Victorious Festival gets bookish with its new area, Literacy Live

Victorious Festival has today unveiled its newest element, Literacy Live, which will see authors hosting a series of readings, workshops and book giveaways over the weekend.

The festival, which takes place on Southsea Common from August 24-6, has been working with Bookollective on the area.

A line up of fantastic authors awaits with talks from Grazia’s resident agony aunt, Daisy Buchanan, the author of top-selling How To Be A Grown Up, advice on getting into writing from bestselling young adult novelist Siobhan Curham, to witty anecdotes from top Tweeter and fashionista @BtonGirlProblems, and rom-com writer Lisa Hill, among others.

There will also be information on Is Publishing For Me?, Book Blind Date, and more.

Festival director Andy Marsh said: ‘We’re trying to grow organically, and this seemed like the next step.

‘The world music festival area has proved really popular, and now we’ve got the comedy, so we wanted to keep growing that.

‘The idea is to have this whole “fringe” area, where you can wander around from the kids’ area, and into that, where there’s something more for the grown-ups that’s not just about the music.

‘It’s really exciting. The team behind it at Bookollective haven’t stopped working on it since they came on board.

‘And it might be nice to think that people have learned something as well. If we can help encourage kids to read, that would be great.’

Andy added that ticket sales are starting to hot up with less than two months to go.

‘Campervan pitches and the University of Portsmouth accommodation have sold out now, so we would urge people to buy their tickets sooner rather than later.

‘If they leave it too late they could end up being disappointed.’

Literacy Live will be taking place on the Saturday and Sunday. Headliners lined up include Libertines and Kaiser Chiefs on the Friday, Paul Weller and Paloma Faith on Saturday, before Years and Years and The Prodigy close proceedings on Sunday. Dozens more acts will play across the weekend.

Tickets for Friday cost £35, while Saturday or Sunday are £45 each. Go to victoriousfestival.co.uk