Slam Dunk 2023: It could have been perfect, but issues hampered the experience
Was Slam Dunk 2023 really THAT bad? I didn’t think so… but there were certainly major problems
Slam Dunk has always been - to me, anyway - the best festival of the year.
My friends and I have done the festival every year since 2019, had some amazing experiences along the way and seen some incredible band performances.
This year’s event was one we had been looking forward to for months, and even when we followed the (incredibly negative) social media chatter of Slam Dunk South that was happening the day before, it didn’t make us any less excited for the 2023 instalment.
All I have seen since the festival over the weekend is an endless barrage of criticism. Whilst there are undoubtedly lessons for the organisers to learn from this year’s sold out festival (which had a lot to do with the issues, I think), it was still a top experience and one we will all certainly be repeating in 2024.
We all got early trains to Leeds, met in the centre and got the shuttle bus up to the site. I have to say, entry to the festival was as easy as ever for us - but I know not everyone had that experience. One point that must be made is that when there are two different big sporting events on (Leeds United and Yorkshire Cricket), I don’t know why anyone in their right mind would actually want to drive to a one day festival when the roads were going to be a nightmare anyway.
For the first time ever, we got to the site before gates opened. The sea of people waiting for Temple Newsam to be opened was incredible, but all went well for the first few hours - at least, in my opinion.
Beer was easy to come by. The bands playing were easily accessible, and the festival didn’t feel really full until about 3/4pm. I would say that from my point of view, my experience from 11-3pm were amazing and it would have been the best Slam Dunk yet if it had stayed that way.
Seeing bands like Youth Fountain, SeeYouSpaceCowboy and Underøath were so good and after that point, it was very noticeable that there were too many people on site.
Trying to see bands in the Kerrang! tent was a pointless endeavour. Some of those booked in there - Spanish Love Songs, Four Year Strong - had way too many people wanting to see them and although there was room on the far side of the tent, people just stopped in the middle and near the main entrance- making it difficult to get in and also downright dangerous in places.
The food situation was an utter joke. There were nowhere near enough vendors for the near 30,000 people that ended up on the site and what was even worse was the fact they’d been placed at the top of the hill where people then wanted to cross through to get to the Amazon Music stage at the bottom.
Personally, there seemed to be less vendors than normal. Queues were always long to get food at SD but it was something else this year. That really needs looking at for next year as it made plenty of people miserable and made them miss plenty of the bands they wanted to see.
This year was also the first time any of my group had stayed until the end. Often we’ve left during the headliners even before as we haven’t been bothered. This year was different as we all stayed to the end and it was much harder to get back into the centre of Leeds through the shuttle buses, but still not a dreadful experience.
Overall? Still a great day. Loved so many bands, had some great times too. But there were too many people there for that site. Slam Dunk need to stop being greedy and selling too many tickets as so many people will be put off for next year. Take 8,000-10,000 off that capacity and things would have run much more smoothly.
We’ll all be there next year, as there is so much credit from SD in the bank with all of us who have been for the past few years.
Let’s hope the organisers take on the feedback from those who were there, and learn from the mistakes that were made this year.