Graham Tarrant

With so many festivals over the bank holiday weekend, it could be difficult to chose which to attend.

Without doubt, the best festival in August was Victorious Festival in Southsea.

To emphasis the strength of the line-up, many of those artists who were booked to top the bill at lesser festivals often appeared lower down the schedule at Victorious.

As a classic example, Blossoms began proceedings on the south coast on Friday at 1pm, despite headlining many other events this summer. The singer joked that he’d played the same park where the main Common Stage was, when his dad was in the navy at the nearby dockyards.

Billy Nomates followed, fresh from her controversial performance at Glastonbury, where she personally asked for her set to be removed from BBC iPlayer, following unjust abuse and backlash. Although she didn’t have a backing band, she made up for it in style, charisma and talent. Definitely one to keep an eye on and watch out for in the future.

Mancunian legends The Charlatans followed, with a melting pot of their absolute classics – including Weirdo, North Country Boy, One to Another, and of course, The Only One I Know. Singer Tim Burgess was clearly enjoying himself, taking selfies and videos on his iPhone of the huge crowd. Check out both his and The Charlatans Instagram for full coverage and scope of the enormous crowd from his viewpoint.

Following a clash between Friendly Fires and Katy B on the Castle stage, independent singer RAYE followed on the Common stage. She played many songs from her debut album ‘21st Century Blues‘, which she referred affectionately to as her first born baby which she was rightfully extremely proud of. It certainly had an Amy Winehouse vibe. New song ‘Ice Cream Man‘ was particularly powerful with a raw exploration of her life after sexual assault. She finished with more upbeat number one song ‘Escapism‘ which had the crowd singing along.

Jamiroquai was a UK festival exclusive performance for Victorious festival. Joking himself that he was a little thinner and lighter in the 90s successful years, singer Jay Kay still has the space cowboy moves, even if he did ask for the spotlights to be turned down to prevent his cataracts needing replacing….or possibly to stop the crowd getting such a sight of his less nimble physique.

Saturday began with not one, but two special guests. While Australian singer and former Neighbours star Natalie Imbruglia shone on the main stage at 1pm, McFly were secret special guests over at the Castle Stage. Fans were truly torn (excuse the pun) on which to see. Recently celebrating their 20th anniversary, McFly still have the energy and moves to kick start any event and draw in a huge crowd…constantly leaping in the air and showing their choreographed moves. It was impossible not to enjoy their show and easy to understand their continued popularity.

Pale Waves followed, adorning a ‘My Mind Makes Noise‘ tattoo – hopefully that noise is as good in their head as it sounded to the crowd, before the long forgotten The Divine Comedy returned, with their good humour. Walking on stage with a glass of red wine, singer Neil Hannon seemed dazzled by the size of the crowd, before appropriately raising the glass to sing ‘Here’s to You‘. Despite complaining of first-world problems that his plectrums were too thin, they played all their classic tunes from the 90s, including ‘National Express‘ and ‘Something For The Weekend‘. Alas their theme from Father Ted and My Lovely Horse were missing (maybe ask your dad if you missed out the first time.)

Scottish legends Belle and Sebastian followed, asking the crowd what the sign-language for Boris Johnson could possibly be…it appeared to be V signs and definitely not ‘V for Victory’. As is customary for a Belle and Sebastian set, they asked many of the crowd to join them onstage for their biggest hit ‘The Boy With The Arab Strap‘ – much to the dismay of the security guards who were sure how the usher everyone offstage afterwards.

The same crowd questioned why Kaiser Chiefs were not booked as headliners. With so many classic hits and singalongs, it’s testament to the strength of the bill that they were lower down the bill. They never missed a beat and when playing ‘I Predict A Riot‘ mid-set, singer Ricky Wilson climbed up the side of the stage scaffolding, to add to the traumatic day the security team were having.

Kasabian were booked as headliners, but arguably had less singalong songs as the aforementioned Kaiser Chiefs. As well as their own hits, to make up for this, they mixed in classics from Daft Punk (One More Time), Beastie Boys (Intergalactic) and Fatboy Slim (Praise You), before finishing with their own anthem ‘Fire’.

