Victorious Festival line-up announced

Indie heavyweights The Libertines have been announced as the headliners of the opening night of next year's Victorious Festival.
The Libertines will headline Friday night at next summer's Victorious FestivalThe Libertines will headline Friday night at next summer's Victorious Festival
The Libertines will headline Friday night at next summer's Victorious Festival

The band, whose hits include What Became of the Likely Lads and Time for Heroes, will be joined by the I Predict A Riot hitmakers The Kaiser Chiefs, a resurgent Shed Seven and the evergreen Lightning Seeds on Southsea Common on Friday, August 24.

This summer, with Madness headlining, was the first time the event had expanded to three days, and about 28,000 fans packed the Castle Field arena.

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Festival director Andy Marsh said: “Our Friday night opening party was such a hit last year it made sense to do it again but make it even better. After we finished, we thought, where do we go from here? So we’ve gone for a solid line-up of absolute indie legends, it’s going to be a brilliant night. And this time we’re going to move it into the main arena so there will be a lot more space and more amenities.

“Hopefully they’ll all bring their festival sets, which will be packed with some really good singalongs that everybody knows.”

The Libertines, who already have major headlining spots at Reading and Leeds, and T in The Park, among others under their belts, have scrapped their way to the top over a tempestuous 20 years. Putting their strife behind them, they released Anthems For Doomed Youth in 2015 and have gone on to play the biggest shows of their careers.

Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson may be better known to some as a judge on BBC’s The Voice, but his band have scored numerous hits including Ruby and Never Miss a Beat.

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Earlier this month Britpop survivors Shed Seven released Instant Pleasures, their first new album for 16 years, which has gone top 10 ahead of a largely sold-out Christmas tour.

And Andy stressed that music fans should buy their tickets as soon as possible if they wanted to take advantage of the best prices.

“This year we have changed things a bit, we’re selling the early-bird tickets by quantity, rather than date, so once they’re gone, that’s it. Super early-bird tickets have now sold out, but tier one early-bird tickets are on sale at £25 for Friday and £30 each for Saturday and Sunday. If you’ve enjoyed Victorious before, I’m confident you’ll enjoy what we’ve got planned this time too.”

The organisers are planning to unveil the weekend headliners some time in the new year.

To buy tickets go to victoriousfestival.co.uk.

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