KayCalCooks went to Slam Dunk Festival 2018! Review and Diary.
What is Slam Dunk?
Slam Dunk (or Slam Dunk Records) is an independent British record label, founded in Leeds, England in 2007. The label evolved from "Slam Dunk" which was a weekly club night held at 'Cockpit', the city's music venue, centered on emo/punk/ska and metal music.
In 2006, Slam Dunk Festival was established. Although small-scale and set up with only a handful of artists, the yearly event now attracts many well-known artists and has slowly established itself as a popular day-long music festival in Leeds (SD North), Hertfordshire (SD South) and Birmingham (SD Midlands).
Click here to find out more about Slam Dunk Festival.
I went to Slam Dunk 'South' Festival which was set in Hatfield Park, in Hertfordshire.
Sunday 27th May.
Here was the event line-up of bands!
Out of the listed bands these were the bands that I saw throughout the day...
- Good Charlotte
- Jimmy Eat World
- Four Year Strong
- Taking Back Sunday
- The Devil Wears Prada
- Moose Blood
- Lower Than Atlantis
- Knuckle Puck
- Creeper
- Grayscale
- The Skints
These were the bands that I wanted to see but had clashing times with the ones above, so I unfortunately missed them this time around...
- Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes
- Twin Atlantic
- Trash Boat
- Counterparts
- Broadside
- Roam
- State Champs
- Dream State
- As It Is
It's okay though because I think that these bands will be touring again soon! (...well, I hope they will.) Let me know if you like any of these bands or you've seen them play live!
My Festival Outfit!
(Excuse the dirty mirror and messy bedroom- I am redecorating at the moment!)
I thought it had some cool 'Coachella' vibes and I felt like Zena, Warrior Princess with my studded crop top and leather tassel belt!
Let me know if you liked it!
Some photos of the day itself!
These are my friend's, we took a selfie while we walked to the festival. I'm the short one in the sun glasses, far left.
Me and Christos taking a photo while we line up for drinks!
The following photos are probably not amazing because, well, I have anxiety and actually going into the crowds makes me panicky. So I tried to zoom in on the bands.
Lower Than Atlantis
Jimmy Eat World
Good Charlotte
I ended up taking more videos than photos... I might make a compilation on Dtube!
The weather was expected storm all day (like actual thunder and lightning). We got super lucky because apart from a little bit of drizzle around dinner time, the rest of the day was scorching hot and sunny! I got a little bit of a tan!
Come the end of the festival when the head-lining acts were on, lightning had started to flash in the distance but it still stayed completely dry! I took a video of the lightning around the main stage while Good Charlotte were on because it looked super cool, here is a screenshot of the video.
A short review of Slamdunk Festival 2018
It was VERY well organised in terms of the bands, the stages and set timings. It is also only a stones-throw away from Hatfield station which has a Taxi Rank. It took us about 5 minutes to leave and we had no issues getting home.
Only few faults to note. The food wasn't all that great; consisting mostly of stodgy, greasy food options. The only stall I could get food that suited my dietary needs was the vegan / vegetarian 'health' stall, which by the time I was hungry, had sold out. Leaving me with the sad option of... Fries. By the end of the night the bars had RUN OUT (yes, run out) of beer and cider, leaving only soft drinks or harder-drinks such as spirits and shots.
Unfortunately, speaking on behalf of my friends, it would take 45 minutes (and more in-between bands) to queue for the toilet. Luckily, I had my Ulcerative Colitis disability card and could use the disabled toilets quite freely by showing my card to the stewards. The disabled toilets were accessible from every stage and extremely clean.
All festivals have their faults and in comparison to some other British Rock festivals this definitely wasn't that bad at all and I would love to go again next year!
Let me know if you went too or if you liked any of the things I mentioned!
I hope you enjoyed reading this blog.
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