I attended Victorious last year and before I dig deep into the festival, I want to address something; I want to start this post off with an open statement regarding Victorious’ issues surrounding the Palestinian genocide/war/crisis/famine/(all of the above).

I attended Victorious on Sunday 24th August 2025 but I was at the time unaware of what had happened on the Saturday evening (with The Mary Wallopers sound being cut when they raised a Palestinian flag and chanted pro-Palestine chants). I also was unaware that this was the reason that bands such as The Last Dinner Party pulled out of the show as I know other acts like Chris McCausland had taken ill earlier on in the day so the same was presumed to be true of TLDP, however I completely stand with TLDP and their decision to not perform due to anti-Palestinian propaganda at the festival. I also was unaware until I got home that staff members had been asked to take off Palestine flags (etc) which is very much a disgrace. I started my day having a conversation with a lady wearing an ‘end the occupation’ bracelet and I felt comforted that I was surrounded by the right people but apparently I was incorrect (or at least that’s true of the management as some staff at least tried to wear pro-Palestine merchandise before being told that was not allowed). In no way do I condone anti-Palestinian behaviour/opinions/attitudes and I in fact condemn them for this. What happened was outrageous and I felt upset that I had supported such an institution. Victorious have since come out and said that they were not anti-Palestine and they in fact don’t allow any flags and that was their reasoning, and that they will in retrospect make a sizeable donation to Palestinian charities including food aid, recognising the famine, however it is too little too late in my opinion and it is not good enough in this political climate; had it been an England flag maybe that would be okay as we are not mid-war however Palestine is stuck in a genocide so what they did in fact DID make a political statement, whether they meant it or not.

What was there?

Victorious wasn’t just about the music! I mean of course the music was there, that was the main event, the no.1 priority, so when I went, our headliner was Kings of Leon – pretty cool, right? I’ve seen them before so I was hyped! I wore their merch of course, it seemed only right, but I dressed up the rest of my outfit to be pretty eclectic.

Victorious had lots of stalls selling lots of clothing, especially vintage clothing. It was really cool but uunfortunately unless you go into the larger shops a lot of vintage stalls don’t stock the larger sizes and also their stock was out of my price range anyway, as vintage clothing can be quite spenny – I’m not against that at all I just didn’t have the money at the time.

As well as the vintage thrift shops Victorious also had a chance to thrift at a more affordable rate – charities such as British Heart Foundation had set up their stalls with mini charity shop pop-ups which were actually really helpful – I bought a few things including sunglasses (I forgot mine and not only was it a sunny day but I need to wear mine for strobe lighting as they can cause me seizures) and mini fans!

Now onto my favourite area – shop small. Shop small was a little square of huts set up of small local businesses. I picked up SO many business cards (due to my lack of funds) but in the end came away with a pair of dangly acrylic y2k earrings as well. In this area there was also a fun art installation where you could write your favourite songs, lyrics etc on walls and it looked fab.

They then had the family area – it had lots of fun family activities, photo ops, places to chill out etc, a good place to explore but we didn’t stay long there as it was very busy.

Next they had the kids area – there were so many games to play, educational places, play pens, a free library (I put it out there that I wanted to go into the library!!! I was so jealous of all the kids getting a library!). That’s all pretty cool.

The biggest area, though, going back to the music areas, and also spread allllllll around, literally everywhere – you could find it in family and kids areas too – was the food area. In the food area I enjoyed the most insane thing I have ever put in my mouth – mac and cheese fries. They were so good. I followed this up a few hours later by a crumble pot, but not any old crumble pot, peach crumble – literally the best. The food at Victorious obviously did have a heightened price tag however it wasn’t actually too expensive – so don’t be prepared for the worst, and let me tell you – it was worth every penny.

