 Coldplay will follow Richard Ashcroft and Lou Reed on Sunday's bill |
The summer music festival season begins this weekend, with Coldplay and Guns N' Roses among the headline acts at the first two major events. About 60,000 people are expected in Newport on the Isle of Wight to see Coldplay, Foo Fighters and the Prodigy.
The island has been associated with live music since a series of legendary gigs there at the end of the 1960s.
Download brings rock acts Guns N' Roses, Metallica and Tool to Donington Park in Leicestershire.
Juggle
Singer Axl Rose is the only member of Guns N' Roses' original line-up to embark on their current European tour.
It has been 13 years since their last album of new material - The Spaghetti Incident - and the release of the follow-up has been repeatedly delayed.
A number of festivals are organised throughout the summer, with highlights in the UK including:
- July: T in the Park (Kinross, Perthshire), Latitude (Southwold, Suffolk), Cambridge Folk Festival
- August: Big Chill (Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire), Green Man (Brecon, Mid Wales), V Festival (Chelmsford, Essex and Weston Park, Staffordshire), Reading Festival, Leeds Festival
- September: Bestival, Isle of Wight
England football fans attending the gigs on Saturday will have to juggle the music acts with their national side's opening World Cup fixture against Paraguay.
This begins at 1400 BST and will be shown on a cinema screen at Donington Park.
The Isle of Wight event is not showing the match as organiser John Giddings says "it's a festival of music".
But Newport Football Club, which is near to the festival venue at Seaclose Park, will allow 8,000 people to see the game on a big screen for a donation of �1.
 Axl Rose is the sole survivor of Guns N' Roses original line-up |
There are five stages in total at the Isle of Wight event and four at Download.
Primal Scream, Richard Ashcroft and Suzanne Vega are also confirmed in Newport.
Among the biggest acts on the rest of the bill at Donington Park are Alice in Chains, the All-American Rejects and the Deftones.
Both events run from Friday afternoon to Sunday evening.
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I have never seen lineups like of this magnitude! You folks don't know how lucky you are to be able to attend UK and European festivals 
Exit festival fans