Nile Rodgers & Chic and Jade Bird among acts added to Portsmouth’s Victorious Festival

A host of new names have been added to Portsmouth’s Victorious Festival, including Nile Rodgers & Chic and Jade Bird.

They’ll join headliners Royal Blood, The Streets and Madness at the 2021 edition of the festival, which will take place at Southsea Seafront in Portsmouth across August Bank Holiday Weekend (27-29).

Joining Rodgers & Chic and Bird at the festival will be Frank Turner, Annie Mac, Ella Eyre, Clean Bandit and more. You can get tickets here.

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See the full Victorious line-up so far below.

This weekend, two pilot events are taking place in Liverpool as a test for the return of live events. Across yesterday (April 30) and today (May 1), a clubbing event called The First Dance is being held at the Bramley Moor Dock in the city, with no masks or social distancing necessary – see footage from last night’s opening event here.

Tomorrow (May 2), Blossoms, The Lathums and Zuzu are set to play to 5,000 fans in Sefton Park, Liverpool which normally holds 7,500 gig-goers.

However, a number of UK festivals have been cancelled in past weeks due to the lack of government-backed COVID insurance.






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2000trees, one of the events to recently cancel their 2021 edition alongside Boomtown, Barn On The Farm and others, criticised the UK Government for failing to implement COVID cancellation insurance for the live events industry.

“Hundreds of festivals have been asking for months for a Government-backed insurance policy allowing us to confidently host events this year. We were hopeful that this insurance would be in place by now,” the festival organisers said.

“Although they’ve provided a similar scheme for film and TV, the Government have completely let the live music industry down by refusing to back a simple insurance policy.”

The axing of the 2021 events comes after festival bosses previously told NME that they could “sink” and face bankruptcy if the government failed to back up live events this summer.