Sunshine, Beer and Pop Punk: Slam Dunk Returns For A Smashing Bank Holiday Weekend

FESTIVAL REVIEW | SLAM DUNK NORTH 25th May 2025 by Craig Harston

This weekend, thousands of people once again descended on Temple Newsam, Leeds for the UK’s premier pop punk, emo and ska festival. Attending for the absolutely banging line up, but being rewarded with the company, food and drinks, but mostly for the weather, which in spite of it threatening a typical British Bank Holiday, turned out to be pretty good.

There were plenty of options for food available, including places for peoples dietary needs, and several bars dotted around the arena, including a craft bar, meaning queuing was kept to a minimum at the close-to-sold-out event. But ultimately, it was about the music. I managed to catch nine bands across the day, most of them at the Monster Energy Stage but I also found time to visit Main Stage‘s West and East for a couple of performances.

THE MEFFS

Kicking things off were Essex two-piece The Meffs, delivering their usual energetic set with plenty of topical songs and calls for a better world. Lily barely stood still throughout as they blasted through the likes of ‘Stand Up, Speak Out‘, their cover of The Prodigy‘s ‘Breathe‘, ‘Deathwish‘, ‘Clowns‘ and even getting a pit going before midday (well 11.59am!) for ‘Everything’s Gone‘! Lily and Lewis set a hard act to follow very early in the day!

SAVE FERRIS

Up next were Californian ska punk legends Save Ferris, with Monique Powell and co. bringing the sunshine to proceedings (in spite of performing on a covered stage). They played plenty of their hits, including ‘The World Is New‘, ‘Do I Even Like You?‘, ‘I Know‘ and not one but three cover songs – Operation Ivy‘s ‘Artificial Life‘, Dead Kennedys‘ ‘Too Drunk To Fuck‘ – with Monique pointing out she doesn’t care if Save Ferris are remembered as long as those bands are – and of course finishing with a barnstorming performance of ‘Come On Eileen‘.

HOME GROWN

Following there reformation last year after nearly twenty years, pop punk legends Home Grown hit the stage next. They played songs mostly from their most popular album, 2002’s ‘Kings Of Pop‘ (‘Tomorrow, ‘I Love You, NOT‘, ‘Second Best‘) but even made time for a cover of Aqua‘s ‘Barbie Girl‘ before finishing strong with their most popular song, ‘You’re Not Alone‘.

THE ATARIS

One of the highlights of the day followed, with pop punk vets The Ataris playing one of the best performances of the festival, tapping into their legacy of one of the best bands in the scene and getting plenty of singing along going with the crowd. From the moment Kris Roe kicked off with ‘In This Diary‘, he had the audience in the palm of his hand. Celebrating 2003 album ‘So Long, Astoria‘ to a degree, much of the set was from this album (the title track, ‘The Hero Dies In This One‘, ‘Unopened Letter To The World‘, ‘Takeoffs and Landings‘), they of course squeezed in their fantastic cover of Don Henley‘s ‘The Boys Of Summer‘ (covers seemed to be the way to go throughout the day) and made plenty of time for the ultimate emo pop punk anthem ‘San Dimas High School Football Rules‘. The only downside was that they didn’t play excellent new song ‘Car Song‘ or that, like every band that preceded them, they didn’t play for long enough!

THE STARTING LINE

Over on Main Stage West, Philadelphia’s The Starting Line played an energetic set to a sundrenched crowd, performing many of their emo-infused pop punk songs from across their career. Kicking off with ‘Left Coast Envy‘, they had a decent mix of bangers (‘Up & Go‘, ‘Making Love To The Camera‘, ‘Island‘, ‘Leaving‘) and deep cuts (‘Are You Alone‘, ‘Birds‘, ‘Almost There, Going Nowhere‘). Frontman Kenny Vasoli was clearly having the time of his life, giving it his all throughout before The Starting Line finished with the classic ‘The Best Of Me‘.

