Before the 2016 edition, I wrote all about my memories, some lovely and wholesome, some fun and alcohol-fuelled, some downright stupid and embarrassing and, before we embark on a list of bands you shouldn't be missing in 2021, I wanted to fill in the blanks for the following years, from 2016 to 2019, because it's so much fun looking back at some of the most wonderful times of my life, in all their fantastic, bloody, and ridiculous glory. (The original post can be found here, and I chose to follow the same format.)

It was my first year of attending the festival as a UK resident, and it was also the first time I went to the three dates. 2016 was also the first year of the Midlands edition relocating to the NEC, in Birmingham. Objectively, the venue had its ups and downs, but I grew to love it by the end. My reasoning behind going to the three days was that I wanted to see three of the headliners, so I had to be everywhere and watch a different one each day.

Bands watched: Panic! At The Disco, New Found Glory, Mallory Knox, Yellowcard, Mayday Parade, Young Guns, Moose Blood, Of Mice & Men, Issues, The Amity Affliction, The Story So Far, The Starting Line, Four Year Strong, Real Friends, As It Is, Roam, Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!, The Rocket Summer, Dan and Dav Winter-Bates' DJ Set.

Memories include: 

I also went to the three dates that year and, this time around, I wanted to watch four of the headliners. This weekend was part of my traipsing around the United Kingdom and watching With Confidence everywhere, and it was, as always, a fantastic time. I learnt to manage myself and my time so I wouldn't be as broken as I had been the past year. I would love to say I experienced this edition as an adult, but some of the following memories completely invalidate this statement. Oh, vodka, my dear old friend.

Bands watched: Enter Shikari, Don Broco, Deaf Havana, Beartooth, Bury Tomorrow, We Are The Ocean, Andrew McMahon and The Wilderness, Bowling For Soup, The Ataris, Neck Deep, We The Kings, The Maine, Trophy Eyes, Like Pacific, Tonight Alive, Seaway, Waterparks, With Confidence, Boston Manor, Decade, Frank Iero & The Patience, Milk Teeth, Sorority Noise, Stray From The Path. (I'm not saying I watched full sets)

Memories include: 

The decision to, once more, attend the three dates of Slam Dunk Festival 2018 was made for me by the headliners: none other than my favourite band, Jimmy Eat World. It was the closest I've been to following them on tour, and it was a brilliant and perfectly bittersweet moment as the last notes resonated in Birmingham. It was the first time the South edition did not take place at the Hatfield University campus but in Hatfield Park, across the road from the train station. Despite the time it takes to get out of the car park, it's a great site, and I love that you never get stuck outside of a venue because too many people want to watch the same band.

Bands watched: Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, State Champs, Four Year Strong, Knuckle Puck, Jimmy Eat World, Taking Back Sunday, Lower Than Atlantis, Twin Atlantic, Say Anything, The Audition, The Dangerous Summer, Every Time I Die, Northlane, Luke Rainsford, Crown The Empire, Counterparts, As It Is, Me VS Hero, Trash Boat, Roam, Broadside, Speak Low If You Speak Love, Four Year Strong, Stand Atlantic, Holding Absence.

Memories include: 

In 2019, the festival went back to its original two-day schedule, and the Leeds site moved away from the city centre to Temple Newsam Park. Though I loved running around the city centre, I have to admit moving to a wider space where, again, you don't have to worry about missing bands due to capacity is a smart idea. And, again, the line-up was so brilliant that going to both days was a no-brainer.

Bands watched: All Time Low, The Menzingers, New Found Glory, Neck Deep, Simple Plan, As It Is, Boston Manor, Story Of The Year, The Get Up Kids, Saves The Day, Plain White T's, Real Friends, Silverstein, Tigers Jaw, Seaway, Trophy Eyes, John Floreani, William Ryan Key.

The 2021 line-up is, for a large part, the same as the pre-pandemic one. Quite a few of my favourite bands have dropped from it, I imagine for health reasons or because of travel restrictions, and I feel confident that the Slam Dunk Festival team will bring them back at everyone's earliest possibility. See, I could have gone all Karen about it, like so many people have, calling the line-up "a joke" after every band cancellation, whatever the reason, or telling the organisers they should just cancel, talking about value for money and all sorts of nonsense. I did make jokes, I did think about it, but at the end of the day, I couldn't. Slam Dunk has brought me some of the most fantastic, fun, ridiculous, and amazing weekends of my life since 2011, and I want to support them until the end of forever. I want to keep experiencing those stupid weekends, running on not enough sleep, pretending I'm going to stop dancing and crowdsurfing, and fooling absolutely no one, not even me. I want to keep watching my favourite bands with my friends and feeling home, feeling like I'm around people who get it. Which is why I wanted to try my absolute hardest to attend, and I spent the summer waiting for the travel restrictions to lift. I cannot start to put into words the excitement I feel at the idea of finding myself in a field, rain or shine, without a care in the world, hearing my favourite songs live again.

And, yeah, of course. I wish the line-up still included The Story So Far, Elder Brother, With Confidence, Knuckle Puck, Basement, Polaris, Stray From The Path, Grayscale, Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! or The Wonder Years. I wanted to hear The Upsides in full or have a dance off in the pit while Grayscale would play Baby Blue. I wanted to cry to Elder Brother at lunchtime and end up on someone's shoulders while With Con would play Drops Of Jupiter. But I still feel utterly spoilt for choice at this year's edition, which is a great transition towards the second part of this post: the bands I will not miss and that maybe, you should watch too.

Objectively, after the complicated eighteen months the music industry has just experienced, only supporting the festival is a great idea in itself, regardless of who you watch. However, I thought I'd still share some of my top picks for the weekend, in no particular order, and for a variety of reasons.

Look, if you want the truth, I listened to Living Proof this morning, and I got so truly, honestly, utterly overjoyed at the idea of watching them again that I almost cried in my Tim Hortons Iced Capp. In less emotional terms, if you find yourself at Slam Dunk and you have never seen Champs before: stick around. They have some of the most infectious and sincerely enthusiastic energy I have ever witnessed in a band, and their live shows are always full of joy. All their songs are perfectly crafted pop-punk anthems and, it will undoubtedly be a highlight of my year to sing along to All You Are Is History, Criminal, Secrets, or Elevated, to dance like your local drunk white dad to Frozen, and to check out their newest single, Just Sound, which will surely get its first-ever live outing in Leeds.