Victorious Festival 2023: Here is everything you need to know about travelling to Victorious this weekend including parking spots

Victorious Festival is the biggest event of the year in Portsmouth and it attracts thousands of people a year – but getting there can be difficult, especially when buses and trains will not be running due to strikes.

The festival has organised a number of ways that ticket holders can get to and from the three-day event safely including the Lakeside parking and shuttle service, a festival bus service and ferry services.

A spokesperson for Victorious Festival: “If your journey plans are likely to be affected by the recently announced First Bus strike action, we recommend exploring some of the other great options on offer, such as our Lakeside Car Park and Shuttle Service, Big Green Coaches and the other bus services in the local area that aren't affected, such a Xela Bus - who run a special festival bus service from The Hard interchange, and Stagecoach services.”

Pre-booked Lakeside Park and Ride

As part of the festival’s green approach, a park and ride has been introduced this year to make life easier for everyone wanting to drive to the event.

Festival-goers can park up at Lakeside and get a shuttle bus which goes directly to the event without any stops and it will take people back at the end of each night.

The bus shuttles start operating from 8:30am each day and they will be travelling back and forth throughout until 12pm.

The car park will open at 8am.

To park in Lakeside car park, it will cost £5 per day plus a booking fee and people will need to book in advance.

To book a car parking space, click here.

To get a space on a shuttle bus each day it will cost £13.50 for a standard ticket, £7.50 for a child aged between 5 and 12 and under 5’s can go free.

To book, click here.

Cars can be left in the car park overnight but they must be collected by 9am the next morning and sleeping in cars is prohibited.

The address of the car park is: Lakeside North Harbour, Western Road, Portsmouth, PO6 3EN

Festival Bus Service

A special festival bus service will be running on all three of the days and Service X27, which is operated by Xelabus, will be running from the Hard Interchange to the festival for anyone travelling via the ferry.

Buses will depart from The Hard Interchange Stand N from 9:30am until 8pm and they will be running every 15 minutes.

Return buses will be running from Clarence Pier Bus Stand from 11:45am until 11pm and they will be running every 15 minutes.

For a return adult ticket it will cost £3 and for a return child ticket it will cost £2.

Big Green Coach

The Big Green Coach will be transporting people directly to the festival gates on all three days of the festival and there will be a number of pick up points for ticket holders to choose from.

There will be 19 pick up points and these will be: Basingstoke, Bognor Regis, Bournemouth, Brighton, Chichester, Eastleigh, Emsworth, Fareham, Guildford, Havant, London Victoria, Petersfield, Poole, Reading, Southampton, Waterlooville, Winchester and Worthing.

Return ticket prices will start at £30 per day and to book, click here.

Boats and Ferries

If you are attending the festival and coming from Gosport or the Isle of Wight, there will be ferry services running across the weekend.

The hovercraft will be running in between Ryde and Southsea every 30 minutes and it is expected that this service will be extremely busy making pre-booking essential.

To book, click here.

The Gosport ferry will be running every 15 minutes across the weekend and they will be operating a two ferry service. They will be running until 12:45am and the terminal in Portsmouth will be at The Hard Exchange which is a 30-minute walk from the event or people can get the festival bus service.

To book a place on the ferry, click here.

Drop Off Point

There will only be one drop off and pick up point which will be located in Victoria Avenue, next to the Holiday Inn. This will also be the point where taxis will pick people up.

There are no other places closer to the festival where people can be picked up due to road closures.

Taxis

If you are being picked up or dropped off by a taxi, there are two places that they can park – Victoria Avenue or the taxi rank in Palmerston Road.

There are a number of local taxi companies that will be working the event and it is essential to pre-book if you are getting a taxi.

Here are the contact numbers of taxi companies:

Aqua Cars – 023 92 666666

Andi Cars – 023 92 69 6969

Uber – App available to download to your smart phone

Aryvo – 023 80 555555

Ground Transfers – 023 955 2932

Parking

People will be able to park in public car parks in and around the city.

There are a number of Portsmouth City car parks and to see these, click here.

Portsmouth Football Club will be opening up its grounds to assist with the car parking and for more information, click here.