The statutory retirement age was adjusted some years ago, in line with the then fairly new Sex Discrimination Act - it was agreed that 65 would be the statutory retirement age, with the option that if they so wanted to, both men and women could retire at 60. In addition, many occupations have a mandatory retirement age of 50 (train drivers, footballers, fire-fighters), but others allow workers to continue until they are 70 (some local councils).

There was another change in 2006, whereby it became illegal to discriminate on grounds of age, when it was realised that a substantial proportion of the workforce would be aged 50 and over in the next 10 years.

I can see why a festival would insist on you being over 65, just look at the average festival crowd. To me, it seems as though they are made up of people over 50 and under 21 - students and pensioners who can get the cheaper tickets (that's a personal observation, not based on any study or survey), but let's face it, if a third of the national workforce is going to be 50 and over in 2020 and a festival is to thrive, it needs to get the best prices for the tickets now. If you cost the tickets to the lowest prices to raise revenue, then the full price tickets are going to be beyond the reach of an awful lot of people.

Double check the festival information as the Villan suggests. If it just says 'concessions' then argue the point. If it says 'concessions for those over 65' then they are technically allowed to charge anyone under that age, full price, but in theory, they'd have to get all those over that age to bring a proof of identity which includes a birth date.

You should be able to claim a concession by showing a proof of retirement - I don't know what you have instead of a pension book these days, but a pensioners bus pass is not really enough.

LTS