Slam Dunk Festival is back to close out the summer of 2021 in a menagerie of Jägermeister and three-quarter length Dickies and Joyzine will be there to bring you all the action from Hatfield Park. After a couple of Coronavirus related postponements, Slam Dunk has ridden the success of the vaccine rollout to be in the perfect position to stage a day of beer-soaked anthems from iconic bands like NOFX, Alkaline Trio and Funeral for a Friend. If being inside and away from live music for months has got you craving for the summer of 2005 when all you did was drink Frosty Jack’s and try to sneak into the Camden Underworld then Slam Dunk is a sure bet to satisfy all your need for nostalgia.
You can choose to hit up Slam Dunk either in Leeds or in Hatfield and tickets are on sale now via Seetickets.
Here’s a few of the must-see’s at the festival:
NOFX
I’m firmly of the belief that there isn’t a bad NOFX album. Fat Mike has been consistently writing hits since the eighties, the kind of longevity that puts those cans of Heinz Tomato Soup in the back of your mum’s cupboard to shame. With such a wealth of music to dip into, you’re never sure what they’re going to pull out on any given day, but rest assured there’ll be there to entertain (and likely disgust).
Hellogoodbye
This will be the first time I’ve seen Hellogoodbye live since I saw them at The Astoria in 2006, a tour on the back of the surprising success of Here In Your Arms which earwormed its way into the British charts. Whilst they no longer make Myspace pandering Fruity Loops powerpop, they have matured into a dance-riff heavy band with the occasional throwback to those synthesized days. This is set to be mainlined nostalgia so get prepped by heading over to Limewire, grabbing yourself shimmy_shimmy_quarter_turn.mp3 and loading it up on your 256mb mp3 player.
[spunge]
I’m not going to pretend to be a massive [spunge] fan but someone sent me this song in Year 8 and I use to vibe hard to it bopping along to school with a Gregg’s Sausage Roll in hand. Also, ska is BACK and anyone who pretends they don’t like upstrokes and trumpets is lying to themselves.
Funeral for a Friend
Funeral for a Friend totally pulled an LCD Soundsystem when they announced more shows after their ‘last show ever’ but we’ll forgive them because they’re amazing. This is 100% going to be one of the busiest sets of the whole day and rightly so – Funeral for a Friend are visceral in the live setting with songs embedded deeply within the souls of the Myspace generation. A must-see.
These are just a few of the acts on show across the weekend – full line up available here.