Jockey Club Racecourses has continued to expand its partnership with GL events at Cheltenham Racecourse as the brand builds on the quality and breadth of temporary structures across its venues, which host some of the biggest horseracing events of the year.
GL events made its Cheltenham Festival debut in March 2014, when the temporary structure specialist installed a two-storey, 360sqm Parade Ring Garden Bar, which served as a media facility and exclusive, ground floor bar, both glazed on two sides to offer views across the four-day festival, which includes Ladies Day and St Patrick’s Day celebrations, and culminates with the world-class Gold Cup race. A 280sqm atrium hosted the Festival’s fashion show and featured glazing to three sides.
Since its best in class debut, GL events’ contract to supply the Festival has doubled to become one of our largest projects, both in terms of value and the impressive volume of kit supplied, with the Cheltenham Festival providing a focal point for some of the best examples of temporary structures available in the UK. This year, we installed a diverse, 22,000sqm range of temporary structures, which included the media centre, food court, double and triple decked hospitality chalet suites and corporate hospitality, as well as a number of restaurants, retail and trade stand areas. Our one-stop, total overlay solution included everything from scaffolding and temporary structures to heating, lighting, flooring, furniture, washrooms and interior design and fit-out across a total of 14 areas at the Festival.
The site, visited by many thousands of event-goers for race meetings throughout the year, is created in three phases, with phase one – preparation for Cheltenham’s October Showcase event, starting in September. Phase two sees GL events installing further event infrastructure; including a tented village of visitor attractions laid out in the shape of a horse-shoe, ready for the second largest event in Cheltenham’s racing calendar, The Open. Finally, we return to site to install multi-deck hospitality venues in readiness for Cheltenham Festival, which takes place in March.
This event partnership calls for a particularly collaborative relationship with the client, and the benefits are far-reaching. After many months of planning and hard work, Cheltenham Festival 2017 was a great success, with daily crowds of up to 65,000 people enjoying four gloriously sunny days of socialising, fashion, the best hospitality, and exciting jump-race action. GL events’ products played a large part in enhancing customers’ experience of a fantastic and memorable event.
