Melvin Benn, the boss behind England's Reading and Leeds Festival, has hit back at the research that supposedly shows music festivals in the UK are too expensive for young people to attend.

MSN UK revealed earlier this week that 60% of 18-24 year olds can't afford the rising costs of going to outdoor events, which often include things like camping gear, food, drink and travel on top of ticket prices.

2,000 people participated in the study and Benn has now slammed the results, saying to Music Week that they don't give an accurate representation of those who enjoy festivals: "Some things just have to be looked at twice and by God this did."

"We do surveys every year at Reading and Leeds and reinforce them by checking the Facebook and Twitter stats of our sites that carry age profiles. For the last two years the age profiles have been 16/17 years 28%, 18/19 32% and 20/24 20%. A massive 80% aged 24 or under all coming along to the best 200 quids worth of British culture on offer."

“The plus 35's at Reading & Leeds register just 9%. They say stats can come up with anything that can be believed: unless MSN get their hands on them I guess!"