Atmosphere

I loved the atmosphere at Victorious. In the daytime it was very chilled out. There wasn’t any drunken tomfoolery but people were still enjoying themselves (and alcohol is still served so it’s not like everyone was tee total, just more sensible and respectful so it seems). People we’re just enjoying themselves by keeping themselves to themselves enough but also being friendly enough on the other hand; people just knew how to be polite, and also, how to have a good time. As the night progressed, the energy increased. No one was rowdy but everyone on the viewing platform was excited. The only extreme drunkeness came from one woman about 5m from me who had a mobility scooter crash making a drunken early exit! But even that didn’t ruin the mood. The only thing I have to say, and this isn’t about Victorious, it’s about festivals in general (I imagine, this is my first one, but the point applies), is that the vibe isn’t the same as a concert because not everyone is singing along. Not everyone is there for that act, even the headliner, so whilst I rock out to every word of every Kings of Leon song, the person next to me doesn’t know the words… whereas at a concert my seat bestie knows all of them.

Accessibility

Victorious’ accessibility was okay. It seemed to be quite good but it didn’t fully work out to plan. There were a lot of things that just didn’t work out and a few things that just weren’t considered (and maybe if I weren’t a wheelchair user I wouldn’t have, so I get it), so organising it is hard to navigate, but it mostly went well.

I also thought that during Victorious I would have to deal with a lot of negative people but I only had to deal with the odd arsehole – I truly thought i’d be battling every other person but most people were kind.

I’m so glad that not just the day, but the whole weekend, and the lead up to the festival was dry because if it had rained i’d have been battling a muddy bog; luckily, it was all clear, so my main access issue was getting over the grass! It was quite a bumpy terrain which was a bit tough for me as i’d just been discharged from hospital with a back/coccyx injury, so every tiny up and down felt like a speed bump on steroids – luckily a fair bit of it was road though so that part was easy enough.

On the topic of roads, the area where the stalls were was really inaccessible. They were placed on the roads but the stalls were on the pavement with enough room for walking customers to browse on the pavement but no room for wheelchairs. This meant wheelchairs were pushed on the road and then couldn’t enter the stall from there. For me, sometimes I can stand, but not always, so this could give me access to them sometimes, but not always, based on pain, HR, fatigue, and a number of other things, and given this was a very hot day, being late august, I was less likely to be able to access them as my symptoms would flare up.

The festival also had a viewing platform that guests could watch from, however when it was full, it was full, and they wouldn;t let anyone else on – there were long queues of wheelchair users and people with invisible disibilities waiting to get on the platform at every moment and when we finally got on to the platform we saw why; every guest was allowed 4 family members with them at a time on the platform – it’s horrible to split up families, especially if a mother is with her children, however unfortunately the 4 family members were taking up crucial disabled spaces in a space created for disabled people – I take my dad OR my wife, who are also my carers, who i can enjoy time with and they can look after me too. One guest per person would allow more disabled people on the disabled platform, then potentially they could open a family viewing platform for families if needed. Another issues is half of the platform was overrun by paid VIP guests – again it is a priority platform for disabled people due to medical need – we shouldn’t be capitalising on this.

Speaking of invisible disabilities, the fesitval was spread out over a really large plot of land. The distance between the two stages was huge (and we found we couldn’t get there in the 5 minute break between bands if we wanted to see one on each different stage) and my Dad really struggled, walking. I was using my powerchair so the distance was okay for me aside the generic daily fatigue build up that comes with living with M.E. but that could happen at any distance really. As someone living with an invisible disability (who uses a walking stick), the my Dad’s feedback would be to make everything closer together next year, it could be done.

On a more positive note, and a completely different one at that, my festival essentials kit includes loops and ear defenders due to the old ’tism and though I had mine packed (or infact on most of the time as a precaution, as overstimulation gives me seizures), they sold both loops (unbranded, or probably another brand to be honest), AND ear defenders! I thought that was wonderful for neurodiverse or symptom-aligning people who struggled with the loud noise and would probably just want to leg it without them (and maybe didn’t know they needed it, or where to get them until they got there)

They also did let me take in drinks and snacks (which are not normally allowed as we claimed they were a medical necessity (as they were) and they let my Dad take his chair in for medical needs to be be to sit during the gig.

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I hope this helps you decide if this is for you or not! I had great fun.

You can buy tickets here!

Love always,

Laur xxx