Royal Festival of the Horse

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kateelliott

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Having never had the privilege to attend the much revered Royal Show, I was thrilled to be offered 2 free tickets to the new Royal Festival of the Horse, and set out on the long journey from Norfolk in the early hours of Saturday filled with excitement. Glorious sunshine blessed the deserted showground and we were even allowed to park in "gold" parking - a privilege we later accepted was probably offered to every one of the small crowd! As newcomers we struggled to comprehend the layout and never found our way to the Parelli pavillion. The small number of trade stands meant that we eventually found our way round all of them as we circuited the venue. The craft tent was tiny and very well hidden while the burger vans were mixed in with food hall stalls selling cheeses and cakes etc, which clearly hadnt made enough numbers to justify their own area.

Turnouts were embarrassingly low in all the breed showing classes - the largest class we saw (for mature Welsh Sec Cs) had 5 in it. Despite having free entry tickets, we felt the £15/20 extra to get a seat in the grandstand was extortionate and waited like many for reduced tickets (£5) to go on sale at 1pm. Some rings had long periods of inactivity and there was even an unnecessary interval in the main arena programme.

On the plus side, we found some reasonably priced catering - £3.50 for large hog roast bap and tea for £1. Traders were grumbling loudly though and no one could blame them.

We have enjoyed the Your Horse Live events held at this venue in previous years and I think organisers could have learnt a lot from their model - entry under £20, choice of free demos/displays and far more numerous trade stands.
 
The lack of trade stands was evident and I too was disgusted to see you had to buy a ticket for the main ring of which I choose to refrain from.

There wasn't a huge turn out either regards people which in some ways was good as noithing worse than goign to look at some clothes and all you can see i th eback of peoples heads lol.
As for the In-Hand classes I saw entries with around 8 horses in them and the ridden classes had around 12 or more.

The Parelli Pavillion didn't take many on the Friday (no idea regards Sat as I wasn't there) but on Sunday it was packed.

Over all IMO the whole three days did not attract the attendance I would imagine was hoped for.
 
Friend who went on Friday:) to see the dressage and some showing said it was super. I've got a soft spot for Stoneleigh because the BD nationals is my favorite show ever, but the layout there can be confusing. Shame that the turnout was small. Apparently the dressage day was well attended.....
 
Every time I walked past the main arena I only saw 2 or 3 people in the seats though I gotta admit I could only see a few rows.

I never knew the tickets went down to £5 after 1pm otherwise I'd have bought one..
 
I went on Saturday, I never saw the Parelli Pavillion, thank goodness.....given the main thread on here!I didnt take up the option of the £5 seat!!!Hope the show runs again, a bit of tweaking...
JC
 
Bit of a flop in my opinion, a real shame for the competitors and trade stands. There was a lot of angry people there this weekend and some of the trade stands even packed up and went home Saturday! I heard quite a few people ask for their money back when they realised they had to pay an extra £20 to watch the show jumping...the seats in the grandstand weren't even full. Very poorly organised and lack of advertising and PR let it down I think. Could be a fab show with a little bit more work!

:)
 
What a shame. Why didn't they hold the Royal show classes to start with, and build it up gradually? I suppose they were aiming at the Your Horse Live customers, but I didn't realise that it was £20 PLUS another £20 for the Grandstand. I would have been peeved too!
 
Guinness said:
Bit of a flop in my opinion, a real shame for the competitors and trade stands. There was a lot of angry people there this weekend and some of the trade stands even packed up and went home Saturday! I heard quite a few people ask for their money back when they realised they had to pay an extra £20 to watch the show jumping...the seats in the grandstand weren't even full. Very poorly organised and lack of advertising and PR let it down I think. Could be a fab show with a little bit more work!

:)
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We decided to give it a miss when we saw it was parelliised and there was a very limited range of disaplines represented and few demos......
 
I would have liked to have gone for the show jumping but decided against it when I checked the prices. Chester CSI was much better value at £5 for the Friday and £10 per day on Saturday and Sunday.
 
I don't wish ill on the show and hope that it comes back bigger and better next year with some sensible amendments to the pricing. On the plus side, there were people with clipboards collecting feedback which i hope the organisers will act upon. We also found people to be very friendly - from the comical programme seller to the amiable trade stand holder - clearly grateful of someone to talk to and sell some shoes to!

