Victorious Festival | Day 1

outfit: denim jacket - cancer research, dress - h&m, sandles - new look

This was my first whole weekend at Victorious Festival, being fairly local this festival is in a really good location and I had attended one day at the 2016 one. It is quite handy that you can go to a festival on your doorstep for no more than £45 a day, but it would be quite handy to release weekend tickets - which Victorious are doing for next year! You can already grab an adult weekend ticket for £80.

I managed to bag myself a press pass for the whole weekend, which included access to the VIP area. And my oh my, did this come in handy to hide from the wind and rain!

The VIP area had hammocks, hay bales, a cute circus tent with loads of seating, unique food vendors who weren't in the main area, massages, face painting, a bar and a viewing area for the main stage. This place was heaven when the weather decided to attack Portsmouth. I chose the wrong outfit of course; a completely summery festival look for anticipated photos. 

I've never paid for a VIP upgrade before but had always wanted to know what it was like, the viewing area was a godsend as it meant that a shorty like me was guaranteed to actually see what was going on! The fancy flushing toilets were such a nice surprise - I've had my fair share of horrible portaloos so this was a sight for sore eyes.

my goofy cute boyfriend

It looks like they’ve expanded their stages from when I went two years ago, there were more places to buy food and drinks from, some cool photographic signs, lots of colourful flags and hilarious Dave signs. 

the common stage

There was a food vendor called Passion and Smoke selling poutine! Which usually you can only get in Canada (I was informed by my lovely new friend Danielle that 7Bone in Guildhall Walk also do it - review opportunity to come) It was really nice but went cold a little too quickly and I’d have liked it if the cheese curd had completely melted but it was still goooood. They also had seasoned the fries which tasted lovely.

poutine on the right and delicious churros on the left

We arrived early on Friday to try and get some photos before the festival-goers turned up, but the site was quite limited as they were still setting up the other areas. There was the Common Stage, Strongbow DJ Bar and Beats and Swing tent available and a lot of food trucks were open.

One of the first things we did was check out the merch stalls, the merchandise was dirt cheap! T-shirts for £12 and hoodies for £23. I’ve never seen festival merch prices like this and I’m in love, I'm used to £20-£25 for a shirt or £40-£50 for a hoodie at most gigs. I was most definitely getting a line up t-shirt and line up hoodie.

After exploring the main area, the weather got quite bad so I sought refuge in the VIP area out of the wind and rain. I have been taking up reading again as I've always wanted to re-read the Harry Potter series as I'm pretty sure I didn't read most of them properly when I was around seven. I started chatting to some other festival-goers who I was sharing the table with and despite the gloomy weather they were very chipper, and it restores my faith in humanity when people can be really friendly in less than ideal situations! Think about it, would that have happened on a train? Probably not as train commuters are usually grumpy and don't want to be near anyone - I have been one of these people!

But put those people into a festival and those frowns turn to smiles, even with people dancing in the rain and puddles.

I caught a few of the acts at the beginning of the day who I liked; Marley Blandford, Hymn for Her and Come Together. One of the things I love about festivals is just rocking up to a stage and not knowing the artist or band and then falling in love with their sound. I'm one of those people who doesn't mind going to concerts of bands I don't know because listening to them live for the first time is such an amazing experience - plus you have the memories from the festival/gig attached to those songs.

photo credit: Tom Langford

I thought it was kind of odd that Kaiser Chiefs weren't the headliner's for Friday, I don't really know The Libertines that well. Ricky Wilson was such a good front man for the band, he put all of his energy into his performance and even at one point he started to climb the scaffolding around the stage - I'm sure this is a huge health and safety risk but it was pretty cool.

By this point I couldn't feel the lower half of my legs or my feet so Connor and I shivered our way back to the car. I was looking forward to getting all toasty in the car, and the fact that Saturday was supposed to be warm and sunny! It was really good to experience the Friday line up and I was excited for what was to come next.

Keep an eye out for the Saturday and Sunday posts!

All photos taken of me were by Connor Cleary on his Canon 5D Mark iii.

Disclaimer: Carousel PR were generous enough to grant me a press pass for the whole weekend at Victorious Festival which included access to the VIP area. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Brushbox Review

I've always been that person that forgets to top up on toothpaste, or change their brush regularly for hygiene reasons, who can remember when they started using that toothbrush?  I read a post by my friend Sophie about Brushbox and I was convinced that a subscription box would change my life for the better!

You can build your subscription box to suit your needs. Starting from £3.50 a month, but you pay every two months, as your box contains two months worth of supplies which would make it £6.00 every two months.

You can get boxes from one to four people, I decided to get a box for two so my boyfriend and I always have our supplies as we usually end up having to wrestle with the tube of toothpaste when we've got to the bottom of it until the end of time. You can choose between having adults or children in the subscription which would be useful for families.

There are three variations of the toothbrush; Pure, Smooth Bamboo and Curved Bamboo and these come in different colours randomly selected with your order. It's noted that if you're looking for a handy subscription box that is more eco-friendly, the bamboo toothbrushes can be decomposed in compost (with the bristles removed), and the pure ones can go straight in the recycling!

I chose the Smooth Bamboo (an extra 50p each) as I've started to be more eco-friendly conscious and was curious as to the feel and effect of an eco-friendly toothbrush as I've always had plastic. You can also add on dental floss and a tongue cleaner to your order, but I opted for just the brushes and paste for now.

My subscription contains two Smooth Bamboo toothbrushes and four tubes of toothpaste (two tubes per adult) which costs £13.98 every two months (there's no extra delivery charge to get it straight to your door - very handy!).

My Brushbox was a surprise to my boyfriend, but he was actually really into trying the bamboo brushes! I've been using these for a couple of months now and I love them. The brush is nice and smooth, and the bristles are softer, which is good for me as I can have quite sensitive gums. The toothpaste comes in little one-month use tubes as a blue paste with an adequate minty taste, I'm not a fan of overbearing minty toothpaste.

I was really happy that the majority of the box and packaging is recyclable, except the toothpaste tube I believe.

For every box purchased Brushbox donate products to those in need across the world, so by us keeping up on our tooth cleanliness we can help give others the materials needed for healthy teeth.

You can sign up to get 50% off your first Brushbox here*, and if you only want to try out one box you can cancel at any time but I guarantee you'll love the luxury of having your toothy essentials delivered to your door!

I really love the products in this box, and I can't imagine going to a supermarket or drugstore again to purchase my dental goodies! Plus there's the bonus of knowing that this is a more environmentally friendly way of keeping up with dental hygiene!

I hope you liked my post, I know I haven't been posting much - or if I have it's been mainly mental health related! But I've got lots more blog posts in the pipeline, so keep an eye out!

Love Saffron x

*Disclaimer: by using this link to purchase your Brushbox I will receive 50% of your order total for referring you to their service.