As usual with Victorious festival, Sunday morning began with a big crowd-pleaser name, and another blast-from-the past. DJ Annie Mac began proceedings over on the Castle Stage, while forgotten stars of CCTV Hard-Fi returned for their first show in over 10 years and another festival exclusive for Victorious.

Summer Festival Guide favourite Dylan followed, asking if there were any Harry Styles fans in the crowd, before playing her song based on the One Direction singer which gave rise to her own fame on Tik-Tok.

Norwegian Sigrid followed, fresh from headlining Big Feastival earlier in the weekend. Unfortunately her guitar player Liva Svaeren was forced to sit during the entire set after trying to re-enact her inner Gene Simmons from Kiss and injuring her ankle. This was Sigrid’s last set in the UK before returning home to her native land, but hopefully it won’t be long until she returns to our shores.

Ellie Goulding was fortunate to escape without serious injury after a firework onstage flew backwards into her face. She managed to continue with her set despite the scare, but it remained an emotional performance after she revealed prior that she was splitting from her husband on social-media.

Mumford & Sons concluded the main Common Stage on Sunday night, while legendary guitar player Johnny Marr headlined the Castle Stage. Playing songs from his illustrious career Johnny Marr arguably is now a better singer than his Smiths frontman Morrissey, giving the crowd what they wanted with classic versions of ‘This Charming Man‘, ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ and of course, his epic guitar riff ‘How Soon Is Now‘.

Early bird tickets are already available for Victorious 2024 and if the past few years are anything to go by, it’s a safe bet that there will be another incredible line up again next year.

To get 2024 tickets at this years prices, visit https://www.victoriousfestival.co.uk

Rain or shine: Camp Bestival is the ultimate fun-filled family festival.

Although the line up this year in Dorset doesn’t seem as impressive as the sister Shropshire line-up (well this big-kid was upset that Primal Scream weren’t down at the Lulworth Castle event), there was certainly something for all the family over the weekend.

This year marked the 15th anniversary of Camp Bestival – as usual there was plenty of fancy dress across the site. This year, it was animal themed, with the festival teaming up with the fantastic World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Billed as the ‘Best. Party. Ever’, Australian DJ Hot Dub Time Machine began proceedings by showcasing records from every decade and genre of music, from ‘Ghostbusters‘ to Louis Theroux’s ‘Jiggle Jiggle‘…in his words, Camp Bestival is ‘the best festival in the world. There’s nothing like this anywhere else in the world‘ – he could well be right.

Festival favourites Elvana followed with Elvis fronted Nirvana tunes, mixed in with Blue Suede Shoes and Hound Dog….the ever-charming Scouting for Girls followed with chart-friendly pop songs. Later, Ella Henderson, recently dropped from mogul Simon Cowell’s Syco label, delighted fans despite the pouring rain, with a mix of dance classics ‘Crazy What Love Can Do‘ and ‘Glitterball‘. Brighton indie-boys The Kooks brought the Friday night to a close.

Saturday at Camp Bestival is always fancy-dress day and this year didn’t disappoint.

While on initial glance, the line-up didn’t dazzle, at Camp Bestival, the costumes certainly did sparkle. It’s always the hidden gems and surprises which make it such a special event that festival goers return to each and every year.

This year, was certainly no change. The highlight of the weekend was the HMS Camp Bestival stage, with an unmissable back-to-back DJ set with festival founder and curator Rob da Bank and fashion icon Gok Wan.

Always one to make an impressive appearance, Gok descended on to the stage from above in a giant heart, scattering scented confetti onto the fans. Truly it had to be seen with the crowd dancing while the sun shone. A little later, East 17 brought their House of Love to the Big Top, before closing their summer festival set strangely with Xmas hit song ‘Stay Another Day.’ Fortunately the gifts kept giving, and Summer Festival Guide favourites The Cuban Brothers never disappoint. Miguelito always acknowledges the stunning location of Lulworth Castle as a backdrop and summed up the event well to the press team by stating Camp Bestival is ‘the original festival where you see people coming together, having fun and being free, that’s why it’s so special!”

