This week’s festival news round-up

I wrote your number on my hand but it came off in the rain

OK, let’s get it out of the way now - we were totally right about Glastonbury, as was everyone else who made a half-arsed prediction, presumably.

The mother of all festivals confirmed that, yes, both Blur and Neil Young were topping the bills, as anticipated. Many have smirked at Glastonbury’s “old-timer” approach this year, but it looks pretty damn classic to me – festies are always about the best of the best, aren’t they?

If you want guaranteed sunshine and sand with your live music this summer, then you’re going to be hard pushed to beat Benicassim 2009. After announcing a whole host of big names last month including Oasis and The Killers, FiberFib have since added Lily Allen, Glasvegas and The Mystery Jets to their line-up. It’s like the Spanish version of V, and talking of which, tickets went on sale to the V Festival last week with the Chelsmford site selling out in record time. No surprise really, with the PRS’s revelation that live music is what rakes in the cash these days.

The Isle of Wight Festival has had some interesting additions this week, namely Maximo Park and White Lies. The Seaclose Park festival is also stealing Neil Young before he toddles off to Glastonbury. Jarvis Cocker, who is currently playing classic Pulp songs at SXSW, is set to headline the Secret Garden Party, which is having an Eden and Babylon theme. Well, we suppose Jarvis has sung a lot of songs about the latter…

Tickets for festivals across the world are available by clicking this link.