FESTIVAL REVIEW: Slam Dunk Festival 2023 – South

Slam Dunk Festival South 2023 was the year of endless queues, overlapping sets, and not enough food stalls. But when the sun is shining, the beers are pulling, and the bands are banging — why not let the music do the talking. Completely sold-out, with five stages to choose from, the UK’s premier rock, pop-punk, emo and alternative weekender did the deed and gave us a bank holiday to remember with our best mates and favourite bands. Here’s what we thought.

HERIOT – Knotfest Stage

For the opening act on the Knotfest Stage at Slam Dunk Festival, HERIOT has drawn in the punters. Nary a spare blade of grass inside the tent, the metallic hardcore quartet make sure everyone is perked up for the day by bludgeoning the senses. With a pit opening up within 30 seconds and staying put for the entire 30 minute set, this is clearly one of the day’s big draws and for good reason. Guitarist and vocalist Debbie Gough is utterly magnetic, the drums of Julian Gage and the bass of Jake Packer are monstrous and guitarist Erhan Alman stalks about the stage with an ominous presence while lashing out riffs left and right. The likes of Near Vision and Dispirit threaten to blow the tent from its pegs, while latest single Demure sounds sublime and is a frightening peek at the potential this band possesses in spades. Closing song Cleansed Existence is the final sledgehammer to the skull, leaving this crowd battered and bruised. It’s hard to imagine a world where HERIOT are not headlining this stage in just a few short years.

Rating: 9/10

VUKOVI – Amazon/Rock Scene Stage

What better way to celebrate winning the Best Production award at the Heavy Music Awards the night before than twisting the main stage into your own personal playground? Scottish upstarts VUKOVI continued their victory lap for last year’s NULA, playing the album’s standout bangers like they were setting off fireworks. Whether it’s hopping to the barrier to steal hearts, or riling up the crowd to circle pit their way into next week, vocalist Janine Shilstone is a readymade popstar; between the volcanic eruption of LASSO’s electronic stomp, I EXIST’s spine-tingling sing-alongs, and La Di Da’s pit-pandering riff-and-roll, VUKOVI lay down the case for them to climb the billing next time round.

Rating: 9/10

HIGHER POWER – Knotfest Stage

Next up at the Knotfest Stage at Slam Dunk Festival is hardcore gang HIGHER POWER who find themselves battling against a clash with VUKOVI and having to follow the country’s brightest new hope in HERIOT. Vocalist Jimmy Wizard can clearly sense the sagging energy by trying to inject some movement into the crowd, who – credit where it’s due – do raise their arms and clap along when prompted, but even a raging rendition of Shedding Skin seems to elicit barely more than scattered nods and a sparse pit. There are pockets of enthusiasm amongst the gathered, but as much as the band bounces and spins across the stage, they valiantly fight a losing battle. Still, closing their set with Seamless sees the band leave everything on the stage and give one final push to try and leave as much of an impression as they can. Today just maybe wasn’t their day.

Rating: 7/10

HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS – Kerrang! Tent 

You can’t even get into the Kerrang! Tent to see HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS, such is their reputation with Slam Dunk Festival‘s ‘elder emo’ attendees. The band are clearly grateful with frontman JT Woodruff giving thanks and appreciation to the sweaty throng before him between every song. The set is largely rooted in those first two seminal albums – 2004’s The Silence In Black And White and 2006’s If Only You Were Lonely. Saying Sorry and Niki FM are greeted by this crowd like long lost friends and even last year’s single Dandelions slots in effortlessly. After Woodruff makes an impassioned dedication to the crowd and their discovery of emo, the singalong for Ohio Is For Lovers is the day’s first big moment, perhaps predictably. But there’s not a single soul here that doesn’t feel cleansed and rescued by the anthem, sending us all on our way with tears down our cheeks and smiles plastered across our faces for the rest of the day.