Always a difficult act to follow, and there’s only one woman in the industry who can do it – Ms Grace Jones. Her stage presence is transfixing and she refuses to grow old without any grace (excuse the pun.) At a majestic 75 years, she hula hooped through her greatest hits, including ‘Slave To The Rhythm‘ and ‘Pull Up To The Bumper‘, where she rode the security guards shoulders as she met her adoring fans.

Sunday began with everyone’s favourite Australian CBeebies legend Bluey, before Mr Motivator blew away all the cobwebs getting everyone, including the aforementioned security guards working out.

Later, remarkably impressive tributes to Kate Bush and Dolly Parton followed, before Spice Girl Mel C delighted mums (as well as many dads with her washboard abs on show.) Beginning with solo material, including ‘When You’re Gone‘, it was truly the girl power songs the crowd were looking for, and she didn’t disappoint. Mixing an acoustic ‘Spice Up Your Life‘ with ‘2 Become 1‘ and ‘Who Do You Think You Are‘, it’ll be great to see if the rumours of a Spice Girl reunion headlining Glastonbury next year are true. Watch this space.

Another difficult act to follow, but Confidence Man, brought the magic from their 2022 Glastonbury winning set to the Dorset coast. A mix of Scissor Sisters and 90s dance, their multiple impressive costume changes kept everyone moving. If you ever get chance to catch them, it’s a definite must and a sublime booking, before Craig David took over the decks with his TS5 show.

Asked what TS5 means, it’s his one man show, in which he DJs, MCs, sings his own material and also covers a number of classic R’n’B tunes, from the likes of Whitney Houston to TLC.

No Camp Bestival can conclude without the absolute highlight and majesty which is the acclaimed firework display.

With Lulworth Castle lit up with animal imagery, fireworks illuminated the sky to the delight of the young and older ones within the audience.

Rob da Bank summed up the weekend perfectly, stating ‘What a weekend with our Camp Bestival family! Josie and I had the best time celebrating 15 years of memories across four magical days and we are thrilled that all of our Camp Bestival family could join us. From a roaring Animal Snap theme to headline sets from Grace Jones, The Kooks and Craig David, it’s been a birthday celebration for the history books and we can’t wait to bring the magic of Camp Bestival to Shropshire in just three weeks time!”‘

Roll on Camp Bestival in Shropshire on 17 August – if you’re lucky you may still get some tickets at https://shropshire.campbestival.net

If not, jump quickly on the early bird sale for Camp Bestival 2024 – it’s always the ultimate family festival https://dorset.campbestival.net

The Saturday starts off warm, but things are about to get even hotter, as Pink brings her Summer Carnival Tour to Hyde Park.

Opening the Great Oak stage was Gayle, self-described on her YouTube channel as ‘bassive aggressive dyslexic’ – unusual choice of words, especially as she finished with her hit ‘ABCDE-FU’.

Next up was Eurovision wonder Sam Ryder – it’s impressive he’s playing BST as a support artist, as he’s booked to headline many events this summer himself, including Camp Bestival. Dressed in a knitted smiley outfit, he encourages the crowd to join him in a singalong of ‘better to have fought and lost than never fought at all‘ from his hit song from Ted Lasso tv-show, but the crowd are clearly here waiting for his galactic hit ‘Spaceman‘. It was his birthday over the weekend and what a way to celebrate!

When you’re Pink, you can call upon the biggest artists to support you. They don’t come much bigger than Gwen Stefani, fresh from her own headline appearance at Warwick Castle. To promote the tour, she’s appeared on BBC’s flagship The One Show, as well as This Morning and touted her love of British Music, Madness and The Selecter and it’s clear to see her 2Tone influences with her impressive outfits and costume changes.

As well as solo hits ‘Hollaback Girl‘ and ‘The Sweet Escape‘, she introduces her new song ‘True Babe‘, with the video and lyrics shown on the large screens. The sh!t really is bananas as she mixes Alice in Wonderland visual sets with Harajuku Girls and throws in a few classic No Doubt songs for good measure. On ‘Rich Girl‘, she was also joined by American rapper Even to the delight of the crowd.

