Mane event

More than 250,000 racegoers enjoyed Cheltenham Festival 2024 but before the masses descended on the spa town, StandOut went behind the scenes during the build

There’s just one week to go until thousands of race fans walk through the gates of Cheltenham Racecourse when StandOut visits the famous track. A raft of event suppliers is busy putting the various finishing touches to the event’s hospitality structures whilst teams of event professionals are whizzing about the site putting up signage and jet-washing the concourse.

There’s a famous proverb that says it takes a village to raise a child. Well, in the events world, it takes an army of dedicated professionals – each with different talents – to deliver a memorable and respected event.

This year’s Cheltenham Festival is marking a massive milestone – 100 years of the Gold Cup. And at the helm is Gemma Steve, regional head of operations at The Jockey Club – Cheltenham. To those acquainted with the famous racecourse and The Jockey Club, Steve is the new David McKinnon, who spent 10 years at Cheltenham as regional head of ops before moving to Saudi Arabia to become chief racecourse and racing officer at The Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia.

Steve, previously regional buildings and maintenance manager at Cheltenham and before that regional head of operations at Newmarket, has been eyeing up this role for some time. “I was born and bred in Cheltenham,” explained Steve, on a sunny day, perched in a hospitality chalet. “I went to school in Cheltenham and live not far away. I’ve been coming to the races since I was young. My parents would come to the festival, I would skip school and I always said, I never wanted to work at Cheltenham because it was where I’d come to have a party. But I just loved it and as you get older, your priorities change.

“COVID changed my perspective,” she added. “I had a young family and decided to move back. I was regional head of operations at Newmarket, so the role isn’t new, but this massive, iconic event is quite different.”

Fantastic Team

Indeed, Cheltenham Festival is a beast. More than 250,000 horse racing fans descend on the spa town every year for four days of jump racing. And 2024 is no different. As Steve and her “fantastic and young” team –Hannah Gates, operations manager, Steve Finch – regional build and facilities manager, and Jade Foyle – health, safety, and security manager – know.

They have been working alongside Paul “Digger” Barrett, director of PB Global Events, who is contracted by The Jockey Club to project manage the delivery of the festival’s tented village. Furthermore, it’s Steve’s first Cheltenham Festival as regional head of operations as she has recently returned to the course following maternity leave.

“When I came back from maternity leave, a lot of the big decisions had been made,” Steve added. “So for me, it’s been about making smaller changes to interiors, creating new restaurants, like the Charter Party and Centenary Restaurants in M12 [the marquees are numbered].”

New Concept

The Centenary Restaurant is just one new addition to Cheltenham Festival and has been specifically created to mark 100 years of the Gold Cup. Also at the 2024 sporting event is The Feed Room [M8], a new food court located in The Village and themed on a traditional stable feed room.

Tom Alldread, project director at GL events UK, has overseen the site build on behalf of the temporary infrastructure specialist.

He explained: “The Feed Room is a new concept for The Jockey Club. It’s somewhere for premium club ticket holders.”

The Feed Room is housed within two 15m x 40m structures, to make a 30m wide structure in total. But for 2025, the idea is to make The Feed Room into one large 30m structure.

“It’s a really good concept that was trialled in November [at Cheltenham’s November

Meeting],” continued Alldread. “It worked really well, the furniture offering looks really smart and the fit-out looks good too. The overall look and feel is cool and the feedback that was received in November for this area has been positive, so we replicated the space for Cheltenham Festival.”

Phased Delivery

The addition of The Feed Room is not the only change to Cheltenham Festival this year. Hannah Simpkins, The Jockey Club’s group operations director, will sit alongside officers from Gloucestershire Constabulary at its headquarters, acting as Silver command. This is the first time that The Jockey Club’s Silver command has been located off-site but it’s a necessary move to ensure racegoers and residents are safe. Also new for 2024 are enhanced facilities at the festival’s helipad reception and the build schedule has had some attention too.

The festival’s infamous Guinness Village was built by Arena Structures in time for Cheltenham’s November Meeting. Usually, Arena would build the festival’s triple-deck hospitality facilities and then the Guinness Village. But factoring in the early delivery of the Guinness Village has allowed for a better phased delivery for the project, de-risking the build schedule.

In fact, it’s been such a success that it’s thought that the popular feature will be built ahead of the 2024 November Meeting too. The move has gone some way to alleviating time pressures at the back end of the build schedule.