Rating: 8/10

SPANISH LOVE SONGS – Kerrang! Tent 

Lit up like a campfire, it’s clear from opener Routine Pain’s crowd-pleasing sing-alongs that SPANISH LOVE SONGS are here to endear. In a set made up almost entirely of cuts from 2020 breakthrough Brave Faces Everyone, the indie-emo flag bearers have mastered the art of making sad songs sound so joyous. Vocalist Dylan Slocum pours every fibre of his being into serving up the softly sassy “it won’t be this bleak forever, yeah right” on second song Self-Destruction (As a Sensible Career Choice) so effortlessly that the crowd calls back with pure passion. Whilst their charming cover of THE KILLERS’ Smile Like You Mean It is a missed opportunity, a mid-set showing of new cut Haunted hits home just how popular SPANISH LOVE SONGS have become in the past few years, with thousands packed in like sardines, wearing their hearts on their sleeves as they sing along and wave their hands in the air like it’s the last thing they do; like SPANISH LOVE SONGS delivered the last set they’d ever play.

Rating: 8/10

SCENE QUEEN – Key Club Stage 

What do you get when you combine AQUA‘s Barbie Girl, DOLLY PARTON‘s 9 to 5 and a slew of Spongebob clips? Today you get SCENE QUEEN‘s intro. The assembled mob sings back every word of the mash-up as the self-styled metal Barbie bounds on stage and straight into the riotous Pink Whitney. Pink G-String and a cover of KATY PERRY‘s I Kissed A Girl are impassioned tributes to gay and trans rights, and recent single 18+ feels particularly barbed today given some of the other bands on the bill, eliciting a mass air-punching singalong. Barbie & Ken and Pink Hotel are received like the fan favourites they’ve become, complete with “Twerkle Pits” and waves of crowdsurfers, before Pink Rover caps one of the day’s most infectious performances. While SCENE QUEEN herself may have been surprised at the “larger than anticipated” crowd, she best get used to them if she carries on like this. Fantastically fun and cathartically carefree, she’s delivered a masterclass in being your own person and sticking a middle finger up to all who oppose you.

Rating: 10/10

HOLDING ABSENCE – Amazon/Rock Scene Stage

When you’ve been touring the States for months on end, a festival set in a sunny field back home should be easy money. HOLDING ABSENCE rise to the occasion, stopping every other act on at the same time in their tracks with a set so stacked with sing-alongs they might as well have registered Slam Dunk Festival on the Richter scale. Anthemic opener Like A Shadow sets the tone for a show that starts to send The Greatest Mistake Of My Life to sleep, as the band straddle their back catalogue and birth new album The Noble Art Of Self Destruction into their repertoire. Frontman Lucas Woodland sparks up the crowd like a lightning bolt, sending shivers down every spine with bone-shattering renditions of Like A Shadow and Gravity. Scott Carey’s soaring screaming on Aching Longing sends shockwaves into the crowd, whilst new singles False Dawn and A Crooked Melody earn some of the afternoon’s biggest chants. Super-anthem Afterlife has the entire field bouncing beyond control, and Woodland’s impassioned delivery of closer Wilt leaves no doubt in anyone’s mind that the Welshman are getting ready to come back and conquer headline slots here.

Rating: 9/10

STATIC DRESS – Knotfest Stage

Seeing a band still setting up their stage show ten minutes into their set-time should be disorienting. And for lesser bands, they’d have buckled under restless crowds, yet STATIC DRESS shake off the setbacks like they’re headlining the Knotfest Stage. Opener Di-SinTer sees vocalist Olli Appleyard stampede onto the stage like a bull in a china shop, throwing themselves about like a contortionist’s playtoy, delivering every scream, and every clean, with the velocity of a shooting star. From there on out, there’s no let-up in the pace, as disposable care and Push Rope up the ante, before the chaos-erupting, tent-engulfing circle pit antics of Courtney, just relax send the set into the stratosphere. Since the last time STATIC DRESS played these Slam Dunk Festival stages, they’ve grown considerably as a live act, with tv’s force-feeding their visuals into your eyelids, whilst the unsettling, writhing human hung-on-a-cross to the left of the stage is enough to send you into sin. Apparently there were tech issues, but STATIC DRESS are becoming so good at smashing stages big and small to pieces that you hardly notice; be warned, they won’t be so low-down on festival bills for much longer, and rightfully so.

