There are only two places in the country where music fans can see singer songwriter legend Paul Simon on stage this summer and one of them is in west Oxfordshire, at the Cornbury Festival.

It is something of a scoop for festival organiser Hugh Phillimore, considering the other venue is at Liverpool, this year's City of Culture and birthplace of rock and pop giants The Beatles.

Mr Phillimore who lives about a mile from the country estate where the line-up seems to get bigger every year, said: "Cornbury has its own atmoshere, it's unique. I think it's the only place where you are going to find ladies doing the tea tent as well as having Paul Simon on stage."

Cornbury started out small in 2004 when 2,000 fans came to see top act Jools Holland on one day and 4,000 the next for Blondie and Neil Young.

This year's event, on July 5 and 6, is the fifth and ticket sales are doing well.

This summer the festival is confidently expected to attract 16,000, restricted by the capacity of the current site in fields next to the estate home of Lord Rotherwick.

On the bill are not only Paul Simon but KT Tunstall, Crowded House, Beverley Knight, The Bangles, The Beat and Nick Lowe.

As well as putting ticket prices up, Mr Phillimore has also scrapped free entry to under 10-year-olds, limiting it to under-fives, though he hopes to reintroduce the higher age next year or the year after.

His own estimate is that the Cornbury Festival, which started out making losses to get established, will break even by 2011.

But Paul Simon's forthcoming appearance takes backstage to an event even more important in his life.

"My wife's expecting our first baby in a month's time and she's already been thinking about a christening at Cornbury - we'll see," he said.