The festival, now in its 10th year, will also feature performances from Van Morrison, Shane MacGowan, Irish band The Saw Doctors, The Pretenders and Canadian outfit Barenaked Ladies on 10 July.

Costello recently won acclaim - and a Grammy award - for a collaboration with Burt Bacharach, and has also worked with Sir Paul McCartney and The Brodsky Quartet.

Celebration of Irish music

Van Morrison: Also playing at the Fleadh

Held at Finsbury Park, north London, the Fleadh began life as a celebration of Irish music but has recently begun to broaden its appeal.

The Pogues have been regular stars, and former singer Shane MacGowan will be one of the headliners this year. Christy Moore, Mary Black and The Chieftains have been among the more traditional Irish acts to appear.

Other acts to have made early appearances at the Fleadh include The Cranberries, The Divine Comedy, The Corrs and Boyzone.

The Divine Comedy feature as part of the year's first music festival, the Bowlie Weekender which starts on Friday and runs through until Sunday.

Headlined by Brit Award-winners Belle and Sebastian, it also features cult acts like Teenage Fan Club, Mercury Rev and The Delgados.

First festival this weekend

Blur: Headlining at Reading and Leeds

Unusually for an alternative music festival, Bowlie is held at the Camber Sands holiday park in East Sussex - a far cry from the mud and grime of traditional festivals.

Fans will have their own TVs, kitchens and showers.

Meanwhile, Blur, The Charlatans and The Red Hot Chili Peppers headline the Reading Festival - and its new Yorkshire offshoot, the Leeds Festival.

Reading runs from 27-29 August, and the Leeds show runs from 28-30 August, with bands that play Reading heading north to play Leeds the following day.

The Manic Street Preachers and the Beautiful South will be seeing a lot of each other over the summer - both bands are due to play at T In The Park (Kinross, Perthshire, 10-11 July), V99 (Chelmsford and Weston Park, Staffordshire, 21-22 August) and at the country's best-known festival, Glastonbury, which is running from 25-27 June at Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset.