Festival announces historic all-female headliners

A country music event says it will make history as the first-ever major UK camping festival to have all-female headliners.

State Fayre at Hylands Park in Chelmsford will feature performances from Kacey Musgraves and The Chicks, alongside the already-announced Shania Twain across three days in June.

Organisers Anna-Sophie Mertens and Alex Simmonds described the acts as "three incredible artists".

Each one had "inspired and represented vital change, within not only these genres but music as a whole", they added.

"To bring all three together as a UK festival first is something we're very excited about," Mertens and Simmonds added.

The Chicks, who dropped Dixie from their name in 2020 to help highlight racial inequality in the US, will headline the festival on the Friday night.

The band was founded in 1989 and have won 13 Grammy awards over their lengthy career, which has seen them release eight studio albums.

Musgraves, an eight-time Grammy award winner known for her hit I Remember Everything, will headline on the Sunday night.

"[I] can't wait to bring [my album] the Middle of Nowhere to State Fayre fest this summer," she said.

Saturday's headliner, Shania Twain, was announced earlier this month and said the top billing was an "honour".

Organisers said the acts would be joined by "some of the biggest names and most exciting new voices across country, rock, Americana, folk, blues and more".

Other performers announced for the event, which will take place from 18 to 20 June 2027, include The Corrs, Billy Strings, Sam Barber, Sons of the East and Drake Milligan.

The festival was held for the first time earlier this year and saw 50,000 fans descend on Hylands Park, which played host to V Festival from 1996 to 2017.

Although there have been smaller UK festivals with an all-female headline billing, the organisers say 2027's event will be the first "major" festival featuring camping to do so.

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