Live Review: Slam Dunk South 2021

Slam Dunk festival finally returned this year with a rather stacked lineup. Despite complications with bands having to pull out due to the current situation, the festival was still jam-packed with all kinds of bands, spanning across many genres. This marks the first time Slam Dunk has been hosted in September and despite the delay, the sun was out and everyone was ready to party!

The festival had four stages to split the bands which were: The main stage, The Punk In Drublic stage, The Jägermeister Stage and the Key Club Stage. With the main stage and the Punk In Drublic stage being your standard open-air stages, while the Key Club stage was a double-sided stage that allowed bands to change within minutes. The Jägermeister stage was the only stage in a tent and there was a stage situated on either side to allow quick turnovers for bands.

Starting with the main stage, this was more for your more emo/Scene kids. Featuring bands like As It Is, Creeper and, of course, festival headliners Don Broco. The mood was very much set. HelloGoodbye played a set that was top-heavy with newer tracks, while As It Is seemed to suffer from levelling issues throughout their set. Creeper brought their high energy theatrics to the masses in the middle of the blistering heat, while State Champs put on a decent showing before announcing their UK tour for 2022. Overall, this stage was far from my thing hence why I didn’t stay at it for long.

Moving down to the Punk In Drublic stage now and I have to say, this was a stage that had my interest. Buster Shuffle killed their time slot early on in the day with their fun and energetic ska style while the skins brought the calm with their more relaxing and calming blend of reggae and punk. A band that was a surprising last-minute addition to the festival was Anti-Flag. Their highly political and highly energetic set saw the stage pop off. Massive pits and loud singalongs littered their set which may have been the set of the day for me. Unfortunately, Headliners NOFX left a lot to be desired. I stayed for a couple of songs before getting tired of their front man’s distasteful humour. Not my thing at all.

I always knew I’d spend most of my time at the Jägermeister stage, and that’s exactly what I did. Early on in the day saw Brutality Will Prevail bring a heavy dose of metal, and Loathe let it in and it consumed the fans. As the day went on, and the larger bands took to the stage – like Skindred, Bury Tomorrow, and headliners While She Sleeps – the stage’s biggest flaw became apparent. The stage was pulling some of the largest crowds of the entire festival which led to fans having to miss out as the tent would be rammed, causing a lot of fans to express their disappointment online after the event. They have to make this an open-air stage next year! As for performances, Skindred where a tonne of fun as they always are. Bringing their blend of reggae and metal to the excited Slam Dunk crowd made for a lot of dancing and moshing. Bury Tomorrow played an OK set however I think it’s gonna take some time for the band to adjust after replacing their clean vocalist. While She Sleeps were immense, plain and simple. They proved why they deserved their headline slot with an action-packed set that was littered with songs from their most recent albums.

The final stage was the Key Club stage which wasn’t too appealing to me. I caught Popes Of ChilliTown who were a bit of fun early on in the day, and then I didn’t really see anyone else there up until Holding Absence, which even then I only caught their first couple songs. From what I heard though, it sounded great. A lot of energy and charisma was on display and they had the crowd under their fingers right from the off.

After looking back at the entire festival I can say that Slam Dunk managed to put on a decent event even with all the complications it faced. It was great to see so many fans of different styles come together again and just enjoy the music they love and that’s one of the things that Slam Dunk has always done well. It’s a great community and the organisers should be proud of the event they put together!