“There’s a certain magic with country music in the UK right now,” says Anna-Sophie Mertens, smiling in hi-vis from the build at State Fayre, the UK’s newest festival for country fans. It is located in Chelmsford but styled like the American South – think clapboard, rusted metal and water points disguised as retro gas stations – and this weekend, the gates will open to 50,000 country devotees.
Country is the UK’s fastest-growing genre, according to data from the Country Music Association (CMA), and has been for three years in a row. Until 2023, UK tastes leaned towards legacy acts, but now modern megastars such as Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs and Cowboy Carter-era Beyoncé have taken the wheel, reflecting a changing of the guard.
As consumer spending on live music continues to rise (the latest annual report from Live, the federation representing Britain’s live music industry, announced a record £6.68bn), live country has become big business: Combs will play to more than 560,000 fans across England, Scotland and Ireland this summer; specialist festival Buckle & Boots just celebrated its 10th anniversary, and touring fest Summer in Nashville brings “the full Southern experience” to 15 towns and cities, from the Isle of Wight to Aberdeen.
“It felt like the right time to seize the moment and build something really dedicated, as a large-scale, outdoor event,” Mertens says, pointing out State Fayre’s main stage in the distance. Uniquely placed to comment on this “magic” moment, Mertens is senior vice-president, touring at entertainment behemoth Live Nation and board director at the CMA, the organisation dedicated to supporting country’s growth in the US and abroad. She credits country’s UK upswing to the “accumulation of a lot of effort” from the industry, but also to stylistic changes – such as Wallen’s modern production and Ella Langley’s vivid storytelling – which have grabbed younger audiences.
Reflecting country’s move from niche concern to pop’s mainstream, State Fayre places US stars such as Stephen Wilson Jr and Sierra Ferrell alongside long-term UK favourites such as Kings of Leon and Alanis Morissette – a blurring of like-minded genres befitting the listening practices of the streaming era.
It might be a broad church of sound, but State Fayre takes its Southern world-building seriously. American barbecue is described as the fest’s “fourth headliner”, and Merten looks forward to seeing fans decked out in boots, Stetsons and denim: “The experience economy is thriving, and festivals aren’t just about music any more. It has to be about lifestyle and that sense of community.”
Across the UK’s smaller country festivals, this Southern “experience” is more important than booking big-name Americans. Besides rodeo bulls and line-dancing sessions, Summer in Nashville programmes rising country artists from the UK alongside tribute acts impersonating Nashville’s superstars. Wolverhampton musician Liam Price is both: he will be performing original music but is best known as Luke Combs UK, the only officially endorsed tribute to one of the biggest-selling country artists in history.
In early 2023, Price was working as a wedding singer, and Combs requests were gathering steam. He proposed a tribute night to Wolverhampton’s Rodeos BBQ (which opened in 2021 as the UK’s “first honky tonk”). “I said, I think there’s a market in it,” he grins at the understatement. His first Combs act sold out three nights over, “and I’m not joking, my backside hasn’t touched the floor since.”
The UK’s country boom has changed Price’s life. He worked hard to perfect Combs’ sound and style – he now sings with a gravelled twang, and says: “I was definitely thinner before, and definitely didn’t have this beard.” Such dedication has paid off. He will play more than 50 shows as Combs this year, including dates in the US and Germany, and receives rapturous feedback. “I feel a great deal of responsibility playing these songs, because of how they matter to people,” he says. When he performed in Combs’ own Nashville bar, fans ran in off the street: “They told me, ‘Dude, you’re him!’”
Next year, he will reimagine Combs’ hits in a new show with a 10-piece orchestra, but although business is booming, Price dreams of making it just as big under his own name. He sells original music on vinyl to audiences at his Combs shows, and won the Home Grown Talent competition at Leicestershire country festival The Long Road in 2025, earning him studio time, mentorship and the chance to perform at Nashville’s heavyweight CMA Fest.
Baylen Leonard was watching proudly from the crowd that night. Creative director of The Long Road (which runs from 27 to 30 August this year, with headliners including Maren Morris and Emmylou Harris), and a presenter on Absolute Radio Country, Leonard believes that a supportive ecosystem for homegrown talent is the key to making the UK’s love of live country more than a quick fling. “We wanted to lift somebody up in a massive way,” he says. “We have no shortage of talent in the UK, and I want to see them absolutely killing it on the international stage.”
The Long Road was born to “expand someone’s idea of what country music can be”, with a lineup spanning shiny pop sounds, earthy Americana and everything between, performed by artists from the US, UK and farther afield; attendance has grown from 9,000 in 2018 to an expected 40,000 this year. The UK market is expanding, Leonard believes, due to the genre’s strength in storytelling – and because it’s breaking free from wider misconceptions.
“Country doesn’t always fit the box you think it’s going to,” he says. “I mean that politically, but also lyrically. Things that are hard to put into words, country music has talked about it and probably had a No 1 hit with it.”
In terms of trends, “there will always be ebb and flow”, Leonard says. “But there’s something in country that’s timeless. Quality always wins, and in the UK the genie is out of the bottle – or the cowboy is out of the boot.”