Walking around a sprawling, sunbaked Chelmsford festival site as the build takes shape, Anna-Sophie Mertens pauses frequently, gesturing toward the first outlines of what will soon become State Fayre. Speaking to Billboard U.K. over video call — with the noise of construction rattling in the background — Mertens, senior vp of touring at Live Nation UK, lists off a slate of experiential elements designed to give the new event its identity.
There’ll be an arcade bar, she tells us as she points to a field behind her, alongside an ax throwing ins, amusement rides and a big wheel. A spa area is being installed for weekend campers, while flags and bespoke bunting will line the festival grounds. “These little touches are intentional, they will give the festival a lot of character,” Mertens says. “It’s so exciting.”
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The inaugural State Fayre, which takes place this weekend (June 26 – 28) at the 50,000-capacity Hylands Park in Essex (the former site of mid-’00s pop bash V Festival), arrives as Live Nation look to carve out space in an increasingly competitive U.K. festival market with a new focus on Americana, country and classic rock.
Mertens, who sits as a member on the Country Music Association board, has been focused on turning the nation’s growing appetite for roots-influenced music into a large-scale live proposition. According to a recent Music Week report, U.K. country music consumption alone rose by 10.9% last year across streaming platforms — making it the fastest-growing market in the world.
Headlined by Kings of Leon, Alanis Morrisette and The Lumineers, she and her team hope to position State Fayre as “a true home for classic rock music in the U.K.” While Leicestershire’s Download, another Live Nation event, remains primarily anchored in heavy metal and hardcore, and many other major U.K. festivals lean toward multi-genre programming, State Fayre is aiming for something that combines three distinct sounds into one cohesive whole.
Kingfishr, Dylan Gossett and Orville Peck are among the other names on the bill. “It was really important for us to bring together a few different musical elements, but to ensure they blended together so that we could showcase the real depth of each genre,” she continues. “There really isn’t any other event doing that at such a large scale.”
Alongside its musical offerings, State Fayre’s organizers are placing equal emphasis on its food strip, The Fume Pit, home to dozens of BBQ traders. Designed to evoke the easygoing spirit of summer fairgrounds in the U.S., it features shared picnic tables, open grills and a deliberately informal layout that encourages visitors to linger and drift between food and entertainment throughout the day. Expect warm, wood-fired smoke to hang in the air at every corner.
Ahead of the gates opening, Mertens says she’s “really looking forward” to seeing how fans embrace the overall atmosphere of State Fayre, from the way they dress for the occasion to how they engage with the site’s different spaces. “I’m also curious to see which artists really resonate with them,” she continues. “And to see where the fans come from, what their stories are.”
Why does now feel like the right moment to launch State Fayre?
I think we’ve seen huge growth in country music, and it’s a genre I’ve been close to and working hard with. One thing that always frustrated me was that there were country-specific events, but no real home for country within a truly all-genre environment.
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There are a lot of fans who don’t yet know they like country music, and country fans who might not have listened to some of the other artists on the bill, even though sonically they’re very similar and complement each other. That felt like a huge opportunity: country music is growing, but there’s also a wider gap in the market.
It just felt like the right time to do this, especially given the current appetite for authentic storytelling. We wanted to build that into the festival alongside all the lifestyle elements: the food, the on-site experiences, and everything else we’re creating around the music.
Were there any artists whose audience growth in the U.K. really surprised you between booking them and where they are now?
I think there’s one artist in particular: Buffalo Traffic Jam. When we first booked them, these shows were set to be their first in the U.K. They’re coming over to do a couple of headline dates around the festival, but at the time they were relatively small and had never played here before, so we weren’t sure what the demand would be. Since then, they’ve really taken off — and they’ll be back again next year. They’ve got some fantastic songs, and we’re really excited to see them play on Sunday.
What made this year’s headliners the right trio to establish the identity of the festival?
It was important for us to have big names to launch the festival, but also for those headliners to reflect the mix of genres we’re championing. Kings of Leon, coming from Tennessee, straddle indie rock with a little Southern, rootsy energy underneath. There are U.S. festivals that take that blended approach, but we don’t really have an equivalent in the U.K. yet, and that was a big inspiration.
