Hylands Park, Chelmsford – 26–28 June 2026

Every summer throws up a new festival or two, but few arrive with the ambition of State Fayre. Launched by Festival Republic and Live Nation and billed as the UK’s largest music and barbecue festival, the inaugural edition planted itself at Hylands Park in Chelmsford – the Grade II* listed Essex parkland best known as the former home of V Festival – with a 30,000 capacity, three stages and a wholehearted embrace of American state-fair culture. Weekend camping had sold out a couple of weeks beforehand, and the whole thing unfolded under a record-breaking UK heatwave that only enhanced the long-summer-night, Americana feel the organisers were chasing.

The headliners did the heavy lifting with style. Kings of Leon opened on Friday with a hits-packed set that ran from ‘Find Me’ to ‘Sex on Fire’; Alanis Morissette took Saturday – a headliner the team did brilliantly to secure after Neil Young cancelled his tour – with Skunk Anansie in support; and The Lumineers closed Sunday with the kind of communal folk-rock singalong tailor-made for an end-of-festival field. Beneath them sat a genuinely deep and varied bill, from The Black Crowes, Counting Crows and Elvis Costello & The Imposters to Orville Peck, Sierra Ferrell, Stephen Wilson Jr., Molly Tuttle, Kingfishr and KT Tunstall.

The food deserves equal billing. The FUME Pit, run by UK barbecue specialists FUME, made good on the “music and barbecue” tagline with pitmasters, live cook-offs and some of the biggest smokers you’ll see anywhere, turning eating into part of the entertainment rather than a queue between bands.

But what genuinely set State Fayre apart was harder to bottle. The atmosphere was unlike any festival I’ve been to – relaxed, friendly and unhurried. It was busy without ever being a crush; you could move around and breathe. And the crowd was the real star: old and young, families, couples, groups and solo festival-goers, every type represented and all of them getting on, with no single dominant tribe. The artists, too, looked like they were genuinely enjoying themselves up there, and that warmth carried straight into the audience.

It wasn’t flawless. As you’d expect from any first-year event, there were teething issues, and there was an intangible something that felt not-quite-fully-formed – an identity still settling into itself that another edition or two should resolve. But these are the wrinkles of a debut, not fundamental faults.

For a first outing, State Fayre got the big things emphatically right: world-class headliners, a deep and adventurous bill, outstanding food and a uniquely good-natured crowd. It’s a hugely promising start, and one I’d happily return to.