Fatboy Slim, Clean Bandit, De la Soul, Band of Skulls, and Jaguar Skills announced to appear at this year's Common People festival in Southampton

Electronic megastar DJ Fatboy Slim heads to Southampton Common in May for the city's first Common People festival.

Around 20,000 people are expected to flock to the city cen¬tre park to see the dance master bring a fantastic end to the first night of Common People.

The DJ will grace the stage after a day packed with rising stars and veteran pioneers of music for the city's first major music festival in years.

The announcement comes only a week after licensing boss¬es gave the go-ahead to the two-day party.

Band of Skulls

Five hundred lucky people who had previously registered with festival organisers could snap up presale tickets yesterday (Wednesday) while another 15,000 tickets go on sale today.

Already more than 8,000 people have registered at www.commonpeople.net.

Day tickets are available at £30, or £55 for the weekend, while families of four can get day tickets for £70 or £130 for the weekend.

De La Soul

Also known as Norman Cook, Fatboy Slim's number-one selling album “You've Come A Long Way, Baby” in the 1990's spawned several hit singles.

Festival organiser, Rob Da Bank, who also behind Bestival on the Isle of Wight and Camp Bestival, in Dorset, said: “When I grew up in Southampton I had no idea that I'd be opening a festival with someone like Fatboy Slim headlining.”

Other acts to appear over the weekend include dance mavericks Clean Bandit who had several hits last year including the chart-topping Rather Be.

On the Sunday Southampton rock group Band of Skulls will be performing in front on their home crowd.

Rob said: “Some of these acts might not be house-hold names but our whole mission is have a balance of big headliners with breaking acts.

“It's really important that people come to see things that they do know but also those they might not.”

Jaguar Skills

There are still other acts to be announced including who will be bringing the event to a close.

Rob, who is also playing at the festival, promised that Sunday's headliner would be “somebody that everyone's heard of”.

For more information and to register for tickets visit www.commonpeople.net

Common People line-up so far

Saturday Live music: Fatboy Slim; De La Soul; Jaguar Skills; George the Poet; Plastic Mermaids; Battle of the Bands winner; Funky Little Choir; Mr Motivator;

Sunday Live music: Clean Bandit; Band of Skulls; DJ Yoda; The Cuban Brothers; Craig Charles; Kitty, Daisy & Lewis; West End Kids