Will Roberts previews this year’s Glastonbury Festival, which hasn’t delivered the appeal in terms of new acts, but has got Bruce ‘The Boss’ Springsteen on the bill.

IT was always going to take something a bit special to better last year’s Glastonbury Festival. The 2008 event was somewhat of a make-or-break for the Eavis family, having attracted all sorts of controversy concerning a certain rapper from New York – a headliner in both senses of the word.

But Jay-Z’s set was astounding and will long be remembered as one of those special Glastonbury moments.

The other two headliners lived up to their reputations too. The festival caught The Kings of Leon just as their fourth album, Only by the Night, was launching them into the rock stratosphere while The Verve’s comeback performance – their encore Love is Noise especially – was fantastic.

Michael Eavis, the festival’s founder, has spoken about wanting to attract a younger audience to his farm – less late-Thirties middle-class professionals, more early Twenties rockers. The line-up last year certainly did that – the tried and tested formula of two contemporary headline acts plus one ‘legend’ seemed to work.

BUT fast forward 12 months and that younger audience that Eavis has craved must be looking at the line-up and scratching their heads. Some probably had to consult Wikipedia or their parents, or both, to figure out who Bruce Springsteen is.

And it is hardly likely that Neil Young’s Friday night Pyramid Stage Dad-rock is going to get them excited.

Thankfully, the Other Stage and the John Peel Tent will act as a creche for the babies on Friday – where the likes of Bloc Party, Doves, Jamie T, Friendly Fires and Jack Penate will perform.

Of course, Glastonbury isn’t all about the youngsters. Though it does seem that this year’s festival is acting as a tip of the hat to those Seventies hippies who helped make the four-day party in Somerset what it is.

Even Blur, Sunday night’s headliners – might be met with puzzled looks from younger members of the audience. A 19-year-old would have been just five when The Great Escape was released. They might recognise the opening chords from The Universal, but that is just because it’s currently being used to sell British Gas on the telly.

Those who do remember Blur in their prime may be faced with a tricky dilemma though, with The Prodigy, another band at their peak in the Nineties, set to play a head-banging set on the Other Stage at the same time. It’s never as simple as giving the bands a time-slot to play in, but wouldn’t it have been a better idea to ask The Prodigy to play on Friday or Saturday? There can’t be too many people who are fans of both Neil Young and The Prodigy.

There are, however, plenty of pleasing aspects to the line-up. The John Peel Tent has a reliable collection of up-and-coming bands like Little Boots, Metronomy, Florence and the Machine and The Gaslight Anthem.

Meanwhile, The Jazz World Stage is as eclectic as ever – with acts ranging from Rolf Harris to The Streets to Manu Dibango.

It’s also good to see the development of The Queen’s Head as an alternative venue – Bombay Bicycle Club, The King Blues and The Rumble Strips will all grace Worthy Farm’s favourite pub.

The Dance Tents, too, have a tasty line-up – La Roux live would be a good way to pass an hour-or-so on Saturday evening while Mr Scruff plays a two-and-a-half hour set on Sunday evening.

Let’s not forget, that for your £175, Glastonbury this year gets you not only an extra day’s music – Newcastle’s Maximo Park are one of the acts playing today – but also an extra area. William’s Green will host The Queen’s Head, The Snug and the Silent Disco.

If the weather is glorious – which it is forecast to be – then the personal relevance of who you are watching and whether you were born when they released their best material becomes less important. Last year, as the late afternoon sun shone down on The Pyramid Stage, thousands lay back on the grass, drink in hand, and listened blissfully to Leonard Cohen sing Hallelujah. And plenty of those were under 30.

■ Glastonbury Festival continues until Sunday.

BBC coverage begins today and includes BBC1, 2, 3, 4 and the Red Button services as well as Radio1, 5Live and 6Music