Rating: 9/10

REAL FRIENDS – Kerrang! Tent 

Slam Dunk Festival has always been a mecca for pop-punk royalty, yet this year there’s a feeling of phoning it in from the old guard, and REAL FRIENDS present plenty of evidence to convict them of their crimes against live sets. Their setlist is piping hot, yet their delivery feels stone cold, lacking the tongue-in-cheek fun pop-punk so desires these days. With everything pre-Composure exiled from their output, except from a welcomingly, albeit wasted, rare airing of Late Nights In My Car, you can’t help but feel they’ve forgotten themselves amidst lineup changes. Giving up a ghost is hard, and REAL FRIENDS just can’t find their footing, despite Six Feet Under and Me First nearly getting them off the ground; and matters are made worse as people storm into the tent to mark their territory for next band BOSTON MANOR rather than sing-along to them.

Rating: 6/10

UNDEROATH – Amazon/Rock Scene Stage

After 26 years it seems impossible that 2023 marks UNDEROATH‘s Slam Dunk Festival debut and the crowd has clearly been waiting for this moment. The sea of fans have their arms raised from the barrier to the sound tent while the metalcore legends tear through decades of material with frightening efficiency. New song Let Go sounds like it’s been in the setlist for years, while older fixtures like Breathing In A New Mentality sound masterful. Vocalist Spencer Chamberlain is a man possessed and the band has the crowd in the palm of their hands throughout their 45 minute set. As active as the crowd has been, they go absolutely feral for the closing one-two punch of A Boy Brushed Red and Writing On The Wall, with every word sung back at them with urgency and adoration. There are numerous bands on this bill who likely list UNDEROATH as a major influence, so it’s only right for them to remind everybody how it should be done.

Rating: 9/10

BOSTON MANOR – Kerrang! Tent

As par for the course for the whole day, the Kerrang! Tent is like a human Tetris game, with people packed in in any way they can to watch BOSTON MANOR’s set. Vocalist Henry Cox seems to lap it up from the get go- crouching at the front of the stage and seemingly taking a moment to process this sea of people, smirking in a look of disbelief as he does so. The setlist varies from singles of last year’s Datura to fan favourites like Halo. The band deliver an energised and exuberant performance, equally during their expansive sonic moments, through to the anthem choruses.

Rating: 8/10

NOAHFINNCE – Key Club Stage

NOAHFINNCE is hard to dislike, with an enigmatic charm that captures a crowd’s attention. Whether his pop-punk, bouncy riff tracks are your jam or not, it’s a challenge to not get swept up in good energy during one of his sets. Not a moment is left silent, as he continually addresses his crowd, introducing his songs with light-hearted relatability: “Anyone here think they have undiagnosed ADHD?” and “Anyone here hate Tik Tok? Anyone here love TikTok? Me too”. The set is like a club house which everyone has been invited to, with no screening process needed. This is the type of set that belongs on an open-air stage, out in the sun; as NOAHFINNCE gallops to the front of the stage, leaning into his onlookers with genuine enthusiasm and an air of gratitude.

Rating: 7/10

FIT FOR A KING – Knotfest Stage

They may be starting late, but the crowd gathered at the Knotfest Stage patiently waits for the arrival of American metalcore mob FIT FOR A KING. They are repaid with a bomb blast of fury in End (The Other Side). The cleans are sounding pristine and the final brutal breakdown is jaw dropping. “This next song might be one of the heaviest you hear all day” claims frontman Ryan Kirby; sure enough, Vendetta can be felt through every bone in your body. But for all the ferocity being doled out, FIT FOR A KING‘s performance is somewhat static, save for bassist Tuck spin kicking and guitar flipping his way through the set. The fans don’t seem to mind as they flail and two-step with reckless abandon in the pit that stays open for the full set, but for the casuals who wander in, this set may be little more than a footnote on their day.

