A few weeks ago I attended my first day festival in a few years and my first one after my late autism diagnosis. In this post, I’m sharing my experience of attending Slam Dunk Festival as an autistic adult.
My friend and I attended Slam Dunk for the first time 10 years ago and we decided to go back this year for the 20 year anniversary of the festival. We’re both very into our pop punk and alternative music, and had a good experience the first time around, so thought it would be about time to give it another go!
I was pleasantly surprised to find Slam Dunk to be quite neurodivergent-friendly overall.
Planning Ahead Helped Me Feel Calmer
In the lead up to the festival, there was loads of information to help me plan out my day. The Slam Dunk app was super helpful. I was able to plan out my personal schedule of the bands that I wanted to see, which also helped me plan in rest periods. Having everything planned out beforehand helped me feel much calmer in the lead up to the festival.
The app also had an interactive map that showed where everything is on the festival site. They even listed out all their food vendors and menus, and whether they catered for gluten-free and vegan diets. Because of that, I had much less anxiety in the lead up. I knew that I could likely eat at quite a number of the food vendors.
I’d also learnt that if you need to, you can leave the festival site and re-enter as many times as you’d like. This could be really useful if you need to escape the crowds and the noise for a complete break from the sensory overwhelm.
It felt like the organisers had really been thoughtful about being inclusive when planning the festival.
Although I didn’t personally use the accessibility services because I had bought a VIP ticket (more on the VIP element later), the festival is very accessibility friendly. They have accessibility tickets that you can request by contacting them directly, and you can also get a free PA ticket for a companion. There’s a separate accessible entrance, free accessible parking, toilets and viewing platform for the main stage.
Having Space to Retreat To
The most important thing for me at festivals is having a place that I can escape to for some down time. The loud music and crowds can still become very overstimulating, even with preparation and sensory tools. I decided to buy a VIP ticket so that I could access a separate area with fewer people, that included a covered chill out area with comfy seats.
It’s expensive… I think I paid about £70 on top of my ticket price, but for me it was massively worth it. I’m sensitive to rain and heat. The likelihood of it raining in the UK in May was high and I didn’t want to risk being cold and wet all day.
Each time we were ready for a break, my friend and I headed back to the VIP area to escape the crowds and lounge on comfy bean bags. Surprisingly there was no rain, but it was ridiculously hot, so the covered area was a godsend.
There were DJs playing in the covered area, but I didn’t mind because they were playing great music and I could use my earplugs if I needed to.
Managing the Noise and Crowds
Getting into the festival was really easy. The queues were pretty minimal. But we did experience a huge amount of queuing when we were at the festival.
Bar queues were ridiculous. We had to queue for a minimum of 30 minutes each time we wanted a drink. I wasn’t prepared for the amount of queuing, but because everything else wasn’t too overwhelming, I could cope with it quite well. It did unfortunately mean that we missed parts of some of the bands that we wanted to see because we were stuck in queues.
There were a few water points across the festival site and unfortunately the queues for the water were agonisingly slow too.
We made sure that we went back to the VIP area every time we needed to use the toilet. Queues there were minimal. I waited a maximum of 10 minutes each time I went. I’m not sure if it was the same in the main festival area though. I’d read a lot on Reddit before the festival that the toilet queues at Slam Dunk are generally pretty long.
In general, I found the crowds to be easy to navigate. I’m not sure if it was because this year, the festival wasn’t sold out. When going to see bands during the daytime, I could get almost to the front if I wanted to and there was plenty of space around me.
By the time you get to the headliners, the crowd is super busy and very close together. Unless you get a spot early, it’s hard to get anywhere near the stage.
Noise levels are consistently loud at the festival throughout the day, whether you are watching a band or not. I brought 3 different types of Loop earplugs with me to help navigate the different types of noise. In my next post, I’ll be sharing more on my day-festival survival tips.
The Joy of Live Music
Seeing some of my favourite bands was a big highlight for me. Nothing beats the incredible feeling in my body when I hear music that I love live. It’s like a warm buzz of happiness that flows through my whole body.
I sang along to the music, having the best time and many other people were doing the same. I’ve been to festivals before where people glare at you for singing and having a good time. There wasn’t any of that at Slam Dunk.
I found the crowd and other people attending the festival to be friendly and supportive of each other. There was a positive vibe.
Although the festival isn’t made for kids, there were a lot of people there with their kids, who seemed to be having a great time, sitting in little trailers that their parents pulled them along in.
There were some people dressed up in amazing costumes. I don’t know how they did it in the heat! My favourite was someone dressed as a dinosaur! We were just chilling, sat on the floor, waiting for a band to come on and I looked up and saw them. It made me smile.
Leaving the Festival Was the Hardest Part
Leaving the festival was probably the worst part of the day for me. When we arrived in the morning, there were loads of unused barriers at the entrance. I remember being confused why they were there. It wasn’t until we left, that I realised what they were for… queuing to leave the festival. The queues were snaking around for a very long time for people heading to the train station. I’m talking, thousands of people.
In the end, we ended up joining the queue further down because I couldn’t face standing there for hours before heading back to our hotel and going to bed. It would have had a big impact on how I felt the next day. Even jumping the queue, we had to wait for about 30 minutes before we could get into the train station.
Despite the small hiccups throughout the day, particularly around queuing, I would definitely go back to Slam Dunk Festival again. I had a really positive experience overall and would definitely recommend Slam Dunk to other autistic people who enjoy live music.
For a long time, festivals felt like something that might have become too overwhelming for me after burnout and diagnosis, so it meant a lot to realise I could still enjoy them in a way that worked for me.
If This Resonated, You Might Also Like
- Attending an Orchestral Concert as an Autistic Adult: Music, Movement and Masking
- Dancing Through the Overwhelm: My Autistic Joy at a Daytime DJ Set
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Much love,
Rachael xx
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