FINCH

The only real disappointment of the day were fellow Drive Thru Records band Finch over on Main Stage East. While their later albums (2005’s ‘Say Hello To Sunshine‘ and 2014’s ‘ Back To Oblivion‘) clearly have their fans, there was a definite lull in the attending crowd whenever they played a song that wasn’t from their debut album. They got a great response to songs like ‘Grey Matter‘ and ‘Stay With Me‘, though inexplicably played their best song ‘Letters To You‘ five songs in – though they did at least finish with the excellent ‘What It Is To Burn‘.

NEW FOUND GLORY

Not that many stayed long enough to hear that song, instead opting to leave early and head over to Main Stage West for New Found Glory‘s return to the UK after six years – that last time being at Slam Dunk 2019, playing to a rain soaked crowd! The weather this time was very different and the Florida natives played the best performance of the whole day! Joined by Four Year Strong’s Dan O’Connor on lead guitar in place of a still recovering Chad Gilbert, NFG utilised every second of their hour on stage, playing pretty much every song their fans could ask for (‘All Downhill From Here‘, ‘Hit Or Miss‘, ‘Dressed To Kill‘, ‘Understatement‘, ‘Truth Of My Youth‘) a few deep cuts (‘Don’t Let Her Pull You Down‘, ‘Selfless‘, ‘Sincerely Me‘), brand new song ‘100%‘ and, yep, a couple of cover songs in their well received ‘Kiss Me‘ and their Disney cover ‘Part Of Your World‘. Singer Jordan Pundik kept the stage banter and crowd interaction at the forefront throughout before NFG finished strong with a great performance of ‘My Friend’s Over You‘.

LESS THAN JAKE

Back at the Monster Energy Stage, New Found Glory‘s fellow Floridians Less Than Jake hit the stage to anthem ‘Gainesville Rock City‘, again raising questions as to why one of the sunniest bands on earth weren’t performing under the open sky! Regardless, Less Than Jake played an eclectic set of old and new songs, showing they’ve never phoned it in across their thirty plus years as a band. Newer songs such as ‘Lie To Me‘, ‘Sunny Side‘, ‘The High Cost Of Low Living‘ and ‘Walking Pipebomb‘ sat comfortably alongside classics like ‘All My Best Friends Are Metalheads‘, ‘Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sell Outs‘, ‘The Science Of Selling Yourself Short‘ and ‘The Rest Of My Life‘ and the band were clearly enthused that the crowd sand along to every song. Less Than Jake even found time for some of their less obvious songs (‘Motown Never Sounded So Good‘, ‘Help Save The Youth Of America From Exploding‘, ‘Automatic‘) and, you guessed it, a cover (‘Animaniacs‘). By the time they finished with ‘Look What Happened‘ the whole room could have left the festival happy.

ALKALINE TRIO

But there was one more band to go. Headlining the Monster Energy Stage were Chicago dark punks Alkaline Trio, who played an immensely solid set and followed every other bands lead with a setlist of hits and deep cuts. Starting with ‘Time To Waste‘, singer/guitarist Matt Skiba donned a member of the crowds sunglasses for much of the set as he, bassist Dan Adriano and drummer Atom Willard blasted through songs ranging from ‘Stupid Kid‘, ‘Armageddon‘, ‘Bad Time‘, ‘Maybe I’ll Catch Fire‘ and ‘Mercy Me‘ to ‘Calling All Skeletons‘, ‘Cringe‘, ‘Warbrain‘, ‘Emma‘ and ‘Fatally Yours‘. Finishing with ‘Radio‘, they got the whole room raising the roof with “I’VE GOT A BIG FAT FUCKING BONE TO PICK…“, closing the day on an immense high, even if they did finish ten minutes early.

Overall, it was a well put together and organised day, with almost every band delivering great shows with a few surprises and a minimal amount of queuing and waiting around for facilities for those in attendance.

Slam Dunk will return in 2026 and it’ll be a milestone year for the festival as it will mark 20 years since the first ever Slam Dunk! I for one will be booking my ticket!