The Positives and Negatives of Slam Dunk 2023: A Fan's Opinions

My second festival of 2023 was Slam Dunk so I look back on the fantastic acts that played and the issues many people had.

Slam Dunk is one of the biggest weekends for any alternative rock, punk or metal fan. The festival that takes place at Hatfield in London and Temple Newsam Park in Leeds has been going since 2006 and has had some great bands over the years such as Fall Out Boy, You Me At Six, Jimmy Eats World, Don Broco and many more. In 2023, the festival was not different with Enter Shikari returning to headline alongside The Offsprings as well as a host of great bands. In terms of the bands, The festival was one of the most fun days out I have had this year, however, as we will talk about here, many issues took place which left many with a disappointing experience.

The Good

Before we get into the issues that to place at Slam Dunk, let's talk about the good things that I enjoyed at Slam Dunk. The first thing I liked is the range of drinks you could get at the festival in its south site. They had a beer tent near The Amazon Music stage which provided shelter from the heat that day as well as a range of beers and other alcoholic drinks as well as bars across the festival ground. It meant that we had a great selection to choose from throughout the day.

Of course one of the other highlights of the day was the acts that were playing. There was a range of fantastic acts that were playing. I started my day watching Vukovi at The Amazon Music Rock Scene Stage. The band have been on a steady descent over the years and they have only got better with every release. Songs such as 'I EXIST' and 'LASSO' shows the band's best work off their latest album 'NULA' and the heavy rifts get parts of the crowd opening the mosh pits. The band do not forget their past however with 'la Di Da' closing with an energetic set from the Scottish band.

I met up with my friends afterwards and we stayed at the Rock Scene Stage for Trash Boat. The Rock quintet had recently released a new single at the time and after their Performance at the Tunbridge Wells Forum, I was excited to see them once again. The band failed to disappoint. They played a short eight-song set but covered all their albums to please all the fans and threw in a cover of Linken Parks 'Given Up' Which sounded fantastic, especially with Tobi Duncans' vocals. It may have been a short set but the band crammed in various songs to make their set sound out.

Next up I went to The Key Club stage to check out the creator of "Bimbocore" Scene Queen but we caught a part of LOLO set before Scene Queen came on and their sound reminded me of a mix of Avil Lavinge and Pale Waves and I was pleasantly surprised with how good their set was considering I'd never heard of them before. As for Scene Queen, they were one of the highlights of my day. The crowd was jammed-packed for their set. Her set had some great moments such as going on the warpath and calling certain musicians in '18+' and a solid cover of Katy Perry's I Kissed a Girl' pleased many of the fans in the crowd and there were a lot of them but Scene Queen twerked and screamed her way through an energetic set in Hatfield Park and it was a lot of fans to be part of.

At this point of the day, the sun was shining on the Rock Scene Stage just before Wargasm took to the stage. The band had a lot of issues getting to Slam Dunk so it was a joy to see them play that day. the fact that most of their equipment was missing only fuelled the band's carefree attitude and led it to a fiery set that included hits from their latest EP and singles such as 'Spit'. The crowd was well up for the occasion with a circle pit forming in the middle of the crowd for 'Pyro Pyro' and guitarist and vocalist Sam Matlock crowd surfing in the middle of 'Spit' with a load of fans giving the security a good workout. "oh Slam Dunk it's always so nice to see you" Sams tells the crowd. It has to be said despite their difficult situation beforehand. it was great to see them.

Up next it was time to head over to the Kerrang! Tent where Blackpool alternative rock band Boston Manor would be taking to the stage. After seeing them play 'Datura' in full at the Tunbridge Wells Forum last year, I was excited to see these guys handle a packed crowd at Slam Dunk and it is safe to say that they delivered. The band have moved away from the earlier punk sound, now playing a more alternative rock feel and as proven at Slam Dunk this was the correct direction to go down. Their set left me beaming from ear to ear with a fantastic setlist with hits such as 'Foxglove', 'Passenger' and of course 'Halo' The band played 'I Don't Like People (& They Don't Like Me) for the first time which was great to hear. A set filled with songs to get you off your feet and wow you. That's simply what Boston Manor does best.

I took a quick break from the music to get some food and chill in the shade for a bit after a full-on day but once I was ready, I made my way back to the Rock Scene Stage to go and see Pvris. The American outfit has had many ups and downs over the last few years but it finally seems that lead vocalist Lynn Gunn has finally hit her stride with the band and that was apparent with their Slam Dunk set. Playing hits from different parts of their career. This set felt like a real throwback while also displaying the best of their latest work such as the opening track 'Animal' and closing song 'Goddess' with Charlotte Sands. This led to a classy set from the band showing why Lynn Gunn's project has been getting so much praise in 2023.

The next band I went to see was on the Dickies Stage which saw 00's icons Bowling For Soup take to the stage. I was looking forward to their set but if I'm honest I felt a bit underwhelmed by their show. While their songs sounded great, the problem was that in between songs and even in the middle of songs, the band would tell jokes or try and get the crowd to do a "square pit" which did not work and the crowd lost interest in what the band wanted to do. I think the jokes work in an academy-size venue but I felt they fell flat on one of Slam Dunk's main stages. Untimatly I left before their set finished as they paused a song just so fans could take photos of them. I just lost interest in their set. I have to say I was quite disappointed. while many may have enjoyed their show, I can't say I was impressed and considering I've seen them before, it was a surprise.

