Joe Harker
Punters who've headed off to Cheltenham Festival to watch one of the biggest horse racing events going have expressed their dismay at high prices for drinks and noticed that the place is a bit emptier than usual.
It seems that Cheltenham organisers had been expecting fewer people to turn up this year as several days ago Guy Lavender, the racecourse chief executive, penned an open letter admitting 'we are expecting fewer racegoers to be joining us in person this week than in recent years'.
He said this drop in attendance figures would not be 'catastrophic', but for context the Cheltenham attendance figures for this year are the lowest they've been this century and the lowest since 1993.
Lavender added that they'd be listening to people's feedback and wanted to look into what might be done about the cost of hotels in the area to try and make them more affordable in the future, saying that there were still some local hotel rooms unsold in the run-up to Cheltenham.
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The Racing Post reported that yesterday's (12 March) crowd of 41,949 who turned up to the BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Chase day is almost 5,000 fewer people than the figure of 46,771 who attended the event last year.
The BBC reported that not since 1993 when 40,662 came for a day of the races have there been so few people at Cheltenham.
While over 200,000 people are expected to attend Cheltenham Festival this week the total number of people going has dropped off significantly from the peak of around 280,000 who went in 2022 after the pandemic lockdown restrictions were over.
Some folks attending the festival have said they've 'never seen Cheltenham so quiet', like racing blogger Stephen R Power who pictured the racecourse looking sparsely attended and pointed out that attendance figures for the Wednesday races had dropped by almost 25,000 since the peak in 2022 and by almost 10,000 in the last two years alone.
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Plenty of people told Power they'd had enough of the costs, saying it was 'overpriced', 'too expensive' and that they'd rather spend the money on a trip to Benidorm and watch the races on screens over there.
The Beeb says that among the reasons punters have given for not turning up this year are the rising costs of tickets, travel and accommodation, along with the rising prices of food and drink at the venue.
That the price of a pint of something nice at a festival is very expensive is not particularly surprising, but Cheltenham is charging £7.80 for a Guinness and the festival's managing director Ian Renton previously explained the price rises.
"Throughout the course of this review process there have been three distinct strands which have been impossible to ignore - value for money, the need to provide the best experience possible and the competitiveness of the race programme," he said.
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"We understand that when people are paying to attend premium events they expect a premium experience and that has been at the front of our minds when committing to significant investment to improve our car parks, launching a park and ride system and offering more course-facing areas to enjoy a drink while watching the racing.
"We also know that, at a time when we are all impacted by the rising cost of living, value is more important than ever.
"As with any event of this size, it is never possible to make changes which are welcomed by everyone.
"However, we have prioritised listening to our racegoers to put them and their experiences at the heart of the Festival, with the ultimate goal of delivering something that not only meets but exceeds expectations."