GLASTONBURY (England) - BRUCE Springsteen will play an extra-long set and the sun will shine at the world's biggest green field arts and music festival this year, Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis said.

Old favourites will dominate Glastonbury this year as Neil Young, Tom Jones, Status Quo and Blur join Springsteen on the main stage, marking a return to the festival's guitar-based roots after rap superstar Jay-Z headlined last year.

WEATHER WILL BE GOOD EAVIS, who this year made it into TIME magazine's annual list of 'the world's 100 most influential people,' is confident that the weather will be good this year, but says there are enough marquees to cover everyone if the rain pours and the entire farm becomes a sludgy mud bath as in previous years. The official weather forecast showed it could be a scorcher. ... more

This year, hip-hop artists like Q-Tip, Roots Manuva and Black Eyed Peas are mostly relegated to smaller areas on the southern English farmland that Eavis has been opening up for Glastonbury since 1970, when the one pound entry fee included free milk from the farm.

Springsteen is so keen to perform this year he has asked for more than his allotted time on the main 'Pyramid' stage.

'He wants to play for three hours actually, so we can give him two and a half by the sound of it or maybe two (hours) forty-five,' Eavis told Reuters as his cows were herded indoors and he prepared for the invasion of some 200,000 revellers.

Other artists likely to appeal to a younger crowd include indie pop group The Wombats, Australia's Gabriella Cilmi, electro-pop musician Little Boots, and pop artist Lady Gaga.

Pete Doherty will play on Glastonbury's second-largest stage and The Prodigy, best-known for their violent lyrics and hard beats, will be performing 'Invaders Must Die,' their first album since 2004. -- REUTERS