Cornbury Festival will move to a new venue after the estate’s owner struck a deal to stage rival annual events, its organiser said.

The Oxford Mail reported last week that the festival could be on the move.

But Hugh Phillimore, who is behind the seven-year-old independent festival, said it would not be going far from its traditional Charlbury home, and a host of A-list stars including Eric Clapton and Kylie Minogue could be booked next year.

The festival founder said Cornbury House’s owner, Lord Rotherwick, had struck a deal with Mama Group, a subsidiary of HMV, after receiving a “bigger and better” offer to stage several annual festivals at the 1,700-acre estate.

Mr Phillimore said: “HMV wanted to do a few festivals at Cornbury Park each year, and they wanted my Cornbury to be part of it.

“In the end, I did not want that. My decision was about loyalty and independence.”

He added: “The deal on offer was not good enough, and I did not want Cornbury Festival to be corporate.

“I wanted it to stay independent, mad as that may be, and I did not want to lose my team.”

Cornbury Festival will keep its brand name at the new venue, which will be annou-nced in December.

Mr Phillimore said the site was “12 minutes from Charlbury train station” but deeper into the Oxfordshire countryside.

And he revealed rock royalty could perform at the 2011 festival, after he entered a partnership with 3A Entertainment Ltd, one of the UK’s biggest independent music promoters.

Mr Phillimore said: “3A promote artists including Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Stevie Winwood, Kylie Minogue and the X-Factor live tours, as well as The Waterboys, Christie Moore, Van Morrison and Elvis Costello.

“It would be telling to say who we are thinking of having next year, but that is the reason we want to work them.”

He added: “2011 will be different from before, but it will smell and feel the same.

“It may have bigger acts, and it would be fantastic if Eric Clapton or whoever does it, but we will have to wait and see.”

Mr Phillimore said he had no ambitions to increase the festival’s size beyond its current licence of 20,000 people.

He said: “It has got to make money, and we have not made a profit yet and cannot go on maintaining losses.

“But if it got bigger, I would be out of my comfort zone.”

Nobody at Cornbury or HMV was available for comment.