What You Waiting For? Well there’s only one act that could possibly follow Gwen Stefani, and she certainly doesn’t disappoint.

P!NK likes to make a big entrance and at Hyde Park, there is simply no exception.

In front of a 65,000+ crowd, she appeared at the very top of the stage and proceeded to bungee down to greet her adoring fans.

What a way to get the party started. For almost two hours, she sling-shotted herself across the stage in a series of impressive leotards. But it wasn’t just the aerial acrobatics. She has an incredible singing voice, but also a voice which refuses to be silenced when she wants to make a clear message and speak up for what she believes in. Talking with the crowd, many people threw gifts, including chocolates and a vast array of soft-toy frogs. By far the most impressive, and (also most pungent) gift she was presented with though was a whole wheel of cheese – god only knows how the audience member managed to get that past the security into the coveted gold-circle.

Her daughter Willow Sage Hart joined her onstage for a version of ‘Cover Me In Sunshine‘, and she impressively covered First Aid Kit’s song ‘Kids in Love‘, and Sade’s ‘No Ordinary Love’, added her own unique style onto each.

Finishing the show, she literally took to the air again high above the crowds, singing ‘So What‘ and finished to a backdrop of fireworks. Such an impressive audio and visual show.

Following P!NK next weekend will be two polar extremes – Guns’n’Roses fresh from their triumphant set and Glastonbury on Friday, while Take That will shine brightly on Saturday.

There may be a few tickets left. Check out https://www.bst-hydepark.com for more details.

Words: Graham Tarrant. All images: Copyright: Dave Hogan/Hogan Media.

Kite: Self-described as ”a festival like no other’, this truly was one of the most eclectic and exciting line-ups of the summer.

Where else could you see Dame Joan Collins as support act for Hot Chip? Or Tony Blair’s former PR guru Alastair Campbell on stage before former Conservative PM Sir John Major?

Mel Giedroyc kicked off proceedings, interviewing Adam Kay, best selling author of ‘This Is Going to Hurt’. Cheekily, Michael Gove was conducting a newspaper review next door, so Mel encouraged the crowd to cheer ‘Gove is Guilty’ – quite!

Boris Johnson’s resignation as MP following his shameful lying dominated proceedings all weekend. Sir John Major stated ‘Johnson has attacked a bedrock of our democracy, by ransacking and ignoring the convention of behaviours in parliament’. In the ex-PM’s words: ‘The worst enemy of Boris Johnson is in fact Boris himself.’

Headliners Hot Chip had the crowd dancing Over-and-Over, in the words of their pop song. Truly, they remain one of Summer Festival Guide’s favourite live bands.

Elsewhere, Alison Goldfrapp was truly breathtaking in her sequinned dress, with an elaborate cast of choreographed backing dancers, but the 10,000 strong-crowd reaction was a little lacklustre. Later, Grammy Award winning Candy Staton delighted fans on her farewell tour with hits ‘Young Hearts Run Free’ and ‘Stand By Your Man.’

Sunday morning began with Shadow-chancellor Rachel Reeves answering questions from the crowd in a confident manner.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t just speeches and politics all weekend. The Pretenders still have the swagger and great true rock’n’roll tunes. Unfortunately their set was cut short by the overhead electrical storm, but they still played crowd pleasers ‘Stop Your Sobbing’ and ‘Back on the Chain Gang’. It’s a surprise The Pretenders weren’t booked as headliners.

Django Django followed after the thunder passed with their unique electronic blend of synthesisers and guitars, before Britpop legends Suede stormed on stage. Truly loving the crowd reception, Brett Anderson gets better with age and clearly put everything into his performance, leaving the stage dripping head-to-toe in sweat.

Ciro Romano, festival director, summed the event up well:

“The long-awaited second-ever KITE brought immense joy and a renewed sense of togetherness. The enthusiastic response from our passionate audience reaffirmed the festival’s unwavering ethos. Against the stunning Kirtlington Park backdrop, attendees revelled in a weekend of unforgettable music, thought-provoking cultural experiences, and delightful new discoveries.”

Let’s hope the event returns again next year.