I decided to head back to the Rock Scene Stage where Billy Talent was wrapping things up and as I was walking over I could hear them playing the opening rift of 'Falling Leaves' and I knew that I made the correct decision. The band had no gimmicks and just powered throughout the final part of their set. This is what I wanted from Bowling for Soup. To play through a song and not try to have a joke with the crowd midway. The band finished their set with 'Red Flag which ended quite a solid showing from the band and made me wish I'd seen more.

There was one final clash that I had to make a choice on. Either see the legendary Punk Rock band The Offsprings or watch one of my favourite bands of all time. It's annoying that they clash but for me, it was a no-brainer. I went to see Enter Shirkari. Shikari had toured the UK earlier this year but with a brand new album out, this made this set a must-see.

While they did not play too much from the new album (maybe saving it for their tour next year), The band played a set for fans old and new to enjoy. With fan favourites being played such as 'Anaesthetist' and 'Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour' as well as new material such as 'A Kiss for the Whole World X'. It was a varied setlist which many fans would be happy for. There were also many more surprises in store with Wargasm joining them on stage for 'The Void Stares Back' and Cody Frost once again joining the band to play 'Bull'. To top this all off, The band had some of the best production they have ever had with a screen stretching across the stage which even allowed lead singer Rou Reynolds to drive into which was a show stopper for the band and was a sign of things to come in 2024. For Now, Shirkari put on a stunning set worthy of any headline slot.

After a very cool DJ set from DJ Fresh, Slam Dunk South came to an end and overall I had a great time but it was clear by the next morning that some people were unhappy about how the event panned out.

The Bad

So we saw some issues while we were on the site. For Example, The Rock Stage and the Dickies Stage were put on opposite sides of the park meaning that a lot of people would be walking to and from these stages over the day. This was not the problem however, The problem was that the festival decided to put the food stalls in the middle of this walkway. this meant at busy times this would be a hot spot for the festival as people would be queuing for food and also using the area to get around the festival site causing a lot of crowd issues at the time. while it was busy at the south site, The north site looked completely rammed at times which can cause a lot of people issues getting around the site especially if you are disabled or suffer from something like anxiety. I feel that it was a bad decision to have all the food vendors in one place and they should have spread them out to avoid massive crowds being all stuck in one area. this also leads to many people missing out on bands due to long queues for food as well as massive crowds struggling to get to each stage. After the event, Slam Dunk had done their investigation into the issues and here is what they had to say on this one:

"After an extensive debrief with our concessions menagement company they have agreed to supply us with a higher number of vendors based on the event's attendance. They will be working closely with the site team to ensure that they are better distirbuted throughout the site"

While I appreciate that they have now got measures in place to make sure there isn't a repeat of this, surely this should have been taken into consideration before the festival took place right? It seems strange as Slam Dunk has been going on for many years now so the organisers are season pros by now and it surprises me how this went so wrong.

It also seems that access to water points and toilets was also an issue with their report also stating that many people from both the South and North sites missed bands because of this. I did not experience these issues myself to be completely honest but it was clear there were some issues there and the festival said that they would improve on this next year by adding "at least 25% extra toilets" and "exploring better ways of distributing them across the site" The Slam Dunk team also said "There will be additional taps at all waterpoints" meaning more people will have access to water.

But the big issue which made the news headlines has the be the parking issue. Both sites had a nightmare with many people deciding to drive to the festival this year due to "very low" confidence with the trains. While this is a very fair argument to make, This led to fans waiting for hours to get to the festival meaning they missed out on the bands they came to see. The festival then decided to stop checking people's tickets meaning people who did not pay got in for free. while I get the logistical reasons and the health and safety reasons for this decision, This was the biggest mistake of the lot in my opinion. this made the whole ticket system pointless in the first place and was so unfair to the people who paid for parking and waited that whole time. Slam Dunk blamed the fact that 50% of people turned up without a parking pass which was an increase on the previous year and that they were sure that they had advertised clearly that you needed a parking pass. While this is a big increase which could be because of the lack of trust in public transport due to strikes, the festival should have had measures in place to deal with this in case this did happen.

I also wanted to find out first-hand what other people thought of the festival and what their experience was like. I made some friends at 2000 Trees (more about that festival soon) and we spoke about our experiences at Slam Dunk and North did not sound much better, especially as they struggled to get onto the viewing platforms and just getting around the crowds.

Overall

So in conclusion, I had a brilliant time at Slam Dunk, The bands were on top for last year and I had a great day out with my friends, but there were a lot of logistical issues which did unfortunately affect their experience. With the festival increasing their price for this year's event, time will tell if this year's Slam Dunk will have an effect on their ticket sales for this year. I will say though for the two years that I have gone, I've always left having a good time but there is definitely room for improvment .