Pearl Jam Fest. I am gonna start the rumour mill now.

What are the chances Ed will ask (BEG) Pollard to play at this festival they will be putting on. The way my year is going this is almost a guarantee.

The Pearl Jam 20th anniversary party continues, this time with the band set to curate, host and headline their very own music festival next summer.

During an interview aired on Sirius XM Radio, Gibson.com reports that longtime Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis said the festival will happen “somewhere in the middle of the U.S.” — not in the band’s hometown of Seattle.

No other details have been released, but this sounds all very exciting!

2011 is going to be a big year for the Seattle band; the new year starts off with the January 18 release of Live on Ten Legs, which features 18 tracks recorded on tour by the band from 2003 to 2010. You could say the new album is a sequel to Live on Two Legs, the group’s first major live album released in 1998, which collected live performances from the band’s summer tour of ‘98.

As for other 2011 Pearl Jam plans (so far), Eddie Vedder hits the road for a solo tour of Australia in March, and there’s talk of some possible album reissues that might be released.

Part of this 20th anniversary fun included October’s launch of Pearl Jam’s own Sirius XM channel, which features archival concerts from throughout the band’s 20-year career, rarities, unreleased material from the band’s personal music library and music from the band’s side projects, including solo and pre-Pearl Jam music.

As for the Pearl Jam Festival, the big details about performers, number of days – and hey, what it’ll be called – , is going to stay a closely guarded secret until the band decides to make a splashy media announcement about the festival. So until then we wait and wonder….

But it has all the makings of a great addition to the 2011 festival calendar.