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Slam Dunk Festival
Hatfield Park
Saturday 23rd May 2026
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SLAM DUNK SOUTH 2026 REVIEW
The late May Bank Holiday means only one thing for rock fans – the start of festival season!
Yes, Slam Dunk is firmly rooted into the fabric of the scenes DNA, and we once again popped to Hatfield Park for the South version of the two-day event. Tomorrow the circus will travel to Temple Newsum in Leeds for the North edition of 2026’s event, but for today the sun is certainly shining on Hatfield.
Indeed, we are in the midst of a spring heatwave and that does add an element of lethargy to what is normally a full-throttle day of relentless music. Fans, as is always the case in these scenarios, seek out any inch of shade and the water points become as popular as the bars.
With only one tented stage this year, that shade is at a premium, but the water points do appear to cope with the demand unlike previous warm years. The queues for the bars are their usual busy selves but the wait for food (barring the ice cream vans) isn’t bad in our experience today.
That’s enough of the admin stuff though, let’s get to the music! We commence our full-on day in that tent with upstarts Call Me Amour who are playing their first ever festival. You wouldn’t tell as they make the most of the early excitement amongst the crowd to engage them immediately with a polished set of atmospheric rockers.
This festival is of course built both upon nostalgia but also a fair splattering of the best new bands on the scene. We catch perhaps the two biggest hopes of rock music at the moment next as Dead Pony captivate the tent and then unpeople bring the riffage to the sun-soaked main stage. Both you’d expect will become mainstays of this event as they work their way to the top of the bill.
Our first dose of nostalgia comes next as we stick on the main stage for A! The band are back with a new album, ‘PRANG’ (their first in two decades), and it’s great to see the crowd enjoying the likes of ‘Shit Summer’ and ‘Hello Sunshine’, just as much as ‘Starbucks’ and ‘I Love Lake Tahoe’. A mass line-dancing session accompanies ‘Kings of Lowestoft’ and ‘Nothing’ provides the perfect exclamation mark to a brilliant set.
Each year the festival changes up their stage types and locations as they try to shoehorn in as much music as possible. After complaints surrounding their double ended tent set-up, the Monster stages this year are outdoor side-by-side offerings, and we catch Set Your Goals next who clearly appreciate the love shown to them. The only issue with this set-up being the big sound-bleed from the larger outdoor side-by-side setup opposite.
Slam Dunk this year celebrates twenty years and it has been fascinating watching the event grow, expand and change throughout those years. Equally numerous bands on the line-up this year are celebrating their own various anniversaries which both makes their performances extra special and makes us feel extra old!
Over the course of the next couple of hours, we catch Trash Boat celebrating, ‘Nothing I Write You Can Change What You’ve Been Through’ and Boston Manor recognising, ‘Be Nothing’. It’s a unique variant of nostalgia when bands you consider to be newer are celebrating such anniversaries, but both bands do so stunningly in their own ways.
Trash Boat purely focus on that album, and the performance has a real throwback vibe throughout. Boston Manor, sandwich ‘Burn You Up’, ‘Lead Feet’, ‘Cu’, ‘Laika’ and ‘Stop Trying, Be Nothing’ between more recent bangers. Both sets though are memorable and with both bands announcing anniversary shows for later this year, fans will no doubt be motivated to check out the full shows.
We then head back to the main stage for an emotive serenade from Dashboard Confessional including their brilliant Spiderman hit ‘Vindicated’. After then enjoying the latter part of the stirring The Menzingers back over at the Monster stages we catch Tonight Alive who commence their performance with their own Spiderman hit ‘The Edge’!
The Australians deliver a fantastic performance which is amongst the best of the day and incorporate guest spots from Harmony Cavelle (South Arcade) and Bonnie Fraser (Stand Atlantic), not to mention a cover of Mumford & Sons (never expected to say that at Slam Dunk, but it was great!).
The clashes are always a conundrum for Slam Dunk goers and attendees are split between Tonight Alive, Taking Back Sunday on the main stage and the most-hyped band of the moment PRESIDENT who evidently draw a massive crowd to the heavy stages.
We then head into the tent again for a high energy VUKOVI performance and another dose of big-time modern nostalgia with Deaf Havana. With a set celebrating their seminal record, ‘Fools and Worthless Liars’, Deaf Havana provide the most emotive set of the day. The genuine outpouring of love for these songs clearly moving frontman James Veck-Gilodi as crowd and band share a beautiful moment together.
Going back to the ever-revolving stage set-ups of Slam Dunk, the tent this year has a literal revolving stage set-up which keeps changeovers to a minimum!
We conclude what has been another full pelt (see what we did there) day at Slam Dunk with main stage headliners Good Charlotte. The band announced a couple of huge arena shows this week and many mocked the band thinking they would struggle to sell them…
…Well, today they attract one of the biggest crowds we’ve witnessed for a Slam Dunk headliner. The show, the performance and the setlist all equally suggest that the Madden brothers will have no issue convening their fans again when they return.
With a never-ending parade of hits, there is plenty of singing for fans to do before going home. The band sign off with a run of ‘I Just Wanna Live’, ‘Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous’ and ‘The Anthem’. That ensures that as fans make that journey back home, they can once again reminisce about a wonderful day of music.
