Victorious Pageant
Southsea Frequent, Portsmouth
Twenty fifth-Twenty seventh August 2023

A lot of July and August was completely large should you have been a fan of doing issues indoors or a lover of the standard anorak. Victorious Pageant hauled August again into some type of karmic and meteorological credit score, giving us three nearly solely dry and sunny days and people ‘profitable in life’ emotions that you simply actually can’t assure day by day. The organisers had scored a win too with their daring transfer to scale up the Friday expertise and make the expertise a full three-dayer, slightly than going with a decreased programme and smaller web site on the Friday as in earlier years.

A lot as a competition just isn’t a contest, you inevitably come away hanging medals spherical sure necks. Sunday night time introduced the podium-topping run of Sigrid, Ellie Goulding and Mumford & Sons on The Frequent Stage. In the event you obtained your timing proper, you may additionally catch The Vaccines on The Fort Stage. For Sigrid, it was one final celebration of the summer time earlier than heading again to Norway, so she’d clearly determined to expend her remaining competition vitality for the season, a lot to the viewers’s delight. Ellie Goulding fed the gang with relentless high quality after which clearly fed off the gang’s response. The Sigrid/Goulding development felt like the proper ecosystem of perpetual pop positivity.

Once more, if it was infectious enjoyment you have been after, The Vaccines rolled that out via the Fort Stage subject. When Justin Hayward-Younger smiles, it’s so exhausting to not reciprocate. A late run of Teenage Icon, I At all times Knew and If You Wanna despatched our grins properly into September. Mumford & Sons have been taking part in their solely UK present of 2023 and their first UK present for a number of years, so it was fairly a coup for Victorious, but in addition clearly an enormous deal for the band. Babel and Little Lion Man as the primary two tracks set the tone for what grew to become a type of barn dance mosh pit, with as many individuals whirling spherical as there have been bouncing up and down. I Will Wait signed off the set majestically and joyfully.

You get large selection at Victorious. You might be genuinely having fun with Natalie Imbruglia after which you may get lost for a blast of Amyl & The Sniffers or Billy Nomates. Very very similar to Ellie Goulding’s efficiency, it will have been exhausting for anybody to withstand Natalie Imbruglia’s Saturday afternoon set. As one among three principal stage ‘afternoon headliners’, an amazing latest programming transfer to get the crowds increase early, she justified that standing through a lot greater than Torn – large vocal energy and viewers engagement being two main components.

Amyl & The Sniffers delivered a set that felt prefer it had all of the qualities {that a} respectable competition ought to possess – raucous but managed, treading that high-quality line between being wild and being splendidly, superbly civilised. We may concurrently take care of one another and but lose our minds, all charmed by the incantations of Amy Taylor. Billy Nomates made essentially the most of a quick set on Friday. Battling sound points, listening to the backing monitor solely via the stage displays, one way or the other made the ire of the songs extra pronounced and lent the efficiency further barbs of spikiness. The Frequent Stage is a big space for one individual to fill, however Billy Nomates decreased that area right down to what she was doing and held our focus tightly for thirty splendid minutes.

Raye‘s Friday night time efficiency was headline-worthy in its personal proper. Fluid in genres, it showcased her versatility, in addition to being invested closely along with her down-to-earth persona (we had ‘costume malfunction wedgie’ chat at one level), her drive to be open and weak and the sheer gratitude for the place she is and what she’s doing. Connie Constance opened the primary stage on Saturday with the type of ‘indie dance celebration’ and forthright ferocity that would simply ship her in direction of the highest of the billing within the years to come back. Disgrace additionally introduced riotous, rabble-rousing rock to Saturday afternoon, with a little bit of rabble-surfing thrown in for good measure, a spirit recreated by The Blinders and The Enemy on Sunday.

There was a lot for these whose tastes have been formed in many years that also appear latest within the thoughts, however arithmetic shortly verify occurred a while in the past – The Divine Comedy, Belle & Sebastian and The Charlatans actually proving that their high quality stands the take a look at of time. Even The Go! Staff are swiftly approaching the twentieth birthday of their debut album, however tracks like Ladyflash felt recent to the genuinely youthful and the younger at coronary heart. Blossoms may simply nonetheless be requested for ID in some pubs, however there they have been celebrating their tenth 12 months as a band (appropriately asking us to lift any cans of drink we could also be holding to mark their ‘tin’ anniversary).

With additional headline units throughout the weekend from Jamiroquai, Kasabian, The Pete Tong Orchestra, Johnny Marr and Alt J, together with late replacements The Cribs and Saturday’s ‘particular visitor’ set (introduced on the day) by McFly, you needed to be artful along with your conflict finder app, fleet of foot between levels or just ruthless in selecting who to catch and who to overlook. You possibly can as simply stand in a single place in the primary subject as wander the positioning and max out on the 13 levels. Victorious fits each type of festival-goer.

In the event you did wander, you may have loved the likes of Dara Ó Briain, Omid Djalili and Jason Manford within the Comedy Tent, nice units from Gabriella Cilmi, Badly Drawn Boy, James Walsh & Jerry Williams on the Acoustic Stage, a masterclass from The Dhol Basis on the World Music Stage and a few practically godless gospel from Oh My God, It’s The Church! on the Beats & Swing Stage. It at all times pays to maintain an ear to the smallest levels at Victorious. Such an funding usually tempts you to cease and reap the rewards – Rylee Spooner on the Showcase Stage and Our Propaganda on the Casemates Stage bringing two such moments.

September looms. Can somebody wake us up when it ends? We’ll fortunately dream of Victorious ’23 for some time longer.

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All phrases by Jon Kean. Extra writing by Jon on Louder Than Conflict might be discovered at his creator’s archive. He tweets as @keanotherapy

All images © Simon Reed. His web site is right here and you may go to his creator profile for Louder Than Conflict right here. He tweets as @musicalpix