It was great, but…
Dear Victorious Team,
Many thanks for putting on yet another fantastic festival and showcasing some brilliant acts. Myself, my family, and friends thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
However, and I hate to put a downer on such an enormous event, but there were definitely some organisational issues.
As someone who went to the very first 'free' festival at the dockyard, with the Lightning Seeds headlining, and then attending the festival every year since, I feel you need to set up some sort of forum or public consultation to make the festival a better and more enjoyable event in the future.
I have seen the festival grow to what it is now but feel there has been some terrible mistakes made this year.
This cannot be all down to Covid, and I believe the 'sell-out' and making the festival more commercial has a huge part to play. I hope you take heed and ask some of the Portsmouth public what they really thought and how they would like to see the festival going forward in the future.
Here are a few examples how this year's festival fell short in places: Amount of tickets sold and capacity of the event. How did Portsmouth City Council allow the event to be 65,000 capacity? Even the IOW festival only has a capacity of 50,000 this year.
Lack of toilet facilities. Definitely not enough for an event this size.
People were urinating in bushes and trees where young children were playing and could easily see. This was disgusting, embarrassing and something I hope I do not have to witness again.
Bars. What happened to the real-ale tent that has been at the event from the very start? Why has the event become so commercial with only one brewery having the monopoly of alcohol sales? This event used to promote local breweries such as Irving, Staggeringly Good, Fallen Acorn, etc.
Too many stages? I understand that you want to put on a great event, but some of the stages are
I hate to put a downer on such an enormous event, but there were definitely some organisational issues CARL PARKER
so close that the sound ‘overlaps’ making it impossible to enjoy the band you are watching.
Covid. Peoples Covid passes were not thoroughly checked, and I know of people who were not even asked to produce it. Surely this contravenes the government’s rules?
I’m sure I will not be the only one to give you some feedback. I just hope you can make the event even better and safer that it already is.
Carl Parker
Southsea