The sun is out, Slam Dunk is in the bag and festival season is underway – let’s gooooo!
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Vol. 135
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Slam Dunk Festival
Hatfield Park
Saturday 24th May 2025
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SLAM DUNK SOUTH – FESTIVAL REVIEW
Next year Slam Dunk Festival will celebrate 20 years of existence. A milestone for an event which started out as a small one-dayer in Leeds. Over those years the event has grown exponentially and taken over campuses, spawned into a multi North, South (and for awhile even Midlands) event and now takes place within two large parks in their spiritual homes of Leeds and Hatfield.
It’s the Hertfordshire version that we head to this cloudy May Bank Holiday Weekend for what has become the traditional opening ceremony for another stacked festival season.
Walking into Hatfield Park and again thinking about the growth of the event is unavoidable. For years A Day To Remember have been touted as the perfect headliner for the festival but always seemed out of reach. Their positioning at the top of the bill this year is itself therefore something of a milestone.
As however we consider the impact of this booking and the potential further growth of this beloved gathering, we turn our attention to another dynamic which has been so vital to building the Slam Dunk brand – championing new music.
EARLY AFTERNOON DELIGHTS
Yes, on a line-up dominated by big American acts, some of the most exciting bookings are the young homegrown acts spotlighted earlier on in the day. The first of which that we head for is Lake Malice who make the absolute most of their time on stage. Visually the band come across as stars with backing dancing adding to the big stage feel. It’s musically though that makes the crowd let go of any early morning inhibitions and get the party started.
Next, we head over to one of the two main outdoor stages where we catch the always emotive Dream State who attract a fairly sizeable crowd for the time of day. The lack of actual sunshine today does little to dent fans determination to enjoy themselves and watching the audience let loose, clearly the empowering sing-alongs of Dream State help!
Over the past handful of years Slam Dunk has suffered a few issues with poor layouts, overcrowding, sustenance options and traffic management just some of the problems that they have endured. This year thankfully everything is running pretty smoothly with no major obvious gripes.
One issue that becomes apparent is that the Key Club Stage is running late and messing with people’s schedules. This can be massively frustrating for avid music lovers but for us it enables us to catch Kid Bookie and Greywind who were initially caught up in some of those infamous Slam Dunk clashes.
Kid Bookie, despite some technical challenges, is his usual defiant and captivating self as he blasts out a number of tracks from ‘Songs for the Living // Songs for the Dead’ – one of our favourite albums of 2024. Greywind meanwhile showcase their fantastic recent singles such as ‘I.K.A.M.F.’ and ‘Acid Rain’ both of which sound huge in the tent.
A COMPETITION FOR SET OF THE DAY
Perhaps the new band that we were most excited to see today though was Winona Fighter and they certainly didn’t disappoint! Despite an abridged set due to the running time issues in the small tent, the band are phenomenal, and their blistering set says that they are very much going to be breakout stars in the coming years.
It’s soon enough time for our first dose of nostalgia today and that comes over in the bigger tent with The Ataris who have fans cramming in. A set focusing on their early material does wonders and the sing-along to ‘The Boys of Summer’ is one of the loudest of the day.
Before we spend the evening in the company of the bigger hitters however, we still have time to catch a short run of notable newer acts with Rain City Drive and Free Throw both impressive.
It’s Mouth Culture however that completely own the Key Club Stage and deliver a performance to rival Winona Fighter for the set of the day. Again, if this show is anything to go by then Mouth Culture are going to be gigantic. The likes of ‘Sharkbait’ and ‘No Shame’ get the audience engaged but it’s the finale of ‘Ratbag’ which leaves you wondering how anybody can top them today!
It’s another turn towards the nostalgic now as we head back to Main Stage East where Finch serenade a passionate audience with classics like ‘Letters To You’ and ‘What It Is To Burn’.
AN EVENING OF FESTIVAL FAVOURITES
A quick march over to Main Stage West for the first time today follows and the pop punk goodness that has been the backbone of Slam Dunk Festival is delivered with aplomb by New Found Glory and Neck Deep. These two acts typify the mix of big US acts and homegrown talent that has been the bread and butter of these stages for nearly 20 years.
Each of these two performances are exactly what they need to be and provide an enjoyable evening as the clouds grow and the temperature starts to drop. We are able to catch a short glimpse of Alkaline Trio next who have the big tent singing every word of ‘Stupid Kid’ as we return amongst the hordes leaving Electric Callboy to find a spot for our headline act.
The crowd present for A Day To Remember is likely the largest the festival has ever seen, and the band instantly have them onside as they smash out ‘The Downfall of Us All’ and ‘I’m Made of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?’.
The pace never really relents despite the inclusion of a number of new tracks from their latest album, ‘Big Ole Album Vol. 1’. Despite their recent lacklustre outputs, the band can still deliver the goods live and on a day like this their whole set feels like a celebration of the scene which Slam Dunk has helped build.
As the band finish their performance and the fans make their way back home, everyone will undoubtedly look back on a great day out. The rain stayed away, the festival flowed well, and the bands all delivered. Another festival season is underway and whilst there is plenty to look forward to still, attention for Slam Dunk now will turn to delivering a monstrous 20th Anniversary edition in 2026!
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