Slam Dunk 2018

[BeddingatReading]

Few questions about Birmingham (based on last year obviously)

are the two main stages inside or outside? 

whats security like, is it worth me trying to smuggle some booze in or is it likely to just get taken off me? 

[foolee]

South weather is not looking good... Got after party tickets booked so can’t really wear wellies but if I wear converse they’ll get overrun by mud and don’t want to take a coat to an after party so a poncho it is! Do you think you’d get away with wearing shorts at the after party? Probably end up not bothering with it if the weather is that bad... 

Anyone going to Leeds today enjoy! 

13 hours ago, BeddingatReading said:

Few questions about Birmingham (based on last year obviously)

are the two main stages inside or outside? 

whats security like, is it worth me trying to smuggle some booze in or is it likely to just get taken off me? 

For what it’s worth even though you asked about last year I went in 2016 and both main stages were inside and ska stage was outside. Security was pretty tight that year, searches and bag searches. You could try it but I would go with the mind frame it’ll get taken off of you, since the Manchester bombing a lot of venues aren’t taking the risks anymore and use metal detectors etc. But obviously unsure what they were like last year, hope this helps a little.

[thewayiam]

Birmingham looking top weather on Monday. Shorts and t-shirt job done.

[fantomas]

South question please:  Do I have to go to the university to exchange ticket for wristband, or is there an exchange onsite too?

We are quite local but don’t want to go to two places if it isn’t necessary.  Going to arrive by local bus.

[fantomas]

Nevermind, looks like there will be an exchange at the venue.

Have a good time if you’re going over the next couple of days!

[BeddingatReading]

Quite a controversial comment but I’m getting pretty annoyed with all the comments on Twitter surrounding Moose Blood. Everyone is saying to boycott their performance etc but they dropped the guy who committed the offences so why do people have such an issue, are people just unwilling to let it go or am I missing something? 

[Chavmeisterdeluxe]

11 minutes ago, BeddingatReading said:

Quite a controversial comment but I’m getting pretty annoyed with all the comments on Twitter surrounding Moose Blood. Everyone is saying to boycott their performance etc but they dropped the guy who committed the offences so why do people have such an issue, are people just unwilling to let it go or am I missing something? 

They've also been accused of stealing naked pics of a girl and sharing it in the band WhatsApp group, but yeah all the posts seem to be calling them nonce rapists by people hopping on a bandwagon that they know nothing about seemingly.

[Andre91]

Jimmy Eat World started off absolutely incredibly but then the set got pretty dull for a good 20 minutes towards the end before the encore. 

[BeddingatReading]

46 minutes ago, Chavmeisterdeluxe said:

They've also been accused of stealing naked pics of a girl and sharing it in the band WhatsApp group, but yeah all the posts seem to be calling them nonce rapists by people hopping on a bandwagon that they know nothing about seemingly.

Oh, I’ve not seen that one. So basically if I don’t like a band all I have to do these days to start an angry mob is start up a rumour that they’ve done something inappropriate... whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty

[lemons]

Severe lack of toilets at the South. Was it previously advertised you could get cashback at the bars? Highlights Save Ferris, FC and the Rattlesnakes and for me a perfect J.E.W set. Got lucky with the weather but I probably would go back to the site as long as readmittance is allowed again.

[foolee]

2 hours ago, lemons said:

Severe lack of toilets at the South. Was it previously advertised you could get cashback at the bars? Highlights Save Ferris, FC and the Rattlesnakes and for me a perfect J.E.W set. Got lucky with the weather but I probably would go back to the site as long as readmittance is allowed again.

Got to agree, shocking amount of toilets and the fact there were no cash points when the organisers announced before the festival there would be and not all food stalls took card was pretty poor organisation but maybe teething problems as it’s the first year in the park, weather also helped a lot but if they can fix those two issues I would definitely come bands. Lineup also helped and the bands I saw were great. Managed to catch Four Year Strong, Creeper, Twin Atlantic, Frank Carter & the rattlesnakes, Taking Back Sunday and Good Charlotte. Creeper and Frank Carter being particular highlights 

[foolee]

Also on another note thought that it was fairly poor that there was no announcement of shuttle buses to the after party being £1 until the day as it’s the festival that has had to plan the after party at the forum which is miles away from the park and with people already purchasing their after party tickets I felt this should be free as it’s hardly a walkable distance

[fantomas]

There was a lack of toilets, managed to find a set that had very little queue cos it was a bit hidden away, they needed to be moved somewhere more obvious.  There were so many more toilets at APE the day before though.

They also ran out of beer at the taps at most/all the bars by about 8pm, with only cans of piss water left.

