Hylands Park, Chelmsford – Saturday 27 June 2026

Saturday at State Fayre carried a small backstory. Neil Young and The Chrome Hearts were originally billed to headline, but after Young cancelled his entire European and UK tour earlier in the year, the organisers moved quickly and landed Alanis Morissette as his replacement – arguably an even bigger draw for this crowd, and proof the team could roll with a punch in their debut year.

The day’s bill leaned into that variety the festival has made its calling card. Elvis Costello & The Imposters with Charlie Sexton, Counting Crows, Jack Savoretti, Razorlight and the irrepressible Sierra Ferrell all featured across the stages, with Skunk Anansie – fronted by the ever-commanding Skin – taking the special guest slot beneath Morissette and giving the Saturday a welcome jolt of British rock muscle.

Then came Alanis. Seven Grammys, a debut album in Jagged Little Pill that sits among the best-selling records of all time, and three decades of songs that a certain generation knows word for word – her headline set drew on exactly that, with the era-defining likes of ‘You Oughta Know’, ‘Hand in My Pocket’, ‘Ironic’ and ‘Thank U’ the obvious emotional peaks. It’s a catalogue built for mass singalongs under a darkening sky, and the field responded in kind.

What I keep coming back to, across the whole weekend but Saturday especially, was how much the artists themselves seemed to be enjoying it. There was a looseness and warmth to the performances that you don’t always get on the bigger, more machine-like festival circuits, and it fed straight back into the crowd.

And that crowd remained the festival’s quiet triumph: busy but comfortable, never a crush, and gloriously mixed – families with kids, couples, groups of mates and lone festival-goers, every age represented and all of them getting on. State Fayre isn’t tied to one audience type, and Saturday showed how well that broad church works.

A heavyweight headliner secured against the odds, a deep supporting bill and an atmosphere that stayed friendly even at full tilt.