The time is upon us, and it feels bloody fantastic to say it: Slam Dunk Festival is this weekend!
I have attended Slam Dunk every year since 2011, since the time I still used the Eurostar to visit England and used to be mesmerised by London. The only reason I missed the festival was that a certain pandemic the world is tired of stopped it from happening, and I was eagerly waiting for the British government to update their policies on international travel just so I could make it. (I'm pleased to report I am typing this from a Travelodge room, meaning I have made it inside the United Kingdom in one piece.)
Slam Dunk is my favourite festival and has probably been from my first time onwards. I miss the era of day festivals that all shared a similar lineup, of cool afterparties where you could hang out with your favourite bands, and of running in the middle of city centres and university campuses not to miss the acts you wanted to see. Out of all of them, Slam Dunk is the only one that's still standing and, to me, it is THE unmissable event of the year. I just know I will be here, come rain or high water.
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.)
Disclaimer: for the sake of honesty, I included the names of the now-cancelled artists where relevant, but needless to say I do not support them anymore.
2016
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:
- Sleeping about ten hours over the space of three days. When I made it back to Brighton on Tuesday morning, I pretty much slept for twenty-four hours straight. I remember being so exhausted that I fell asleep on the train home while eating a Belvita, and the memory only came back when I found a half-eaten biscuit in my backpack.
- Being so knackered that I literally have zero tangible memories of New Found Glory.
- I also remember going to Bury Tomorrow's DJ set because if I danced, I would stop thinking about how much I desperately needed to sleep.
- Going to all three afterparties. I honestly only remember drinking a vodka and mixer can in the streets of Leeds, The Amity Affliction being played, walking around the Leeds venue with Marie, getting lost trying to find a taxi stop in Birmingham, and hanging out with Hanna and Lea in Hatfield.
- It took me the three days of the festival to watch Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! because the queues were so massive in Birmingham and Leeds that we couldn't make it into the rooms.
- Losing my phone in Leeds.
- Meeting Derek Sanders (Mayday Parade) in Hatfield whilst watching The Amity Affliction.
- There was this boy I had kinda bonded with over our mutual (now past) love for Moose Blood's music. He broke my heart, and then had the audacity of standing right next to me with his friends while I was watching them alone in Hatfield.
- Seeing The Story So Far live as a fan for the first time and crying. Marie and I almost met Parker Cannon afterwards as well, but he left before he'd spoken to everyone. (We overheard him telling the last person he took a picture with that he struggled with crowds and people.) I haven't told the story much, but the festival was a few weeks after the ninja-kick incident, and I have (very personally) always taken Parker saying, in Birmingham, "I fucked up, but you're still here" as an apology.
- Dan Lambton (now ex-Real Friends) could not sing much during their Hatfield set, and I will never forget the chills and emotion as everyone sang I've Given Up On You for him.
- Arriana, Jubbi, and I watching Four Year Strong together in Birmingham.
- The golden age of Aldi Sykes and Budget Austin Carlile.
2017
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:
- There was a Starbucks on the Hatfield site at the time, and I remember getting an iced latte before Deaf Havana and thinking "you know what would be a good idea? Pouring some vodka into this." I don't know what came over me and no, it wasn't a good idea.
- Drunk me, in Hatfield, insisting on talking to Jayden Seeley (With Confidence) for what, to him, probably felt like hours, and to this day, I still have no idea what I even told this poor guy.
- Drunk me, in Hatfield, asking Cameron Adler (Tonight Alive) to play a ten-year-anniversary show for The Other Side when the album had only been out for four years. (Also, being extremely emo.)
- Drunk me, in Hatfield, telling Rou Reynolds (Enter Shikari) that his band's music was the reason why I had learnt how to pronounce English. (Long story short, I was obsessed with A Flash Flood Of Colour after university, and I used songs like Constellations and Hello Tyrannosaurus, Meet Tyrannicide to work on my English pronunciation.)
- The story of drunk Rachel mixing names up and calling Jenna McDougall (Tonight Alive) "Jenna from Neck Deep" will always make me chuckle.
- Meeting Darlene in Hatfield and Charlotte in Birmingham- both are my good friends now.
- Ending up on RockSound's Instagram story because I crowdsurfed to We Are The Ocean. The caption said something along the lines of "You all look like you're having the best time at Slam Dunk!" The truth is, I was devastated because it was the last song We Are The Ocean would ever play as a band. I'm forever glad I followed Nathalie's advice and enjoyed it to the fullest instead of crying on the side like an idiot.
- Seeing Seaway for the first time. So, so special.
- Crowdsurfing to With Confidence in Leeds, getting dropped, and falling right next to Rachel, who I'd been looking for all day.
- We The Kings playing Check Yes Juliet twice in the same set.
- Seeing Bowling For Soup for the first time.
- The first edition of the "getting up on Alice's shoulders" tradition.
- A lot of my friends from Paris were coming to the festival and driving to Birmingham in a van, and I met up with them the night before, at the Uprawr pre-party. (Fun fact: I had missed my coach in Glasgow because I was hungover and messed up the time, and turned up at the Asylum four hours late.) We all stayed together in a house in the suburbs of Birmingham and drove to the festival together on Saturday morning. I felt so ridiculously cool, let me tell you.
