We were up bright and early on the Sunday to head back to Victorious Festival in Portsmouth. After hopping back on the park and ride and covering ourselves in sun cream, we were ready for day two and had a list of things that we wanted to do! After missing out on lots of things the day before due to leaving earlier than expected, we had a plan and were ready to get stuck in.
The ride was easy and we are definitely going to use it next time. At £6 a day, the park and ride made getting to and from the festival a breeze and also allowed us to park securely in an off site car park.
Once there we headed straight for the face painting booth (another perk of the premium tickets!) and whilst I waited for about half an hour in the queue chatting with Kara from ChelseaMamma the boys went to the Heart Radio photo booth. Once it was Max's turn, he was ready to be transformed into a tiger with an amazing festival eye inspired look! I must say I was a tad jealous, but with sunglasses on it would have been a bit of a waste.
We then headed back over to the kids area to let off a bit of energy on the bouncy castles again before getting stuck in to some more activities. Max soon found the awesome retro arcade tent, where him and Scott challenged each other on Fifa and Pokemon games. It was a fab quiet corner in a busy festival that allowed Max to take a moment and calm down amongst the rush.
I can honestly say that even after 2 years of coming to this festival, we still haven't visited everything and we always leave wishing we had a bit more time to explore and find those hidden gems. Maybe next year we will tick off a few more of those places!
We were fortunate to bump into lots of family and friends at the festival, so spent lots of time wandering around with them and catching up whilst listening to some of the music on various stages. By late afternoon Max was a tad tired, hot and bothered so we called on some family to come and grab him so me and Scott could enjoy an evening at the festival.
We are fortunate to be so close to family members at Victorious, but I think if we had come on our own then we would have invested in a trolley to pull him around so we could stay with him later.
Once we were child free, we headed back into the arena and grabbed a drink from the Strongbow bar. Not only did it have their best sellers on offer, it also played host to Radio X who were putting on a fantastic DJ set throughout the whole weekend. After grabbing some food at the Teriyaki Shack (the BEST chinese inspired food you can get at a festival) we popped to the Seaside stage to chill out and spend some time together. I love this stage, there's something so serene about it no matter who is playing. Watching the sun set over the coast as you listen to some amazing music is pure bliss.
By then we realised some of the bands we wanted to see had started at the Butserfest stage. We've been to Butserfest a few times and it's now joined forces with Victorious to bring their festival to Pompey. After catching Fort Hope (who we had only heard once before and were amazing) we then settled to watch Young Guns who blew us away, especially considering half their set up didn't work!
Still loving the rock scene, it's nice to see that the festival has now got that part covered and we loved hearing something a bit heavier than the mainstream that was on the other stages.
On the other hand though, I do have a soft spot for Olly Murs. A few years ago, he did a book signing at my work and I was blown over by how lovely and genuine he was, so I wanted to catch a bit of his set. Unfortunately we underestimated how busy it was going to be and we ended up right at the back beyond the food stalls and bar, stood on a hill. What we did see was amazing and he well and truly rocked the role of headliner! The crowd were loving it (and I think Scott enjoyed it too).
By this point we were starting to get knackered and wanted to beat the rush to the park and ride, so left with a couple of songs of his left and listened to some of Elbow on the way out. We managed to jump on a bus and were home within half an hour! A wise choice for us as we closed our eyes as soon as we hit the pillow.
I can honestly say that Victorious blew us away, year on year they just seem to be getting better than ever. With so much to do for all the family, a completely free kids area and music that the whole family will love, you are sure to find something for everyone. We honestly loved every minute of it and can't actually wait for next year so we can do it all again. Thank you Victorious for helping us create some amazing memories.
*Note: We were given tickets for the purpose of a review.
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