David Bowie has picked Arcade Fire, Air and comedian Ricky Gervais to perform at a New York festival he is curating.

The music legend has created a new annual music, film and comedy festival, called High Line, which takes place at various venues around the Big Apple, including Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden and Irving Plaza between May 9 - 19.

Bowie said: "I thought it was a very cool deal to be asked to curate the Highline Festival. The request was for me to choose artists and acts that I myself would go out of my way to see.

"I'm also pleased that many emerging artists are participating alongside more established talents that represent a fairly wide cross section of disciplines within the arts community."

Arcade Fire are famously Bowie's favourite band, while Gervais is obviously returning the favour after booking Bowie to appear on his TV series Extras, when the singer famously mocked his character with the song 'funny little fat man'.

In addition to film screenings (including Bowie's Top 10 Spanish language classics), the musical line-up also includes Bang On A Can, Claude Cahun, Daniel Johnston, Deerhoof, Ken Nordine, Laurie Anderson, Laurie McLeod, Legendary Stardust Cowboy, Meow Meow, Spanish Film Retrospective, The Polyphonic Spree and The Secret Machines.

It's believed that Bowie himself will also perform.

Tickets go on sale on March 30 at 10am - visit davidbowie.com or highlinefestival.com for more info.