- I drove from Birmingham to Leeds and from Leeds to Hatfield with Jamie, and I have a memory of the two of us playing songs on Spotify without telling the other and always trying to one-up each other. I think we declared I was the winner after I picked This Could Be Anywhere In The World by Alexisonfire.
- A Jeremy Corbyn chant during Enter Shikari in Leeds. Those were the days.
- Falling head over heels in love with Trophy Eyes. I think I only watched them because I had twenty-five minutes to kill and Marie liked them, and it was one of the smartest decisions I made that weekend. (They weren't that many.)
- Knowing everyone in the pit during With Confidence in Birmingham.
- That big group of us dancing so badly at the Birmingham afterparty that a couple stopped making out to stare.
2018
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:
- Seeing Taking Back Sunday for the first time.
- Sort of watching Jimmy Eat World for the first time with a friend (tears and all, without having just met them and without abandoning them halfway through to go in the pit). Alex, this one goes out to you.
- Making friends before Northlane because they were talking about The Amity Affliction and In Hearts Wake. Also ending up with a setlist and a big bruise down my forearm because of a crowdsurfer's shoe.
- In Hatfield, I was so tired after watching Four Year Strong, State Champs, and Knuckle Puck from the pit that I decided I would take it easy during Trash Boat, and, next thing I know, they're opening with Tring Quarry, my favourite song of theirs, and here I am, flying over the crowd. Later that day, I'm eating chips while Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes are playing, feeling content and all out-crowdsurfed...until Frank plays Wild Flowers and mentions his famous women's only moshpit and crowdsurf. I threw the rest of my chips in the nearest bin and ran in instead.
- At Slam Dunk 2012, someone from The Audition asked my name, didn't understand what I said, and called me Shannon instead. It stayed a nickname and a running joke with a friend who was there and, in her honour, I ended up watching them in Birmingham. I had a great time.
- Some sort of out of body experience when I saw Marcus Bridge (Northlane) cross the pit during Stand Atlantic while I was bawling my eyes out for still unknown reasons to this day.
- The FRUSTRATION of being in the seating area in Leeds for Four Year Strong, due to miscommunication from security, and consequently rearranging all my schedules so I could watch from the crowd the next day.
- Ending up on national television from Alice's shoulders during Lower Than Atlantis, as you do.
- Bonding with people over my Evertim t-shirt. That thing was a people magnet.
- My friends did not stay for the Birmingham afterparty, but since I had a morning train ticket back to Watford, where I used to live, and no hotel, I had to. I ended up sitting on the floor, a little bored- it's not always fun dancing by yourself. A group of people picked me up and danced with me, which was the loveliest, most wholesome thing. At the end of the night, I sat down on the bridge between the site and station to eat the last of my breakfast cake (yes, you read that correctly) and had a nap in the airport. I think it was a goodbye to the afterparty.
2019
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.
Memories include:
- I'm going to start with the gruesome. In Leeds, I watched Neck Deep from the pit, which I'd never done before. I'm a seasoned moshpit person, but I found this one particularly rough and ended up crowdsurfing only because it was the quickest way to leave. I thought I was fine until New Found Glory started playing, and I started having a panic attack. I don't know where my brain went on that one, but I thought I had two options, locking myself up in a toilet (for loneliness and quiet, in case anyone wonders) or going to the first-aid tent. Luckily, I picked first-aid, and I cannot ever thank enough the medic who took care of me, lent me her phone to join a friend and gave me the last of her bin bags so I could protect myself from the rain.
- Ending up on Alice's shoulders during All Time Low, while wearing a bin bag.
- Chloe, Svenja, Melanie, and I dancing like literal idiots during All Time Low in Hatfield. Just above us was the Fearless Arms pub, which had a VIP balcony where Patty Walters (As It Is) was standing. I can guarantee you that for a sizeable moment in time, he wasn't watching All Time Low.
- Everyone knows this one by now, I guess. During Seaway, I helped a guy who was much taller than me to crowdsurf, pretty much single-handedly, because he was, let's say, not tragic-looking. A few days later, I found out my subsequent chest pains were a chest muscle inflammation, which tends to happen when you carry heavy things. Like, I don't know. Tall, attractive men in moshpits.
- I crowdsurfed during Simple Plan's Welcome To My Life in Leeds, and the only thing I could think of was if fifteen-year-old me could watch, she'd be so goddamn proud.
- I brought my brother to the Hatfield date and, despite hearing me talk about the festival for the best part of a decade, he had never attended. I gave him two recommendations, based on things I knew he'd enjoy: Tigers Jaw and Kublai Khan. (No, I could not have picked more different bands.) I lost him before Boston Manor and found him again during Plain White T's, his arms covered in cuts and blood- he'd gone into his first moshpit. He followed my band recommendations and then just walked around and discovered new things, finding two bands he now loves: Employed To Serve (the reason behind the blood), and Tiny Moving Parts, who are now one of his absolute favourites. (Again, I don't think he could have chosen two more different artists.)