Had a great time though and would return and hope they fix these niggles.

Loved Jimmy Eat World, Zebrahead and King Prawn in particular.

[thewayiam]

Just got back, FYS, Creeper and State Champs for what I knew were great. Zebrahead was good fun, got a signed ticket by As It Is, JEW were great bar some knobs in the crowd but Pvris were shit and left two songs out that would have made their set better and were on their list to play but weren't played. Only saw them and the clash was as it is who I'd seen before and not bothered with Taking Back Sunday. All in all you can't complain for £55.

[gary1979666]

I had a great time at South, loved the site - felt like there was so much space there, esp compared the the university.  Generally well organised, but agree about the above comments for the toilets - my wife had to queue for half an hour - lucky the urinals had no queue!

In terms of bands, felt like I saw a lot more than previous years:

Templeton Pek, Guttermouth, 4Yr Strong, King Prawn, Save Ferris, State Champs, Sleeping with Sirens, Zebrahead (end of), SKints, 4Yr Strong (acoustic), Goldfinger, Good Charlotte and even caught a couple of songs from JEW from the car park!

Loved the acoustic stage - a quaint little copse of trees with some guys and guitars.

 

[thewayiam]

47 minutes ago, gary1979666 said:

I had a great time at South, loved the site - felt like there was so much space there, esp compared the the university.  Generally well organised, but agree about the above comments for the toilets - my wife had to queue for half an hour - lucky the urinals had no queue!

In terms of bands, felt like I saw a lot more than previous years:

Templeton Pek, Guttermouth, 4Yr Strong, King Prawn, Save Ferris, State Champs, Sleeping with Sirens, Zebrahead (end of), SKints, 4Yr Strong (acoustic), Goldfinger, Good Charlotte and even caught a couple of songs from JEW from the car park!

Loved the acoustic stage - a quaint little copse of trees with some guys and guitars.

 

South layout looked good and I may consider in the future, shame it's not as much indoor as Brum. Was a couple of little sound issues on one of the main stages in Brum but nothing too bad.

[Andre91]

5 minutes ago, thewayiam said:

South layout looked good and I may consider in the future, shame it's not as much indoor as Brum. Was a couple of little sound issues on one of the main stages in Brum but nothing too bad.

I thought the exact same thing about South next year. It’s all outdoors so you get that proper festival feeling, unlike being in the Arena at Leeds. 

I was thinking on Saturday, what with the Hatfield site all being open and the NEC and the Arena in Leeds being stages, could they start getting bigger headliners such as Paramore, FOB, ADTR and BMTH? It is obvious for everyone to see year on year how much SD has been growing and with those huge venues being a part of it, bigger headliners like those above would seem like the next step. 

10th anniversary of Brand New Eyes next year 

Edited May 29, 2018 by Andre91

[thewayiam]

35 minutes ago, Andre91 said:

I thought the exact same thing about South next year. It’s all outdoors so you get that proper festival feeling, unlike being in the Arena at Leeds. 

I was thinking on Saturday, what with the Hatfield site all being open and the NEC and the Arena in Leeds being stages, could they start getting bigger headliners such as Paramore, FOB, ADTR and BMTH? It is obvious for everyone to see year on year how much SD has been growing and with those huge venues being a part of it, bigger headliners like those above would seem like the next step. 

10th anniversary of Brand New Eyes next year 

I couldn't go south this year as it was Dad's 60th Sunday. I had to sell a Neighbourhood Sunday ticket which I accidentally at the time booked not thinking about it being Dada birthday that day....luckily some girl on gumtree wanted the ticket and I sold that all at face value on there easily.

Only issue with it being outdoors is obviously the weather and smaller bands at this minute playing on bigger outdoor stages and the wind taking sound away....although I guess the stages may well be smaller than I think with the bands being smaller.

Brum does always have toilet space with no issues but my god are they taking the piss with good prices knowing you are stuck.

[BeddingatReading]

14 minutes ago, thewayiam said:

I couldn't go south this year as it was Dad's 60th Sunday. I had to sell a Neighbourhood Sunday ticket which I accidentally at the time booked not thinking about it being Dada birthday that day....luckily some girl on gumtree wanted the ticket and I sold that all at face value on there easily.

Only issue with it being outdoors is obviously the weather and smaller bands at this minute playing on bigger outdoor stages and the wind taking sound away....although I guess the stages may well be smaller than I think with the bands being smaller.

Brum does always have toilet space with no issues but my god are they taking the piss with good prices knowing you are stuck.

My girlfriend queued for about half hour on two occasions by the Monster stage so I’d say there could do with being a few more toilets but I guess the NEC isnt designed for that many people at once so no real complaints really. 

