Early act reveals show how far Victorious Festival has come | The News

But not to the team behind Victorious. They've already spent months organising next year's August bank holiday weekend festival and have now revealed the first big names who will be on the eagerly-awaited bill.

It's great to discover that headlining on Friday, August 28 will be former Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown, who will play classic hits from his 30-year career alongside new tracks following this year's release of his seventh solo album, Ripples.

Then there's Peter Hook and the Light, bringing post-punk and new wave classics and led by the co-founder of Joy Division and New Order. Also performing on the opening night will be English rock band The Kooks and Terrorvision.

Each year they seem to raise the bar a bit more with the line-up and award-winning Victorious is now firmly established as one of the UK's most popular festivals.

It's become traditional for festival organisers to throw out a few names early on in an effort to boost advance 'early bird' ticket sales. Then the rest are drip-fed to us as the event gets nearer.

But the big names that have been revealed show how far Victorious has come in a relatively short space of time.

Look at it this way. If they're happy to let the cat out of the bag now about legendary music business figures such as Ian Brown and Peter Hook heading down to the south coast to entertain us, imagine how massive the acts are that they're holding back on announcing!

Of course, speculation about who they might be is all part of the fun. But expect some pretty mega names to top the ones we already know about.

Victorious has become an important part of the city's offering, boosting the economy and helping to raise money for local charities as well as creating a positive impression of Portsmouth to those who visit the festival from home and abroad.

It may be more than eight months away, but we're already looking forward to the sun shining and spectacular sounds filling the Southsea air.