Bowie will choose the festival line-up

The High Line Festival in New York - which will mix music, art, performance, film and clubbing - will be headed by a different celebrity each year.

Bowie will also play a large outdoor concert at the finale of the 10-day event next May - his first show in New York since 2003.

"I've been particularly excited about seeking out emerging artists and giving them a place in a festival," he said.

Bowie added that the festival would also feature some "very well-known" names.

The festival will take place near the High Line, an abandoned 1.5-mile railway viaduct on Manhattan's West Side, which is being transformed into a public park.

Bowie told New York magazine he was taking time off from touring and recording music, saying he was "fed up with the industry".