I have to admit, Slam Dunk is one of the highlights of the musical calendar for me. Lots of my favourite bands and lots of my friends all in one place for a whole day. I mean, what more can you ask for really?
For more years than I’d like to remember I’ve been heading out to Leeds for day one of the May Bank Holiday Weekend extravaganza. Yep, even while I’ve been living in London I’ve been trekking up north for this. If you’re interested in my past adventures at Slam Dunk, you can see what I thought of 2014 and 2015. This year, however, this year was different. This year Steph and I decided to brave the wilds of Hatfield House. The brand new home of Slam Dunk South.
I’m a fan of the move to the park. Although I’ve always enjoyed the university campus/city centreĀ surroundings for Slam Dunk before it’s new park based home made it feel more like a festival. If that even makes sense?! After a bit of a wander around to get our bearings we decided to head to the Monster Energy Stage to see The Dangerous Summer.Ā They were as wonderful as I expected them to be and a great way to start our day.
It was such a nice day weather-wise. I was a bit nervous that it would be cold and rainy. The forecast didn’t look good but it was proved wrong. Apart from about half an hour in the evening when it tried to rain but didn’t quite succeed in becoming the downpour it wanted to be.
My major highlights of the day were Taking Back Sunday and Jimmy Eat World. Sometimes, I think I forget how much I love these two bands. Then I see them live and fall in love all over again. Nature actually put on a particularly spectacular light show for us in the shape of some crazy lightning. It felt kind of surreal, listening to Jimmy Eat World and watching these bright orangeĀ flashes and streaks across the sky.
Sadly, there were lots of train issues that day. So we decided to leave a little early to make sure we actually made it back to London and didn’t end up with a huge taxi bill. It did mean missing a bit of Jimmy Eat World’s set *sad face* but we did manage to catch some of Good Charlotte so every cloud, eh? They were headlining the Jagermeister stage which was the closest toĀ the exit.
I did manage to speak to a couple of bands while I was there but I still need to edit those videos. I had a chat with the two Alex’sĀ from Roam, Brian from PVRIS and Max from Say Anything. If you’re interested in seeing those, keep an eye on my (neglected) YouTube channel.Ā They should be up soon!
Apart from the crazy travel issues and the fact there was no signal in the park, so I missed out on meeting a few of my friends, I had a brilliant time. This festival will always hold a piece of my heart.
Slam Dunk every summer, forever!
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