Hylands Park, Chelmsford – Friday 26 June 2026

There’s a particular thrill in being present for the very first night of a brand-new festival, and State Fayre’s opening Friday delivered exactly that. Launched by Festival Republic and Live Nation and billed as the UK’s largest music and barbecue festival, this debut weekend camping event has taken over Hylands Park in Chelmsford – the Grade II* listed Essex parkland that once hosted V Festival – with a 30,000 capacity and a distinctly Americana flavour drawn from US state fairs.

It also opened in the middle of a record-breaking UK heatwave, and with the smell of barbecue drifting across the site from the FUME Pit, the whole place had an unmistakably warm, holiday-in-the-States feel before a note was even played.

Friday belonged to Kings of Leon, the first headliners in State Fayre’s history. The Black Crowes, Stephen Wilson Jr. and rising Irish band Kingfishr softened up the Main Stage earlier in the day, with country-leaning sets from Molly Tuttle, Kezia Gill and Nina Nesbitt rounding out an impressively varied bill. By the time the Followills arrived, the crowd was primed.

Caleb Followill told the audience it felt like coming home, and the band played like it. They opened with ‘Find Me’ and tore through a genuinely hits-packed set – ‘The Bucket’, ‘Fans’, ‘On Call’, ‘Use Somebody’, ‘Waste a Moment’, ‘Pyro’, ‘Closer’, ‘Molly’s Chambers’, ‘Black Thumbnail’ and an inevitable, euphoric ‘Sex on Fire’ to finish. With nine albums and a back catalogue stretching to 2024’s Can We Please Have Fun, they have the festival pedigree (Coachella, Glastonbury, Roskilde) and the songs to anchor a debut event, and they looked like they were enjoying every minute of it.

What struck me just as much as the music was the crowd. It was busy but never crushing – you could move, breathe and actually get to the bar – and the mix of people was unlike any festival I’ve been to: old and young, families, couples and solo wanderers, all rubbing along happily with no single dominant tribe. That, plus some of the best festival food I’ve come across, gave the night an atmosphere all its own.

As a first-ever headline night, it was hard to fault. Big band, big hits, big skies and a crowd having a brilliant time in the heat.