Staged Haze Takes Kilby Block Party 2026: Our Recap

Kilby Block Party, originally a celebration of the venue Kilby Court, was back and bigger than ever this past weekend at Utah State Fairpark. With three stages and Turnstile, The xx (back together after an eight year hiatus), and Lorde headlining, it’s a charming and reasonably-sized event compared to the big festivals. The vibe is also significantly more sincere, with fewer phones out and more attendees wearing quirky, fun costumes. I saw many matching group costumes, which actually seems like kind of a smart strategy for trying to locate your friends if you get separated (“Have you seen someone else dressed in the exact same way as me?”). So far, the festival has held onto its indie rock roots and support of Utah local artists successfully!

Here’s a recap of some of our favorite moments from the weekend as well as photos from several artists.

FRIDAY

Gelli Haha

The Gelliverse brought out a major crowd for a 12:15pm set on the first day of Kilby Block Party. In the midst of her tour run for Switcheroo, which will include a performance at Primavera in Barcelona next month and Capitol Hill Block Party in Seattle this August, Gelli Haha and her backup dancers (“The Gelli Company,”) brought maximal whimsy to the stage with stacks of blocks, inflatable dolphins, trampolines, rainbow parachute, and more.

The expressive and consistently bizarre and colorful style that Gelli Haha utilizes has made her instantly recognizable. Each of these individual elements seems relatively simple and doable, yet you don’t see many musicians ferrying such a boatload of props around on tour. Her persona on stage resembles a cartoonish minor villain you have to battle in a video game and I mean that in a very positive way.

NewDad

Die Spitz

Ritt Momney

Snail Mail

Beach Bunny

Father John Misty

Father John Misty is an artist I frequently hear cited by my favorite artists, so I was excited to finally see him live. His first song, the disco-ish “I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All” was 10 minutes long and towards the end, he warned the crowd that this would be their last chance to dance, because the rest of the set would be bleak. He paces on stage that almost makes his stage name make sense.

Japanese Breakfast

This is a festivals-and-opening-slots year for Japanese Breakfast after last year’s tour for her album For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women). She kicked off her set with “Paprika” from 2021’s Jubilee, criss-crossing around the stage and circling back to strike the gong at appropriate times. “Honey Water” once again included a long guitar solo, Michelle Zauner standing legs apart, guitar held upside down and away as she played.

It’s always a pleasure to see Japanese Breakfast perform live. She excels at integrating the indie pop, shoegaze, and indie rock elements across her albums into her performance and continues to include songs from earlier records Soft Sounds From Another Planet and Psychopomp. Japanese Breakfast will also be playing at Outside Days, Gov Ball, Bonnaroo, and Bumbershoot, as well as opening for Death Cab for Cutie on tour.

SATURDAY

Turnstile

Fightmaster

Lyn Lapid

Between Friends

It felt like the whole world was vibrating when BETWEEN FRIENDS’s set started. The brother-sister duo emerged onstage followed by camera people in tow, complete with Brandon Hudson smoking a cigarette on stage. Brandon signed a pane of glass with the word “WOW !” the name of their 2025 album. The pair looked like the epitome of a couple that is dressed for two drastically different events as Brandon jumped up and down and Savannah struck poses and slunk around interacting with a GoPro they had on stage. Despite the relatively chill electronic vibe of their music, they had the massive crowd hyped the entire time.

The Last Dinner Party

The Last Dinner Party in the daylight of a festival set feels debaucherous and thrilling in a different way than a normal show. There’s less of a set, and most of the band members were dressed like contemporaries instead of period actors, but that doesn’t stop frontwoman Abigail Morris from commanding the stage, loping from left to right, urging the crowd onward.

Lucy Dacus

Sipping tea and receiving a crocheted goose (Goosey Dacus), Lucy Dacus played a beautiful set on Saturday evening. Though there was much aspirational hope that her special guest for “Bullseye” would be Julien Baker, who had been in LA to sing “Parachute” with Hayley Williams the day before, or even Williams herself, who was playing the festival the next day, the crowd was not all that disappointed to see Romy of The xx on the blue couch instead. Though Dacus and her band were dressed, as they often are, formally enough to be prepared to marry some couples, there was not a wedding on stage this time around.

Alex G

The xx

SUNDAY

Folk Bitch Trio

Hannah Cohen

Freak Slug

Kilby Block Party was the last date on a run supporting NewDad on a tour that started with Coachella for Xenya Genovese, known by her stage name Freak Slug. Hailing from “Manchester comma England” as she referred to it on stage, she added a lot of edge to the live performance of songs that I would think of as dreamier numbers. A tiny camera drone circled her as she played and I am interested to see the footage it got.

Flipturn

Magdalena Bay

Blood Orange

Photos by Pooneh Ghana

Hayley Williams

After making an appearance to sing “Uncomfortably Numb” with American Football, Hayley Williams took to the Kilby Stage for her first ever solo festival performance. She surprised me when she said she was nervous—I’d never be able to tell. Wearing a dark red snood in the brisk Utah weather, she was greeted by a large and excited crowd, ready to rock out to every song. Her visuals included a gigantic red “NO” over Kevin O’Leary’s face. O’Leary is currently attempting to build a 40,000 acre data center in Utah, to the opposition of many locals. Williams closed with her song, “Parachute,” a visceral alt-rock track about the aftermath of a long and bitter heartbreak.

Photos by Morgan Newbold for Kilby Block Party

Lorde

People started camping out at the barricade for Lorde as soon as the festival gates opened. There was rain, there was cold, and still they persisted. This was Lorde’s very first show in Salt Lake City despite her long career so far, and she’s a newly independent artist now. Her performance seemed very aligned with what the Virgin tour has looked like, with little adjustment for the people in the crowd who might only know her hits from the first two albums. I gasped when Lorde played “Royals” second but only 45 seconds of it.

Kilby Block Party 2026 was a great time even with the shifting weather conditions. Expectations and hype around the festival are definitely growing, and with that comes tension between preserving the spirit of the festival and the pressure to try to transform into a contender with ACL, Lollapalooza, Gov Ball, and Coachella. Overall, it was pretty well-run and a fun time, and I’m excited to see what they do next year.

Words and photos by Anson Tong for Staged Haze unless stated otherwise