Enter Shikari | Photo: Eddy Maynard

Live Review: The Good, The Bad, & The Queue: A Slam Dunk South Review

Once a year emos from around the UK make their pilgrimage to Slam Dunk for a day of good vibes, good music and togetherness. This year is no different as Slam Dunk South was blessed with a beautiful summer’s day to highlight the special occasion. Being the first Slam Dunk to completely sell out since moving to bigger venues, this had the makings of being one of the most exciting instalments the festival had ever seen.

The day started with a slight delay to the gates opening for fans who were waiting to get in however outside the festival was a big issue. People who had travelled by car found themselves stuck in queues of up to 3 hours just to enter the car park! This wouldn’t stop the early bands however as our first band of the day was the intense Heriot. Bringing blistering blackened metal to the Pop Punk festival, Heriot demolished the Pulse Of The Maggots stage and drew a surprisingly large crowd for an opening band. Their unique style of metal resonated well with the Slam Dunk faithful, and I’m sure they converted a few pop-punk kids over to the darker side of metal.

Hawthorne Heights | Photo: Katie McMillan

Next for us was the animated Movements which brought a tonne of energy and emotion to the Kerrang Stage Right. This however was the first time I noticed an issue that would later prove to be quite an annoyance for many, with the tent only having one entry point and two stages, it was often overcrowded and could be extremely difficult to actually get into the tent due to poor design of the entry point. As the bands changed over and Hawthorne Heights took to the stage, you could see a crash of people – with some wanting to leave to see other bands, while others were trying to rotate to the other stage. This was just a mess in all truth and you could hear and see the frustration already brewing on several fans’ faces.

After Hawthorne had delivered a medley of classic emo anthems we made our way over to the Rock Scene stage to catch Holding Absence’s first performance since announcing their new album. The sound was spot on for these guys as their explosive energy drew in a large crowd and even had a decently sized pit form throughout their set. After this, it was time for a food and drink break and that was another major problem for the festival. Water points were very few and far between, with some even stopping throughout the day, and food queues were longer than ever. After around 45 minutes we were finally able to get something to eat and believe it or not, that was one of the shorter queues of the day. It seemed as though there were nowhere near enough vendors for each person attending which led to waits of up to 2 hours at times!

Boston Manor | Photo: Nathan Robinson

After eating and getting a few dark fruits into the system, Boston Manor was our go-to choice. Despite a struggle to get into the god-forsaken Kerrang tent, the boys from Blackpool put on one hell of a show! Mosh pits were at full capacity and fans could be heard singing along to the band’s infectious songs from outside the tent. This high energy seemed to transfer over to the Rock Scene stage as well as the returning Kids In Glass Houses proved that they have only gotten better with age! Their die-hard fans really made this set special as you could feel the emotion growing as you ventured closer to the stage.

Over to the Dickies stage now and Less Than Jake continued the theme of ageing like a fine wine as they celebrated 25 years of Hello Rockview with a full album playthrough! The energy of this set was unrivalled by all and the people who were having to queue once more, this time for toilets, could at least enjoy the ska punk antics of one of the best in the scene. Returning to our least favourite, yet most visited stage of the festival again was an experience as Creeper drew an insanely large crowd. This unfortunately led to the entrance to the tent becoming extremely claustrophobic which only got worse as their set went on due to more people arriving for the highly anticipated Yellowcard set. Creeper were outstanding as their theatrics wowed the crowd but the lack of space really wasn’t ideal.

Surprisingly once Creeper finished and Yellowcard took to the stage to close out the Kerrang Tent, the place seemed to empty out quite a bit. Yellowcard were one of the most anticipated sets of the festival but I feel the issues the stage had seen all day as well as them not really living up to the rest of the lineup in terms of energy meant their set was quite lackluster and disappointing. Playing their stand-out album Ocean Avenue in full should have been a momentous moment but in truth, it was quite flat.

The Offspring | Photo: Josh Kim

We planned on ending our day by checking out The Offspring; however, after a handful of songs, the band’s sound was far from right. Levels seemed really off and the general vibe around them just wasn’t how we wanted to end our day so we made our way over to the Rock Scene stage one last time to catch the rest of Enter Shikari and this was clearly the right choice! Their electronically infused metal blend was stunning and their light show and use of confetti and streamers was truly astonishing. Shikari are one of those bands who always seem to be touring but they always put on one hell of a show!

As a whole Slam Dunk 2023 is a real mixed bag of emotions for me. The majority of the bands I saw were terrific and my day was one I enjoyed a lot, however, I cannot overlook some of the horrific issues this year’s festival had. The queues for food and toilets were ridiculous with many fans having to miss bands or not eat at all. The queues for drivers only seemed to get worse with some people not even leaving the site for several hours after the festival had ended due to a lack of organization. The queues to the train station were a complete mess as well with no one directing fans and once you did make it nearer the station. Instead of saying “trains to the left, coaches to the right” the stewards were instead pointing and saying “trains this way, coaches this way” so unless you were right next to them you had absolutely no idea where you were going. I usually love everything about this festival but this could have ended in a much worse manner. Here’s hoping they can fix these issues for next year!

Photo: Nathan Robinson