Slam Dunk Festival 2023

[binge.to.bopo]

I definitely think the capacity needs lowering, rather than increasing the venue size.

I know it's all about money making for the SD Organisers, so they'll want it bigger and bigger to earn as much as they can.

But for a day festival it needs to be kept smaller, or you'll end up not being able to get to half of the stages if they're miles apart.

[Peskybee]

Went to North. Panicked after reading all the horror stories from South and so got to the festival early. Luckily we were staying nearby so only a 15 minute drive plus only 15/20 mins sat in the car park queue. Got to the village in plenty of time which was rammed.

  I fully agree with everyone's complaints. The queues were absolutely horrendous other than the bars. I ended up only eating an ice cream all day as it had the smallest queue and I couldn't afford missing anyone I wanted to see. Absolutely hated the Kerrang tent and how it slopes upwards towards the stage so the closer you get, the worse view you have.

  But the music more than made up for it. Heriot smashed the Knotfest tent, such a great start to the day. Also enjoyed Higher Power and SeeYouSpaceCowboy. Spanish Love Songs and Holding Absence back to back made me more emotional than I expected 😪 Gogol Bordello was the most fun I had all day, they really are an amazing festival band. Managed to squeeze in 15 mins of Kids In Glass Houses, was a bit disappointed as I thought they would be playing Smart Casual front to back so I could catch Saturday but alas, they still sounded brilliant. The Menzingers was another highlight, everyone around me was dancing which definitely helped. It was then a rush to catch the last few bands as I had Creeper, Malevolence and The Offspring back to back. Really enjoyed Creeper and Malevolence but The Offspring lost me a bit when Noodles did his covers bit part way through. Probably didn't help that I was really hungry and could hear Enter Shikari in the background between songs, whom I'm sure were top tier as usual.

  All in all, I've never had a bad time at Slam Dunk and it really is my favourite festival music wise but they really need to make some big changes next year if they want to keep the loyal fans coming. 

[Optix]

Granted my info is from half a decade ago now (boy time flies) but I do remember while south 2019 was busy it seemed to be pretty tolerable queue wise except for the card readers not working well at the bars.

I was looking at the map and its the same layout for 2021 and it appears drawn up so the kerrang tent was sideways I remember you could easily get in there. Did they change the entrance making it smaller in 2023 causing that big jam? Also the big merch tent in the middle was really cool to have, seems like 2023 its now wasted space or as you are all reporting a big food zone.

[Chavmeisterdeluxe]

52 minutes ago, Optix said:

Granted my info is from half a decade ago now (boy time flies) but I do remember while south 2019 was busy it seemed to be pretty tolerable queue wise except for the card readers not working well at the bars.

I was looking at the map and its the same layout for 2021 and it appears drawn up so the kerrang tent was sideways I remember you could easily get in there. Did they change the entrance making it smaller in 2023 causing that big jam? Also the big merch tent in the middle was really cool to have, seems like 2023 its now wasted space or as you are all reporting a big food zone.

It was the same set up with that tent against the fence so you could only get in one side and was definitely a pain that year too

[robith]

First time slam dunk attendee, many festival veteran. My thoughts:

- They're very lucky the vibe was so good. Everyone was mostly exceptionally friendly

- But perhaps too friendly. This festival had some of the worst crowd crust I'd ever seen. Someone mentioned Scene Queen. I was on the far side and it was deserted. Same Kerrang tent. Same on the Dickies - huge crowd on the right, but walk to the left and you could walk to the front. I'm a stand at the back guy cos I'm tall and dislike inconveniencing/touching people but some ppl were overly precious about people going past them. Meant everyone got places and just stopped, creating artificial blockages

-Sound on the Dickies stage was atrocious, not helped by the angle of the ground. 

- The set up in that Kerrang tent was deranged. Had to fight through an entire crowd of Hawthorne Heights fans to get to Spanish Love Songs to....stand in a half full tent and listen to another band soundcheck. Ludicrous

- People started queueing at a few open bars (the ones without queue barriers). They're bars, you're making them less efficient by doing this. Craft beer tent was classic on this, far sides were deserted and you could get served immediately, but people would start queuing behind you even though there were people at the bar waiting to serve people

- However gave up on going to the craft tent as when Dickies got busier, it was harder to cut through the green and walking through that thoroughfare with the food queues was just....horrible. Borderline bleak

- Partially glad The Offspring did that weird covers bit cos it meant we left as soon as they did Kids Aren't Alright and had a fairly stress free journey home, imagine it wouldn't have been the case 10 minutes later

- Was mad how many toilets were by the craft beer tent vs how many were by Dickies. Former had like 30 urinals, later had 2 which made me laugh every time I had to piss on a tree cos it made no real difference given they were overflowing by 3pm

- A personal thing - Spanish Love Songs were amazing, but their line about "sing us some nostalgia", then watching a load of nostalgia bands turn in half arsed sets on poor sound systems (Less than Jake in particular didn't look like they care/wanted to be playing Hello Rockview at all) meant I spent the whole day wishing I was just watching SLS again

[Optix]

Ah fair enough I never went in the tent that year but wondered if it was opened up lengthways rather than just on one of the ends made a difference. It does seem like the layout truly needs a rethink.

[binge.to.bopo]

https://www.slamdunkfestival.com/statement

[Harry MonkFish]

On 5/28/2023 at 12:05 PM, northernangel said:

Luckily, I told my friend to park the other side of Hatfield station down the road to pick me up and we were straight out. It sounded horrendous getting in though with car parks.

That's where we got picked up but the security initially refused to let people out until they found other ways to pass them.