Rating: 7/10

KIDS IN GLASS HOUSES – Amazon/Rock Scene Stage

A KIDS IN GLASS HOUSES reunion was something a lot of Slam Dunk Festival goers were very excited to cross off their alt kid bingo cards. The last time we were graced with this bands’ live presence was nearly a decade ago, and 15 years since their well-loved debut album Smart Casual. When it comes to understanding the assignment, the band gave exactly what the crowd wanted, with the setlist jammed-pack with all their heavy-hitters such as Give Me What I Want and Matters At All. Vocalist Aled Phillips breezes through their set as though not a day has gone by, jumping down to the barrier to get close and personal with the crowd, and practically skipping around the stage. Not only do the crowd welcome them back with open arms, but it seems the band had just as much of a blast as their fans did. It’s a glorious, triumphant return.

Rating: 9/10

THE ACADEMY IS… – Kerrang! Tent

THE ACADEMY IS…woefully underwhelming. For the emo-popper’s first festival on British soil in over a decade, the festivities are about as lively as a wake. Slipping in Slow Down second-song in is a self-fulfilling prophecy, as they chuck out the big biters early on, whilst haphazard helpings of Bulls In Brooklyn and Black Mamba feel frightfully outdated in 2023. Nostalgia is a nice thing, but William Beckett, Adam T. Siska, Mike Carden and Andy Mrotek play like they’d happily be anywhere else but Hatfield House, so it’s no surprise when half their crowd turn their backs, quietly praying for succeeding act CREEPER’s set to come sooner rather than later. COBRA STARSHIP cover Bring It (Snakes On A Plane) and radio-hit About A Girl send a shallow set to the gallows and deservedly so; some bands should stay in the past, and at Slam Dunk Festival, THE ACADEMY IS… prove it.

Rating: 4/10

PVRIS – Amazon/Rock Scene Stage

PVRIS, despite their expansive sound, keep things fairly low-key today, with their performance feeling somewhat routine. All stage presence relies on vocalist Lynn Gunn, as the rest of the band are isolated behind their instrument set ups. Sure, she paces the stage and gives the audience the odd smile, but it’s all a little jam-practice energy rather than main-stage-festival-vibes. Their 10-song set surfs through their near ten-year career as a band; although their are some surprising acts of negligence when it comes to singles like St. Patrick and even most recent release Love Is A… failing to make an appearance. Sonically, the band sound tight and Gunn’s vocal capabilities are undeniable. Ultimately however, it’s all a bit of a shrug of the shoulders.

Rating: 5/10

CREEPER – Kerrang! Tent

As co-vocalist and keyboardist Hannah Hermione Greenwood arrives alone on stage, holding the decapitated head of frontman Will Gould in her hands before sending it into the stratosphere, it’s clear CREEPER aren’t dialling down the theatrics for the first show of the Sanguivore era. As co-headliners alongside YELLOWCARD, they waste no time in waging war with opener Ghost Brigade, the whole band decked out in leather jackets, with Will and guitarist Ian Miles bearing bleeding tongues and bite marks. From here on out, they throw themselves through a set that threatens to throw the roof right off the Kerrang! Tent. Suzanne sends the crowd spiralling into circle pits every which way, whilst Cyanide has everyone serenading the Slam Dunker next to them, before Hannah steals the spotlight with a goosebump-inducing delivery of fan favourite Crickets. But it’s the set-stealing sharing of new single Cry For Heaven, in the world for little longer than 24 hours, that shows the sheer power CREEPER have accumulated as a formidable live force; there’s not a single soul who doesn’t sing back the words as clear as day, smacking smiles onto the faces of every member as Ian Miles enters rock-god mode with a guitar solo so fiery it could burn down the stage.

