Glastonbury alternative at castle

Crowds of 20,000 have been at Powderham Castle for concerts

More than 15,000 people are expected to attend a festival being held in Devon on the traditional weekend of the Glastonbury Festival.

Glastonbury is not being held in 2006, and the Lost Weekend festival is to go ahead at Powderham Castle, near Exeter, from Friday 23 to Sunday 25 June.

Organisers say acts to appear include The Zutons and Julian Cope.

Up to 10,000 people are expected to camp at the site. Police will work to stop illegal camps being set up nearby.

There'll be lots of fun. It's very original Michael Eavis, Glastonbury Festival founder

Company Lost Vagueness has worked with the organisers of the Glastonbury Festival for many years.

Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis - who started the event on his Somerset dairy farm in 1970, and is still in charge of the creative side - said: "I think it's a good starting part for any other 'Glastonbury'.

"The people who are doing that have worked with us for 20 years on and off. They're really good at it and there'll be lots of fun. It's very original."

Roy Gurvitz of Lost Vagueness said The New York Dolls were also to appear, and that organisers were in talks with Marc Almond.

He added: "It's a mini Glastonbury in terms of the essence of what Glastonbury used to be before it became quite as commercial and focussed on the music as it is now."

The nearby village of Kenton is no stranger to large crowds as Powderham Castle has attracted numbers of up 20,000 at concerts it has held in the past.

Incursion prevention

But police said measures to prevent an influx of campers without tickets would be tough and similar to those used to prevent illegal campsites during Glastonbury time in previous years.

Insp Jon Perry of Devon and Cornwall Police said: "Obviously we'll be policing a greater area outside of this venue, but that will policed within the same operation that would be used to protect Smeatharpe Airfield, and other places that are vulnerable to incursion from travellers, campers and people looking to set up ad-hoc concerts."

Four years ago Smeatharpe was invaded by ravers barred from Glastonbury and has been barricaded every summer since.

Glastonbury Festival organisers are working holding the event again in 2007.