Because the annual celebration of pop punk, emo, metalcore and extra hits the continent, we discover what makes the occasion so particular and why this subsequent greater step into Europe is so thrilling for music followers worldwide.
The fantastic thing about calling someplace house is that it doesn’t must be in a single place. Positive, the foundations embedded into the Earth that maintain up the bricks and mortar wherein you grew, modified and learnt the whole lot all through your life will at all times be there. However when the place you name house is extra of a sense, an aura, it turns into countless. It’s as omnipresent because the oxygen we breathe, endlessly accessible each time we want that consolation and calm. And whenever you share that very same sense of dwelling with 1000’s of others, you need to unfold it even additional, letting everybody you can know what this world has to supply.
For a lot of, Slam Dunk has grow to be exactly that. After all, it’s a bodily occasion that has seen legions come to bop, sing, mosh, snigger, cry and reside at it for the previous twenty years. However the spirit of Slam Dunk lingers all year long, not simply the Might Financial institution Vacation in Leeds and Hatfield. Having the ability to bottle the enjoyment, the surprise, the exuberance of loving a scene and a group so deeply and figuring out that it’s there for you everytime you want it’s one thing very particular certainly. It’s one thing that doesn’t occur fairly often.
And it’s for that reason that the very fact Slam Dunk making its method throughout Europe this Summer time, establishing camp in Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Italy and Switzerland, is such an vital journey. As a result of this sense deserves to be shared. It deserves to be loved and adored by as many individuals as doable. And this can be a sentiment that isn’t unique to followers. It extends to the bands which might be set to be enjoying as effectively.
For instance, LANDMVRKS guitarist Nico Exposito is chomping on the bit to convey the spirit of Slam Dunk to the mainland. That’s particularly outstanding with the truth that he’ll do it in his dwelling nation of France, with the band scheduled to play in Lyon earlier than heading to Milan in the course of the pageant’s grand tour. After discovering out what made it tick after they performed Hatfield Park and Temple Newsam Park again in 2023, he is aware of simply how exhilarating a spot it’s to carry out. Sandwiched between Static Gown and Match For A King on the Knotfest Stage, their potent mix of throat-shredding choruses, iron-clad breakdowns and rejection of conference turned the gang right into a battleground. It’s a second that sticks with the band in additional methods than one.
“Our first time enjoying Slam Dunk was a giant one for us,” he explains. “We didn’t know what to anticipate, however the response from the gang was insane. Seeing so many individuals come out to observe us, figuring out the trouble it takes for them to indicate up early and assist smaller bands, meant lots. Additionally, simply with the ability to share the stage with bands we grew up listening to is at all times a surreal expertise.”
That surreal expertise might be much more outstanding with them sharing the stage with the likes of A Day To Bear in mind and The Used this time round. However apart from the dreams-coming-true side of all this, the pageant’s assist of them as they discovered their footing and reduce their tooth stands out probably the most. The need and wish to offer upcoming bands like them the possibility to indicate what they’re fabricated from, particularly in terms of the heavier facet of the scene, is totally very important to retaining this entire infrastructure standing. And in permitting them to realize new followers on a world scale similar to this implies much more.
“Festivals like Slam Dunk are important for retaining different tradition alive and pushing it ahead,” Nico continues. “They provide a platform to each established and upcoming bands within the scene, which is tremendous vital for the longevity of this music. It additionally creates an area the place followers of other music can come collectively, uncover new bands, and simply really feel like they belong.”
To belong. Isn’t that what all of us need to do? To know that we’re not alone within the issues that we love and reside for. That there are others who see life by the identical lens as we do. And why ought to that feeling be unique to at least one place? It’s the love of this that binds us collectively, irrespective of the place from which we found it. These are the ideas that Slam Dunk is constructed on, and it deserves to be heard worldwide.
Talking of worldwide, Slam Dunk has even had a long-lasting impact on bands which might be 1000’s of miles away from dwelling each time they play there. Simply ask Zebrahead‘s Ali Tabatabaee, who has stood on the SD stage a minimum of eight occasions during the last 17 years, making them just about royalty in these elements. They’re set to convey their spiky model of chaotic pop-punk to all 5 dates of this European run, heading to Antwerp, Utrecht and Zurich, in addition to the aforementioned Milan and Lyon. And it’s truthful to say they couldn’t be happier or prouder to be placing in such a shift. As a result of irrespective of the scale of the stage they had been enjoying – from the basement bars of Leeds College to the Punk In Drublic stage at Hatfield Home – they knew {that a} good time was at all times simply across the nook.
“Festivals like Slam Dunk are retaining different music alive and thriving,” he beams. “It provides bands a spot to attach with followers who genuinely care about this scene, and it brings collectively so many alternative genres like punk, ska, hardcore, and pop-punk multi function place. That doesn’t occur as typically because it ought to, making Slam Dunk a lot extra particular.”
That crossover does go an extended strategy to additional establishing that feeling of belonging that shines by at Slam Dunk. The truth that so many alternative kinds of individuals – from spin-kick youngsters to Myspace revivalists, flat cap punks, to eyeliner fanatics – can discover frequent floor in a single house is, as Ali states, lots rarer than it must be. However such alternative to cross streams, make new connections and realise that we aren’t that completely different in any case is turning into an increasing number of very important within the occasions that we live in.
“There’s an actual sense of group at Slam Dunk,” Ali continues. “It’s not simply one other pageant as a result of it’s a large reunion for each the followers and the bands. We get to meet up with outdated pals, uncover new music, and simply be part of one thing that feels greater than anybody set or efficiency. There’s no ego or separation from followers at this pageant. It’s a bunch of people that love this music coming collectively for one insane weekend.”
And that’s exactly it. Slam Dunk actually does really feel greater than anybody band that performs it or anybody fan who loses all inhibitions at it. It’s greater than the levels, the venues, the riffs, the singalongs, and the recollections made all mixed. That’s as a result of it’s all about the entire and the countless potential that the entire continues to have.
From the Millennium Sq. to the L’Amphithéâtre 3000, Hatfield College to Carroponte, the spirit of Slam Dunk, which retains blossoming with yearly that passes, binds all of them collectively. It’s a fixed in folks’s lives and calendars, a certainty that this place that welcomes them for who they’re will at all times be there. It’s a way of magic that programs by the whole lot that this pageant, this establishment, touches. A assure that you should have the kind of time of your life, in no matter type that will take, that sticks with you lengthy after the final amp is turned off.
The UK has had the pleasure of feeling all this for almost 20 years now. To have watched a once-in-a-generation gathering of music, tradition and group grow to be a solace, homestead and luxury for therefore many. Now, it’s time for Europe to really feel it, too.
Tickets for Slam Dunk Europe are on sale now.
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