Slam Dunk North (w/ Knocked Loose, Sublime, Tonight Alive, Dead Pony) @ Temple Newsam (Leeds, UK) [Photos]

Bathed in sunshine to celebrate its twentieth anniversary. Slam Dunk Festival 2026 arrived as the official opening ceremony for another unforgettable Summer of alternative music in the UK. With massive headline performances from Knocked Loose and Good Charlotte, a stacked line-up spanning pop punk, hardcore, emo and metalcore, and stellar performances from the likes of Dead Pony, Malevolence and Tonight Alive, this year’s festival delivered wall-to-wall energy across two days. From circle pits and sing-alongs to emotional reunions and scene-defining heavy sets, Slam Dunk 2026 once again proved why it remains one of the most important weekends in the alternative music calendar. Here’s how it went down.

1. The Vibe

To put it simply, while it feels like there are a hundred other festivals going on this weekend, as far as we’re concerned, the arrival of Slam Dunk Festival means Summer has officially kicked off in the UK. There is something really special about this festival, and this year was no different. Metalheads, pop punk fans, emo kids, and every other subculture descend on Hatfield and Leeds for a real cross-section of the best alternative music and culture has to offer. The 2026 edition arrives with huge headliners, a stacked undercard and, depending on your take on warm weather, the hottest days of the year so far.

With a line-up that boasts something for almost every alternative music fan, a site layout change that saw multiple stages sat side-by-side, rotating line-ups meaning minimal changeover time, and a really well laid-out festival site, meaning no crushes, long queues, or delayed running times. Topped off with two huge headliners in Knocked Loose and Good Charlotte, Slam Dunk 2026 made sure that a long-awaited summer season kicked off in style.

2. The Undercard

Festivals like Slam Dunk are great for championing underground bands, and across the four stages, the stars of the alternative scene really did do themselves proud. Leeds crossover thrashers Pest Control wasted no time in tearing up a riot with their lunchtime set, crashing through the likes of “Year of the Pest” to a pit that was already swirling around in front of the stage. Over on the Scott’s Key Club Stage, we arrive just as Harry Radford, frontman with electronic alt-rockers Call Me Amour, is scaling the scaffolding inside this bustling tent. Was it a temporary respite from the heat or the fact that next up were highly-rated Glasgow rockers Dead Pony? The former definitely had something to do with it, but, quite honestly, the Glaswegian alt-rock band proved again why they are one of the most exciting young bands on the circuit right now. Delivering their usual firecracker performance, the star of the show is, as always, vocalist Anna Shields. With a new EP out and a pretty-much-sold-out-to-fuck UK tour on the horizon, this was a rare chance to see Dead Pony on a small stage because, by now, they’re pretty much kicking down the doors for much bigger things in 2027.

It was stage-to-stage bangers next up as Heriot blazed through their set in one corner of the field with their usual abrasive fury, while alt-rock favourites and regulars on the festival circuit in 2025, unpeople brought their snappy, indie/alt-rock to the main stage, while back in Scott’s Key Club Stage, Japanese genre-benders SiM served up their ridiculously brilliant cocktail of ska, pop-punk and nu-metal. No matter how many times you see this band, whether it is on a festival stage or in a small club, they never fail to confuse or impress. They’re absolutely stark, raving mad, but, at the same time, remain utterly mesmerising to watch. However, it was the first of a number of returning 2000s stars that seemed to be the big draw of the early afternoon, as American pop-punk favourites Madina Lake bounced on the Monster Stage and lit up the packed crowd with their infectious set of 2000s pop-punk classics. Old fans loved it, new fans loved it, frontman Nathan Leone loved it, launching himself into the crowd barely two songs into their fan-favourite packed set.

