Slam Dunk Festival South 2026 takes over Hatfield Park on Saturday, May 23, with tickets still on sale for the UK’s largest independent rock festival. The one-day event brings pop-punk, emo, metalcore, hardcore and ska to just north of London, with Good Charlotte, Knocked Loose, President and Sublime among the names attached to the bill.
Sublime will play its first ever official UK performance at the festival, a booking that gives the South edition one of its biggest talking points. Homegrown favourites Malevolence, Pest Control and A. are also on the lineup, and fans can still buy one-day festival tickets for £139, while fan-to-fan resale tickets are appearing on Twickets for as little as £114.
The timing matters for anyone heading in from London. Hatfield is only 34 minutes from King’s Cross by direct train, and trains are running back to London until just before 1am after the festival. That gives day-trippers a late exit after the headline bands finish at around 10:20pm, but it also means the station is likely to be busy as crowds move out at once.
Festivalgoers who do not want to wait at Hatfield station have another option. Shuttle buses are running from Hatfield Train Station to Camden Town between 10pm and 1am, with a shuttle bus ticket priced at £13.20. The afterparty route is built around a night in the capital, not a quick trip home, and it puts London within reach for anyone who wants to keep going after the main stage ends.
Camden is hosting the late-night spillover across several venues. The Electric Ballroom is staging a Facedown takeover with a live performance from Fell Out Boy, while the Camden afterparties also include a Slam Dunk and guilty pleasures room. Camden Rocks is taking place at Underworld, and The Black Heart is hosting a metal and hardcore club night.
That spread of afterparties underlines how the festival now stretches beyond the fields of Hatfield Park. The event has built a following by mixing pop-punk nostalgia with heavier underground scenes, and this year’s bill leans into both, from global names to local acts. For fans deciding whether to travel or stay late, the practical picture is clear: the headline sets end around 10:20pm, the trains keep moving until just before 1am, and the afterparty circuit is already in place for anyone not ready to stop there.
