Send us Victorious – all the way to the bank

We’ve said it before and we will say it again – Victorious Festival is worth its weight in gold to Portsmouth. Just look at the figures. In 2015 the three-day music extravaganza on Southsea Common gave the city a £5.8m boost. Good enough for what was still then a fledgling festival.

Move on just three years to 2018 and that figure has soared, almost doubled, to a spectacular £10m.

There are two reasons: the quality of the acts, which seem to get more impressive by the year, and location, location, location…

Which other leading festivals can offer a city-based event in a seemingly semi-rural spot set against a magnificent maritime backdrop?

Big, it certainly has become, with 120,126 music fans attending last year’s Victorious. And, of those, more than a third lived in Portsmouth.

That’s another trick the savvy organising committee has managed to pull off – being able to make the biggest annual event of the year in the city feel like one massive village fete.

Yes, the emphasis on the leading acts is, quite rightly, truly international.

However, so many from the arts world in Portsmouth and south-east Hampshire are given their own platform and a chance to shine too. And that’s something we should not take for granted. It's often overlooked elsewhere. In two years Victorious is putting £100,000 into Portsmouth Creates in association with the Arts Council, on top of the grants it makes to charities in the area.

As Portsmouth culture cabinet member Councillor Steve Pitt says here today, it’s vital in attracting people to the city and keeping Portsea Island’s arts and music scene alive.

Happy and glorious – long may Victorious reign.