – but for very different reasons…
Kate Nash’s heavily political and socially challenging diatribes drew mixed views, with writers broadly OK with her stances, but noting how it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea:
“I don’t think there is anything inherently wrong with an artist using their platform to encourage an audience to educate themselves about issues they believe matter. However, as a festival set, it felt slightly mis-pitched. Particularly given the number of young children in the audience, some of the language felt jarring, while the amount of explanation between songs disrupted the momentum of what was, after all, a mid-afternoon festival crowd largely primed for a nostalgic singalong.” (GodisintheTV)
Ane Wessex Student wrote:
“…agreeing with an artist doesn’t mean you can’t recognise that the audience wasn’t particularly receptive.” (Wessex Student)
Elsewhere we found Goldie Looking Chain still doing in their fifties what they were doing decades ago…and still getting away with it, but still sometimes upsetting the neighbours:
“GLC as a concept seems to work even better now that they are in their late forties and early fifties than it did in the noughties when they were daft young men. As long as you knew the context and didn’t mind the irony, it was glorious. One or two passers-by clearly didn’t know what to make of it and made themselves scarce very quickly.” (Louder Than War)
Weather or Not
It wouldn’t be a festival review without the weather getting in on the act. After a summer of heatwaves and dustbowls Victorious delivered the wet and windy goods in spades at times, causing logistical headaches a-plenty. But, as The Hampshire Chronicle wrote: “The organisers probably made the right call when several stages and attractions were forced to close because of the weather. Given the strength of the winds, and in light of the tragic accident at the Big Church Festival, caution was clearly the sensible option. What was striking, however, was how good-natured everyone remained. There was very little grumbling. Instead, there seemed to be a collective determination to make the most of the weekend regardless.” (Hampshire Chronicle)
Or as Louder Than War put it: “A few brief showers that arrived sent the glitter brigade running for cover, but gave the Goretex crew a warm, dry smug grin.” (Louder Than War)
Closing thoughts
More general feedback on the 2026 Victorious edition came in several of the reviews we poured over:
“For many it’s all about the big bands…but for others it’s about different things. Victorious has a reputation that it works hard to maintain of being a family festival. This isn’t lip-service – there is an entire family area, with its own stalls, the awesome retro gaming tent, a stage where you could catch the likes of Supertato, rock climbing and much more.” (in-common)
“…the festival flowed really well between the different stages, giving people more of a chance to watch one half of one act, and then bomb it to another stage to see the second half of another if they just couldn’t decide who to watch.” (The Portsmouth News)
“…that’s perhaps what stands out about Victorious. It has a great site, a strong mix of big names and emerging talent, plenty of activities and a food offering that goes well beyond the usual festival fare.” (Breaking Glass)
And although food prices got a few barbed comments this foodie review did single out one particular stall:
“The [People’s Kitchen] 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.” (Wessex Student)
Finally, in summing up, these two lines caught our eye:
“The weather may have thrown everything it had at us, but it never took away from what was a brilliant three days of live music, with some seriously memorable performances along the way. Victorious Festival 2026, you really were something special!” (House of Coco)
And:
“Victorious knows exactly who it is for, and it is for the sixty-odd thousand people who live within a few miles of Southsea Common and want a very good weekend on their own seafront. It delivers that with a consistency the more self-conscious festivals should probably study. The lineups go from strength to strength each year, and 2027 should be another standout.” (eFestivals)
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