The beauty of Slam Dunk is that you can be line-dancing with returning UK rockers A, one minute, then, a few hundred yards away, be spin-kicking your way into a chaotic circle-pit as Canadian hardcore punk titans Cancer Bats are smashing you into the floor with bludgeoning bangers like “Hail Destroyer”. The former definitely puts a smile on your face when frontman Jason Perry jokes that the crowd at Hatfield stunk and was full of real monsters, while the latter is a neck-wrecking, body-pummelling experience. The question you have to ask yourself is, your poison going to be line-dancing to classic Britrock anthems or pinballing around with Jesus in a dirty moshpit?

Wrapping up the first part of the day, it was three straight face-smashers on the heavier of the two main stages. First up, American metallic hardcore favourites Dying Wish were making their first appearance at the festival and simply levelled the field with their ferocious rage. A nailbomb of breakdowns, ravaging metallic riffs, and Emma Boster’s mauling vocals, Dying Wish deliver ugly, unapologetic metal/hardcore. Local crew Guilt Trip are next up, and while they don‘t quite match Dying Wish for unbridled brutality, their brand of aggressive UKHC certainly has a lot of friends in the fairly local crowd.

You’d think by now that calls to “open up that fucking pit” would be wearing thin on this sun-baked crowd already bruised, sunburnt and battered, but as Guilt Trip mosh through their groove-laden hardcore, time and time again, bodies spit over the barrier, and the field opens up before surging back into one mass of bodies. Offering something slightly different was Leeds alt-metal outfit Static Dress, who, despite having to cancel all of their upcoming non-UK plans, made sure their fiercely loyal UK fans got the real deal with a performance that had nu-metal, hardcore, melody, and emotion. Judging by the front rows, Static Dress means a lot to a lot of people who will be hoping it won’t be too long before they’re back on stage again.

Slam Dunk North (Gallery 1) @ Temple Newsam (Leeds, UK) on May 24th, 2026

40 photos

More Photoa

3. Heavy Hitting Highlights

A break, a refuel, and we head into the early evening card and what a mouthwatering line-up Slam Dunk had pulled together for fans. Sadly, this much-needed refuel meant missing most of Boston Manor’s set, which we discovered had been cut short due to a medical emergency. Wrapping up with the blistering rendition of “Foxglove”, they left a crowd who had clearly lapped up everything before them in some challenging circumstances outside their control. First up for us, though, was Sydney pop-punk stars Stand Atlantic, who brought a stack of that Australian sunshine with them for their time on stage. Packing their set with some huge pop-punk anthems, the band, led by superstar vocalist/guitarist Bonnie Fraser, were exactly the shot of energy you needed after mortgaging your house for some food and trying to find some shade for half an hour.

A brief stop off at the main stage for the return of Slam Dunk favourites, New York emo/rock chaps, Taking Back Sunday. Fronted by a dapper-looking, suited and booted Adam Lazzara, the band delivers exactly the set that their fans and the Slam Dunk crowd want. Lazzara bounds about the stage, swirling his mic around, sporting a big grin under his mop of hair, barely a few minutes into their set, attention is already wandering to the return of Aussie alt-rock stars Tonight Alive back up the hill. Whereas it felt like the New York rockers were just okay, Tonight Alive showed exactly why they were so missed and so loved by this crowd.

Opening up with “The Edge”, their set was one of the highlights of the day. Vocalist Jenna McDougall was an absolute ball of energy as she powered through a superstar performance, showing the rest of the world how to front a band. Questioning the crowd if they remembered who Tonight Alive were was met with resounding screams, and, judging by the smile across her face, the response registered with the vocalist. When you hit that early evening lull at a festival like this, you need a band to give you a shot of energy. Tonight Alive provided Slam Dunk with exactly what it needed. Absolute perfection.

Following their set, our final three bands of the undercard brought a mixed bag. First up was the much-talked-about appearance of ska-punk legends Sublime. Having been dogged with controversy in recent times, there was no whiff of discontent in the crowd as fans waved t-shirts and homemade banners while sons and dads bust out their best moves to the ska-punk anthems. Personally, I left their set feeling a little nonplussed, having seen one of the few disappointing sets of the day, but, judging by the reaction to their appearance, I was in the minority.

