First confirmations for V2001

Coldplay Red Hot Chilli Peppers Texas Foo Fighters Toploader David Gray Placebo The Charlatans Muse Faithless The Divine Comedy JJ72 Doves Shed Seven Starsailor Grandaddy

Grammy-winners the Foo Fighters, chart stalwarts Toploader and one of last year's biggest risers, David Gray, will also play.

The festival takes place in Hylands Park, Chelmsford, Essex, and Weston Park, Staffordshire, on 18-19 August.

More than 50,000 fans will converge on each site, with organisers confident that the event will be unaffected by the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

The same bands will play at both sites, with the first day's line-up at one venue moving to the other site to play the next day.

There will be four stages at each site, including a dance tent, with tickets on sale from 21 April.

The V festival - which started in 1996 - tries to appeal to music fans who do cannot stomach the stereotypical festival conditions of mud and bad toilets.

David Gray was one of last year's fastest-rising stars

It promises to be carpeted with a �100,000 net that lets water drain away and helps prevent mud, and claims to have the shortest toilet queues of any festival.

Organisers remain confident that the foot-and-mouth crisis will be resolved by the time the festival is held.

"Obviously we are keeping an eye on the foot-and-mouth situation, and are in close regular contact with the authorities about it," says Simon Moran of SJM Concerts, festival director of the Weston Park site.

"If there is still an issue with the disease in August, then we will of course be taking suitable precautions to ensure that we do not spread the disease, or put anyone at risk."

Awards

The festival has previously been headed by Richard Ashcroft, Travis, Manic Street Preachers and Suede.

Last year's V festival won Live! magazine's award for best European festival for the fifth year in a row.

The line-ups for the Reading, Leeds and Glasgow Green festivals will be announced on Monday (23 April).

It had been rumoured that Eminem would top the bill for all three events, although his recent probation sentence has put this in doubt.

Stereophonics, Texas, Coldplay, Beck and David Gray will top the bill at the T in the Park festival near Kinross, Scotland, on 8-9 July.