The ten year anniversary of the late May punk, rock and metalcore festival was unarguably a great success, with huge highlights including Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco’s astonishing singing skills (as well as some fancy acrobatics and stage production) followed swiftly after New Found Glory’s unrelenting ability to send their onlookers into a nostalgic trance.
Marking the 11th year of Slam Dunk’s existence rocking Birmingham, Leeds and Hatfield, Hertfordshire however, it seems Festival Director Ben Ray and the other dedicated men and women behind the event, are not prepared to let the building line-up dwindle in comparison.
In early November, the political rock monsters Enter Shikari were announced as 2017’s headliner and released their intentions to honour the ten year anniversary of the Take To The Skies album in full.
For a band who have avoided a sense of grandeur like the plague, the sound that has grown and been bred from their technical digestion has come to fit that description immensely. Moving far from their days of unleashing havoc in small St Albans venues back in 2003, the four-piece have gone on to achieve a great many things and have been awarded a number of Kerrang awards and the NME’s John Peel award for Innovation back in 2007.
The second announcement of bands followed very shortly with this looking to be the largest alternative shindig of the year. The ranks currently consisting of pop rockers Don Broco, pop punkers Bowling For Soup and Ska revellers Less Than Jake and Reel Big Fish. If Enter Shikari’s nostalgic affirmation was also not enough, other acts added We The Kings and Cute Is What We Aim For have confirmed a full album play through of their own.
Fifty more bands are still set to be announced to perform over eight stages with the addition of the First Direct Arena in Leeds as the second stage, another outdoor stage in Hatfield and an expanded site in Birmingham was also mentioned.
You would be a grade A fool not to get your tickets now, as these set of early and exciting broadcasts have quickly validated that the 2017 series of yearly events will be one of the largest the festival has yet to see.
Tickets are still available for all dates via www.slamdunk.com