Food prices did take the piss a bit inside but I’m happy that you could come and go as much as you want... when we had a gap  between bands we went to the Wetherspoons in the train station. 

[thewayiam]

1 minute ago, BeddingatReading said:

My girlfriend queued for about half hour on two occasions by the Monster stage so I’d say there could do with being a few more toilets but I guess the NEC isnt designed for that many people at once so no real complaints really. 

Food prices did take the piss a bit inside but I’m happy that you could come and go as much as you want... when we had a gap  between bands we went to the Wetherspoons in the train station. 

Ah I guess being male it is much different, now you've said this a mate of mine actually got into an argument with security for chucking a girl out of midlands half way through the day yesterday as she basically was that desperate she had to run into a guys cubicle. I don't even know how to get to the train station haha...but I drive so wouldn't help me.

I decided that next time the pizza offering a decent enough sized pizza for 7.50 was ok and do that twice is your food for 15 quid. 10.50 for pie and chips or fish and chips is outrageous.  It was 5.70 for a 6 inch subway.

[BeddingatReading]

20 minutes ago, thewayiam said:

Ah I guess being male it is much different, now you've said this a mate of mine actually got into an argument with security for chucking a girl out of midlands half way through the day yesterday as she basically was that desperate she had to run into a guys cubicle. I don't even know how to get to the train station haha...but I drive so wouldn't help me.

I decided that next time the pizza offering a decent enough sized pizza for 7.50 was ok and do that twice is your food for 15 quid. 10.50 for pie and chips or fish and chips is outrageous.  It was 5.70 for a 6 inch subway.

I think I saw that! I saw a “woman” run into the toilets shouting I identify as a man running in and having a piss so probably the same person. Literally though if you walked out into the station you could get a 6 inch sub for the usual (train station) prices. 

[thewayiam]

15 minutes ago, BeddingatReading said:

I think I saw that! I saw a “woman” run into the toilets shouting I identify as a man running in and having a piss so probably the same person. Literally though if you walked out into the station you could get a 6 inch sub for the usual (train station) prices. 

Might be, was down near the jagermeister stage I believe as I found him on the way to Pvris from the forum bit before you go into the arena. He pleaded with them not to chuck her out but they did anyway....£55 for a ticket for fuck all, he doesn't know her but pleaded a case that there could be anything wrong that we don't know about and she had to get to a toilet. Luckily he only misses Frank Carter who he's not a fan of really but was just going for the show.

[Jericode]

3 hours ago, Andre91 said:

I thought the exact same thing about South next year. It’s all outdoors so you get that proper festival feeling, unlike being in the Arena at Leeds. 

I was thinking on Saturday, what with the Hatfield site all being open and the NEC and the Arena in Leeds being stages, could they start getting bigger headliners such as Paramore, FOB, ADTR and BMTH? It is obvious for everyone to see year on year how much SD has been growing and with those huge venues being a part of it, bigger headliners like those above would seem like the next step. 

10th anniversary of Brand New Eyes next year 

I think with FOB getting headline bookings from Reading now they won't drop down to headline SD. Can definitely see ADTR doing it next year. Don't think Paramore would do an anniversary thing but could see them headlining if the festival keeps growing.

Personal guess at Neck Deep next year to close the album cycle and ADTR with a new album in 2020.

[foolee]

14 minutes ago, Jericode said:

I think with FOB getting headline bookings from Reading now they won't drop down to headline SD. Can definitely see ADTR doing it next year. Don't think Paramore would do an anniversary thing but could see them headlining if the festival keeps growing.

Personal guess at Neck Deep next year to close the album cycle and ADTR with a new album in 2020.

Agreed with this although I do think ADTR could get bigger slots at festivals like download & R&L.

But I could see SUM 41 and Billy Talent doing 2019 but not sure if either would headline. 

[LRDJ]

As much as I think it'd be a good idea for them to start trying to book bigger headliners, I'm not sure they'll do it because it seems to still sell well despite the medium sized headliners. But yeah, if they did bands like BMTH, ADTR, even Blink if they were really going for it aren't completely unimaginable, but I can't see it as surely they'd be offered high slots for more money at other, bigger festivals.

For me though, next year's headliner is a bit of a struggle. I could see it being Neck Deep with a strong undercard/coheadliner, like Architects or Parkway Drive, Sum 41, NFG etc., but knowing Slam Dunk it'll probably be something underwhelming like You Me At Six or All Time Low (although it's the 10 year anniversary of Nothing Personal next year) wiht Neck Deep under them.

I'd laugh if it's Weezer