It was left to two huge heavyweights of British modern metal and hardcore to set us up for the finale as South-Coast metalcore bruisers Bury Tomorrow went head to head with Sheffield brawlers Malevolence in a mouthwatering prospect for fans of British heavy music. The former blazed through a set of melody-drenched, flame-laced classics from a career which, following these shows, has led them to announce their biggest headline shows to date. Malevolence dished up their own brand of Yorkshire steel on a pit that simply exploded from the moment their brutal rendition of “Trenches” lit the fuse in the crowd, setting the final part of the evening up nicely for the final sets of Slam Dunk 2026.

Slam Dunk North (Gallery 2) @ Temple Newsam (Leeds, UK) on May 24th, 2026

43 photos

More Photos

4. The Ace in the Pack

Our star of Slam Dunk 2026 has to be Scottish alt-rock band Dead Pony, who nobody can deny deserved a much higher position on the bill. The band have earned their stripes across the festival circuit. They’ve gigged their collective arses off across the UK and further afield, at no point have they delivered anything less than 100%. Vocalist Anna Shields grabs your attention from the moment she bounces out of the wings. A superstar in the making, Shields belongs on stage in front of packed crowds. Matching her is a band that simply doesn’t know how to write a bad song. Their set is full of banger after banger after banger. Putting Dead Pony on at lunchtime when most people are still queuing for their first beer is an injustice to both the band and fans of good quality, high-energy rock. Hopefully this will be rectified soon, and Dead Pony will deservedly be playing to crowds ten times this size.

5. The Headliners

Two huge headliners at two completely different ends of the alternative music spectrum. On the one hand, you had the return of the iconic Madden brothers and their pop punk brothers in Good Charlotte headlining the main stage. Young and old, we all know the anthems. We all know the pop-punk classics, and Good Charlotte delivered that in spades with a suitably huge festival headlining set. However, across the field, a few thousand fans were jammed in front of the second main stage for the much-anticipated return of hardcore titans Knocked Loose.

And wow, did they not disappoint. A band who are rapidly earning legendary status outside of just hardcore circles, to say the Slam Dunk crowd turned feral the minute the band exploded onto the stage would be an understatement. Bodies crashed over the barrier, the band lurched into their huge breakdowns and even more colossal call-to-arms shoutouts as the likes of “Blinding Faith” and “Mistakes Like Fractures” whipped up the swirling crowd into a near frenzy. “All My Friends”, “Suffocate”, and “Billy No Mates” saw a plethora of friends joining the band on stage while “Deep In The Willow” and the vicious “Everything Is Quiet Now” brought carnage to the end of Slam Dunk 2026 as Knocked Loose signed off with a truly legendary festival headline performance.

6. The Final Verdict

Sitting here twenty-four hours later, sore, achy, and slightly sunburnt, the curtain has come down on the first proper festival of the Summer. From the moment you wake up to glorious sunshine, you know that the day is going to be something special, but it has to be. Behind the scenes, it has been a tough few weeks for the Slam Dunk team, controversy aside, the Slam Dunk team know what their audience want and Slam Dunk 2026 made sure to celebrate its twentieth anniversary in style. Looking at posters of Slam Dunks of yesteryear, it’s plain to see how far this festival has grown in twenty years, and 2026 saw that growth continue. Slam Dunk had new bands, returning legacy acts, huge headliners, and everything else in between. If Slam Dunk 2026 was a taste of what is to come, the Summer of 2026 is going to leave alternative music fans with a stack full of memories that will live with them for the rest of their lives. Happy Anniversary, Slam Dunk!

Slam Dunk North (Gallery 3) @ Temple Newsam (Leeds, UK) on May 24th, 2026

47 photos

More Photos

Slam Dunk Festival 2026 Admat