Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis is to hand control of the iconic music festival to his daughter.

Eavis, 73, said he will continue organising the Somerset event alongside Emily, 29, until 2011 when she will take over.

The dairy farmer, who first invited music fans on to his land in 1970, said it was time to make way for a "new generation".

Previously, he had promised to continue coordinating the festival until he turned 80, but yesterday he said that his daughter had sensible ideas and that he had already moved out of Worthy Farm’s main house to make way for her.

"I'm living on top of the hill now, away from the farm," Eavis told The Guardian.

"So (Emily's) taking over the house, which is nice. A new generation of Eavises can live here."

Emily caused huge controversy last year when she signed American hip-hop star Jay-Z as the festival’s headline act. Oasis musician Noel Gallagher, along with an array of long time Glastonbury fans, complained that his booking went against the festival’s history as a rock event.

But the risk paid off when Jay-Z proved a massive hit with revellers and garnered rave reviews.

Eavis said that he had always trusted Emily’s judgement despite the initial criticism.

“I knew she had sensible ideas so I had to go with that."

But he admitted that the 2008 event was the most stressful he had lived through. Tickets failed to sell out immediately as they had in previous years, as past problems with flooding put music fans off.

"We could have gone bankrupt.

"I got a cold sweat in the night, which I've never had before. I thought 'I'm killing myself over this'."

Eavis decided to host his first festival after seeing Led Zeppelin play at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music.

He sold tickets for £1 and threw in free milk to the 1,500 people who turned up to see Marc Bolan, Keith Christmas, and Al Stewart play.

This year’s event begins on Friday with Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and Blur headlining.

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