- Finally watching Trophy Eyes play songs from The American Dream.
- Melanie declared she refused to crowdsurf and, next thing we both knew, she asked to be lifted up specifically during the line about the uncle's canoe in Seaway's Something Wonderful.
- The person on crutches in the Boston Manor circle pit.
- The top of the world feeling I get when I see Real Friends, and the unexplainable moment during Late Nights In My Car that was everything.
- The way I scream the "I would have killed that motherfucker with my bare hands" line in John Floreani's Cleveland, OH, a bit too loud considering I hate confrontation and I'm usually quite soft-spoken.
- John Floreani not knowing where he was at the Leeds date. It was eleven in the morning.
- Changing my train ticket last-minute for Leeds because I simply refused to miss William Ryan Key's set.
- Running into Busted in the Pret at Leeds station the next morning.
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.
State Champs (Rock Scene, from 6:25pm to 7:10pm)
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.
Frank Turner And The Sleeping Souls (Punk In Drublic Stage, from 3:25pm to 4:15pm in Leeds and from 7:35pm to 8:25pm in Hatfield)
Frank Turner was one of the festival's latest announcements, a replacement on the Punk And Drublic stage, and I could have not been any happier to see his name appearing on the poster. I think I have, before, told the story of myself getting lost at 2000 Trees and ending up in the tent where he played, wanting to know the words so I could take part in the deafening singalong. Five years later, I know the lyrics, thank you very much, and I am excited to be a part of yet another one of Frank's shows, with everyone else. There's nothing like the number announcement at the start, like the unstoppable energy emanating from Frank and his musicians, and, to me, there will never be anything like hearing Get Better live. Long story short, this song is an anthem to me, the kind of track that makes me feel larger than life, and if you want to see me at my happiest, find me on the Punk And Drublic stage while Frank plays it. You'll see.
We Are The In Crowd (Rock Scene, from 4:10pm to 4:50pm)
In all honesty, I think We Are The In Crowd are one of the bands I misunderstood the most at the height of their popularity. I feel like in a part of the scene, they were a band it was cool to not like, a guilty pleasure at most, and I have to say that, despite seeing them live, I didn't give it much thought. After their split, I rediscovered their music, by way of their song The Best Thing (That Never Happened) being played at every emo night. It's the perfect angry-at-a-boy tune, and it's so satisfying to dance and scream along to when you just want to get those feelings out. Now I have learnt to appreciate their super catchy pop-punk, I am excited at the stars aligning and giving me a second chance to see them again, for real.
Mayday Parade (Rock Scene, from 5:15pm to 6pm)
Florida natives Mayday Parade are linked to some of my earliest Slam Dunk memories, and seeing them grace the festival with their presence again will feel like a homecoming celebration to me. They are always so fantastic to watch live, a perfect combination of absolutely heartbreaking music (I swear if they get the piano out!) and some of the most infectious power-pop and pop-punk tunes this world has ever seen. (Also, the key chance in Jersey is a, unbelievably satisfying, and b, an unmissable crowdsurfing moment of mine.) It took me longer than I would have liked to discover the subtleties and beauty of their latest full-length record, 2018's Sunnyland, and I hope they play a couple of songs live. I need the full experience now.
While She Sleeps (Jägermeister Stage, from 8pm to 9pm)
Sheffield-born While She Sleeps, quite simply put, know in their core how to put on a live show, which is a reason why a, they are headlining the Jagermeister stage and b, you should not miss them. They have a way of getting involved and breathing new life into songs that are already massive on record in a live setting, which is what drew me in, all those years ago. Slam Dunk Festival will be the perfect occasion for them to play songs out of their 2021 record, the anthemic Sleeps Society, as well as old fan favourites such as Silence Speaks, Seven Hills (we're manifesting), or Four Walls. I don't doubt there will be a huge crowd at their 8pm set.
Other artists you should pay attention to:
- Boston Manor and Holding Absence, who both headline the Key Club Stage.
- Lizzy Farrall and For You The Moon for homegrown talent.
- Slam Dunk will (sadly) be Blood Youth's frontman Kaya Tarsus' last shows with the band, and he deserves the biggest send-off. Let's make it feel like it's not eleven in the morning when they play.
- Trash Boat, Bury Tomorrow, As It Is: more UK-based bands that will finally get to play their new music live!
- Who's the secret guest on the Key Club stage going to be? What do we all think of the rumours? You Me At Six? Neck Deep? Frank Carter And The Rattlesnakes? McFly? Bring Me The Horizon? Turn up at 1:50pm in Leeds and 4:10pm in Hatfield to find out.
- More comebacks: Your Demise and Funeral For A Friend, both ready to tear out the Jagermeister stage.
- Roam, Waterparks, festival-favourites Zebrahead, and Vukovi are always a lot of fun.
There is always so much to do, so many artists to see, and new bands to discover at Slam Dunk Festival: truly the best place on Earth.
(Disclaimer: Sadly no one is paying me to be this enthusiastic, I just really love the festival.)