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Here’s what we learned at Slam Dunk Festival

From sunscreen to thunder, Slam Dunk South was very much alive.

Festival Guide

Words by Charlotte Simonsen

During the very hot day the crowd was not shy of some sunburn to watch their favourite bands play on one of the seven different stages that were spread across the field. All the stages are fairly close together making it easy to make your way from one show to another and grabbing a burger on the way.

#SDF18 did not disappoint one bit! From seeing Frank Carter, joined by his Rattlesnakes, doing a hand stand while crowdsurfing to the emotional outpouring while singing along to Good Charlotte’s Hold On.

It’s like one big family coming together to hangout, playing their favourite music, drinking pints and running from one corner to the other to find the perfect spot of shade where you can hide from the sun and enjoy your vegan Philly Cheeze Steak sub. Only here, your entire family is wearing classic vans.

Since the stages are so close it is a lot easier to catch all of your favourite artists and bands. If not the entire set, at least parts of them. This made it very possible for us to catch Knuckle Puck who were the first band to play the Main Stage of the day, Four Year Strong, Zebrahead, Pvris, Lower Than Atlantis, Every Time I Die, Broadside, The Skints and so many more.

Creeper put together a classic Creeper Cult show letting the fans take over the singalong for many of the songs showing just how devoted the Creeper Cult fans really are. As if the many patches in the crowd didn’t give that away already.

Dream State kept the crowd alive with their hit song White Lies. Front person CJ was crowdsurfing, singing and interacting with the crowd like a natural. The show became emotional as CJ shed some tears of joy from the amount of people who showed up and the support they have seen in their short time as a band. From the looks of it, there will be many more of those moments.

Taking Back Sunday absolutely smashed it with hit after hit letting old emos feel like 15 year old myspace users once again. Everyone moved and sang along to old and new songs and no one was able to keep their feet still for a second.

The most stressful part of the day was choosing to go see Good Charlotte, Jimmy Eat World, Reel Big Fish or all of them in shifts if the FOMO was too much to handle. This was the most crucial time of the day. Next to having barely any signal at all and not being able to find your friends and brag about where you were on Instagram.

Good Charlotte had a lot on their mind and shared their message of tough times and not giving up as a band and their excitement for their new album Generation Rx, set for release on 14 September, followed by their tour where they will be playing Alexandra Palace, February 20 2019. The crowd took this opportunity to let the rest of their energy go and jumped to every banging tune they played all the while having a thunderstorm behind the stage lighting up the sky in what was an eerie but very exciting moment.

How many people can say they’ve seen Good Charlotte play during a thunderstorm after all?


Find out more about this summer’s festivals in our Festival Guide.