Festival News: Slam Dunk will be You Me At Six final UK festival

With the heartbreaking, era-ending announcement that, after 20 years of being a band, You Me At Six will be calling it quits next year, Slam Dunk have done their best to mend some broken hearts with one final announcement.

Eyes might have twinkled over Christmas with the announcement that Mikey Chapman and Mallory Knox would be gracing Slam Dunk once more, but apparently there’s a cap on UK emo bands — for, as one enters back into the fray, You Me At Six are deciding to bow out. A band that has defined playlists and lineups for decades now, it’ll be a blow to watch them go; the sites of Slam Dunk being their final UK festival appearances, though, seems apt. And, of course, a truly great British band needs a truly good festival line-up around them. So, joining the likes of You Me At Six, The All-American Rejects, Boys Like Girls, I Prevail and Waterparks, as well as the afore-mentioned Mallory Knox, come the announcement of six more bands.

These are: the evocative, and eternally excellent The Dangerous Summer; the defiantly metalcore Mancunian hardcore outfit Guilt Trip; the one-two punch — or auditory emo caress — of Arm’s Length and Beauty School, currently on tour together across the UK; the Leeds-based emotive rockers of Caskets; and, last but not least, metalcore mainstays As Everything Unfolds.

And with those six, the Slam Dunk 2024 line-up seems complete. A host of reunions, anniversaries and farewells sit under a 36-band-strong line-up, a fierce follow up to 2023’s sell out shows; the only thing left to say is see you in May.

Words By James O’Sullivan

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