We even had an interesting chat with a Parelli-shirted chap who sat near us to watch the showjumping classes. I'm not a Parelli fan but was impressed none the less with his open-minded outlook as he made some astute observations about the show-jumpers and he clearly had great respect for all equines.
 
Barbury horse trials was much better value - £15 on the Sunday with all the top eventers there, and fabulous viewing (and an amazing setting). Not as if Stoneleigh an attractive place either...
 
In a time when other shows are pulling out (BO and numerous events) it was ambitious to launch a new show. I hoped it would be a good event, I had palanned to go with a few friends. But in all honesty we FORGOT, what does that say about the marketing and promotion! And we read all the mags between us and chat on forms etc.
Thinking about it, the likes of Olympia and HOYS work hard to promote and remind us all to go to the show... every year we enter comps for tickets, know as soon as the box office is open and what acts we can look forward to seeing, the only thing I remember about this show's publicty was that Gal and Tot were doing a demo.
Maybe a new Marketing manager/company for next year?!
And the prices... really what do they think this is! Maybe if they had charged £2 a car, and then £15 a ticket to the arena people would have felt better about it.
All in all, glad I enjoyed the hacking in the sun instead!
 
They were probably estimating their figures on the old Royal Show and how many go to Your Horse Live. Lots of people other than horse people went to the Royal, and Your Horse Live has been in existance for years and years, under various names, and has built up its numbers gradually.
 
I didn't enter (showing) as felt the entry fees were on the expensive side even given the normal level of county/HOYS qualifier fee. I like Stoneleigh and it does seem an under used facility so I hope they can keep something going.
 
We met a lady who had paid £3000 to have her trade srall there and was amazed that she couldn't get into the dressage without paying another £20 ! How mad is that??!!!
 
EQUIFEST is better value - Held 19-22 August (Thurs - Sunday) at the East of England Showground Peterborough and is a Horse Show for Horse People with Indoor Evening Performances each night. There is also a Master Class at 6pm on Wednesday 18th August open to all to kick the show off. (Andy Austin SJ, Katie Jerram Showing, Gary Docking Driving and the British Vaulting Team) All entrance for public is FREE every day!!! There will be a range of trade stands along with Showing, Working Hunter, Driving, Rare Breeds, Heavy Horses and Show Jumping - Affiliated Ponies and Horses and Unaffiliated mixed SJ. Showing entries close Monday 19th July Show Jumping closes in August Google it!
 
One wonders if the RASE people over the last ten years really wanted to bother with the Royal. First they got an outside company to organise it and with all new staff who knew very little about the studbook and breeding classes. They lost staff who had worked in the Livestock office for over 40 years and new people came in and the staff found jobs with other organisations on the show ground. How many times have we heard promises about the creation of an Equine center at Stoneleigh? At wash up meetings with breed societies how many suggestions were put forward and the suggestions welcomed but never happened. The plans for a breeds village,organised entertainment for competitors staying on the showground over night,improvements to the stables,better signposting for competitors and drains around the taps in the stable area all never happened.
 
KS1 said:
The lack of trade stands was evident and I too was disgusted to see you had to buy a ticket for the main ring of which I choose to refrain from.


Over all IMO the whole three days did not attract the attendance I would imagine was hoped for.
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That's exactly what put me off - I got an e-mail with a code to get a BOGOF offer on tickets, but when I saw that you had to pay so much extra for the grandstand, I changed my mind. No chance was I going to pay that.

They've done right admitting their mistakes, we can only hope for better next year.
 
SJFAN said:
Unfortunately (for show jumping enthusiasts) Equifest clashes with the Young Horse Championships at Addington.
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Yes it's a shame Addington changed their dates this year and now clash with Equifest. Equifest goes the same week every year so hopefully it can be avoided for future.
 
My family have a little business which we have tradestands at various shows around the country, i had enquired about the Festival of the Horse and it would have cost us £700 to have a 3x3 stand. No wonder there wasn't many there, such a shame!
 
I think people who look to do these new shows need to consider that most people don't have surplus funds to go to all of them. IME me and friends go religiously to the same ones each year and it'd have to be something special for us to stump up more money to see others . For us the givens are Windsor, Your Horse Live and Olympia. There is nothing these others shows can offer that isn't covered by our favourites, the best value of all being Your Horse Live.

We went to the Europeans last year and that was the biggest of all letdowns which has been well documented on here.
 
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