Alanis is such an incredible artist and a powerful female presence who brings huge energy to the event. The Lumineers operate at a similar level in the U.S. and have done great business here too, really showcasing the folk and Americana side of what we want State Fayre to represent. Having those three at the top of the bill has allowed us to build out a genuinely mixed, complementary lineup underneath.
Over the course of your career, when did you start to notice U.K. audiences becoming more open to genre-blending festivals?
I think the way we consume music now is completely different, mainly because of streaming. Fans aren’t as tied to specific tastemaker shows anymore — they’re happy to discover and listen quite freely — and that really breaks down genre boundaries. A lot of the genres we’re representing at State Fayre are sonically similar or directly inspired by one another, so it’s a very natural environment for fans to find new artists across different styles. We’re simply not as siloed as we were 10 or 20 years ago.
On top of that, we work with some of the biggest country artists in the world on tour, and we’re seeing real growth in demand for the genre in the U.K. and globally. Many of these artists are now at arena level, so State Fayre feels like a natural home and a key next stepping stone for them — alongside all the other genres we’re bringing onto the bill.
What are the key elements of the American state fair experience that you’re hoping to translate for a British audience?
A lot of it is about the funfair and games, but also about bringing in food. I’d have loved to do a full-on vegetable-growing competition like you see at U.S. state fairs, but we couldn’t quite pull that off this time! The core idea, though, is that the festival sits at the meeting point of British and American traditions. Yes, it nods to the American state fair, but it’s also very much inspired by the local British county fair — that’s why we’ve spelled “Fayre” the way we have. Those two worlds aren’t actually as far apart as people might think.
How central are the dozens of BBQ offerings to the festival, in terms of making it an authentic cultural experience?
We’ve always called it the “fourth headliner” of the event. As you can probably tell, I’m genuinely so excited about the food — it’s a really important part of the experience for me! It’ll be fascinating to see how people respond to it. There will be a dedicated stage with food demonstrations, eating competitions, and lots of activity that isn’t driven by music, so we’ll see what fans make of that side of the festival.
Is there hope that State Fayre could become a destination event that also attracts international audiences, rather than a primarily U.K. audience, in the future?
Oh, absolutely. I think if you’ve got the right lineup and a great experience for the fans, that makes it a great proposition. There’s absolutely no reason why this couldn’t be a destination event for fans all across the U.K, but also Europe, and even as far as America. We have seen fans travel far and wide for concerts in the past, particularly to the U.K., and we’d love for that to happen with State Fayre too.
Looking toward the future, what do you think would need to happen for the event to be considered an essential U.K. festival brand?
The on-site experience for the fans is going to be key, but we also want it to be a great experience for the artists. We do know, anecdotally, from country artists that they really love coming to play in the U.K. because the fans are really attentive and really care for listening to the entire set. So, I feel really good about all those things coming together and being something for State Fayre to build on and grow.
We are really honing in on some of those specific, curated elements as well; I think we will really deliver something fantastic. I went for a walk around the site this morning, and it’s truly magnificent. There’s so many great little touches to the setup that make it a really, special unique event that has soul and character. Hopefully, it will come to mean something to the fans.
And what do you think the launch tells us where the U.K. live business is going next?
I mean, we haven’t really seen a huge amount of large-scale festivals being launched in the U.K. as of late. There’ve been a few on the smaller scale, but certainly also quite a few that decided not to continue. It is challenging times for sure, but we really wanted to make a mark on the scene and deliver something to the music economy, but also for the fans. Hopefully we can do that, and the plan is to do that for many years to come. We’ve got this beauty of a site, which has lots of areas to play with, and a real opportunity to grow the festival to quite a significant size year on year.
In the current economic climate, then, what gives you confidence in State Fayre being a success?
We’ve seen the success of Download Festival within our company, and it is just truly phenomenal to see how they’ve created such an incredible community for the rock fans. It is a real moment on the calendar for fans, artists, and for the industry, and so much of it is about the spirit of the people there. I think we can really look toward Download Festival and what they do, and the hope is to create something similar for the genres of music that we represent.