Ben Robinson is getting excited.

There’s just a few weeks to go to Kendal Calling - the festival he created with his mate, Andy Smith in 2006.

Ben says: “This is probably one of the best we have ever had.

“To open with Orbital on Thursday, then to have Nile Rogers and Chic, Years and Years and to have Doves back...”

Doves and Manic Street Preachers play on the Saturday, along with Idles, and Slowthai, with Courteeners and Sir Tom Jones on the closing night.

“Tom Jones is one of the biggest legends we have had,” adds Ben.

But as well as managing the event, he’ll also be playing it.

He’s the singer and bass player with electronic dance outfit Hello Cosmos.

He formed the band with his brother Simon, a drummer, “for a bit of fun” just over a year ago.

Ben was with the circus rave band Slamboree, but realised that he couldn’t run Kendal Calling and the hugely successful science and astronomy-based Bluedot Festival it Jodrell Bank, near Manchester.

“I couldn’t go on tours and work on the festivals as well, so I took a step back from performing for the first time in 15 years,” he explains.

“I hooked up with my brother just to jam with no intention of making records which was refreshing. But it went so well that we wanted to make a record and invited a few people that we know to come in.”

They played their first gig a year ago, their latest EP Run For President is out soon and he describes their sound as: “Every song is bass and drums-driven, big bold and bouncy.”

He’ll be playing at both festivals that he runs, but the band are also at the This Is Tomorrow festival in Newcastle this weekend and the Long Division Festival in Wakefield a week later.

While many big-name festivals have folded in recent years, Kendal Calling, which runs from July 25-28, has grown in popularity and sells out well in advance every year.

Next year will be its 15th anniversary and Ben promises a big celebration: “We are planning anything and everything!

“We have some ideas in the pipeline looking back at everything and how we built it up with the local community.”