The festivities don’t end there; a crowd-pleasing Down Below is followed by two friends of bassist Sean Scott getting engaged on-stage, before Will rips into Hiding With Boys harder than a championship-winning BayBlade. Annabelle is forever an anthem that knocks every other band for miles around out of the park, before Misery once again remains the calling card of a band who belong on far bigger stages; few bands can have nearly an entire song sung louder by the crowd than them, with Will stopping the crowd to simply pat them on the back. If this 10-song set is anything to go by, the era of Sanguivore is about to be bigger and better than anything before it. CREEPER, as they always do, prove they’re well and truly on the path to becoming Britain’s biggest alternative band.

Rating: 10/10

BOWLING FOR SOUP – Dickies Stage

BOWLING FOR SOUP are a band that everyone’s familiar with, and either get people excited or induce an eye roll. They are the quintessential nasal-voiced, power-chord, childish humour pop-punk band. But that’s what Slam Dunk Festival has always embraced, as does the majority of their regular attendees. The Texan four-piece deliver on what they would promise on their hypothetical tin: silliness, singalongs, and lighthearted crowd participation. They open the set with getting the crowd to echo back the “woah oh oh oh’s” of High School Never Ends. There’s a lot of horsing around, talking about the origins of calamari, and a Phinneas and Ferb them song rendition. Which, bizarre as it sounds, is exactly how to please this crowd. If you’re more inclined to get easily irritated by grown men making jokes suitable for a bad American college-flick movie, then you may want to take a backseat. If it’s your cup of tea, you’ll enjoy the whole kettle.

Rating: 7/10

MALEVOLENCE – Knotfest Stage

“We have not flown 4,000 miles back from the US to come and fuck around. I want to make some fucking history!” Yells a burly and posturing Alex Taylor. It’s a fair request too from a band that released one of 2022’s best albums in Malicious Intent and have literally just landed back in the UK to play here in the middle of a massive tour across America. The Sheffield rabble has put in the hard graft to become today’s Knotfest Stage headliners, and the way they pummel this tent with Life Sentence and Self Supremacy provides all the proof of why they deserve to be here. The crowd before them becomes a swirling mass of limbs and tracks like Still Waters Run Deep and Keep Your Distance go off like atom bombs. We even get a live debut of Waste Of Myself, taken from their recent The Aggression Sessions split EP with THY ART IS MURDER and FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY. By the time the final punishing notes of On Broken Glass ring out, there’s not a person in this place that hasn’t given this show everything they’ve got, least of all MALEVOLENCE.

Rating: 9/10

ENTER SHIKARI – Amazon/Rock Scene Stage 

It’s a hero’s return for local lads ENTER SHIKARI, who are “from about 15 minutes up the road” according to Rou Reynolds as he addresses the packed-out field at the Amazon/Rock Scene Stage. The band teased this as being their most ambitious show yet and they weren’t lying: monolithic box screens fill the stage and are used at every given moment, From the video intro into opener (pls) set me on fire, to the mind blowing set pieces of Reynolds plunging into water or displaying the terrifying climate stripes as the backdrop for Juggernauts. This is the best ENTER SHIKARI has ever looked on stage. But at a certain point, their insistence of making grand statements with the visuals makes the set feel disjointed; from the highs of Anaesthetist into a video presentation, the energy dissipates somewhat in the gaps. That’s not to say though that the crowd doesn’t lap up every second of the WARGASM-featuring The Void Stares Back or a patented ‘Quickfire Round’ that allows the band to smash through Havoc B, Bull, The Last Garrison (both with CODY FROST) and Sorry You’re Not A Winner with lightning speed. This new era of ENTER SHIKARI is off to a flying start and we’re willing to bet that once they iron out some of the kinks, next year’s arena tour is going to be a live show for the history books.

Rating: 8/10

Words: Jack Press, Jack Terry, Dev Place

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