Goodwood Racecourse event hire

Goodwood Racecourse is the horse-racing track on top of the Sussex Downs five miles north of Chichester, and its event spaces, from private-dining rooms like the Charlton Hunt up to the bigger hospitality spaces, take corporate away days, dinners and conferences through the year around the summer racing calendar. The company Christmas party we ran there took the snowboard simulator, and this page covers what we supplied and what fills the same brief for a corporate evening at the course.

The company side of the work sits on the corporate event hire in Chichester and Christmas entertainment in Chichester pages, the Chichester area page covers the city's other bookings, and the venues page lists the rest of the named venues we work at.

The company Christmas party

The December job so far took the snowboard simulator, a GS Engineering machine with the alpine Snow Park print, set up indoors in one of the racecourse's event rooms. The room has a low beamed ceiling and a tiled floor, and the bed went up under the beams with its 15ft square footprint and space to walk round it. The frosted winter trees and fairy lights standing round it made the pitch look the part, the crash mats went down on the tiles, and one of our operators ran the board all evening from the hand controller, starting each rider gently and building it up as they found their balance. It's staffed hire as standard, the same as all the simulator and rodeo kit, so the operator comes as part of the booking.

Around the centrepiece

The simulator alone filled the brief for that party. Where an evening wants more, the same room setup takes photo booths or the magic selfie mirror against a wall, electronic games such as the dance machine and the racing simulator for the gaps, and the rodeo attachments where there's floor space and ceiling height for the bed. Which pieces fit comes down to the room, so knowing the space and the ceiling height at enquiry stage helps.

Working at the course

Three practical notes shape a Goodwood booking. The first is ceiling height: the simulators and rodeo beds need 10ft of clear height indoors, so it's worth checking the ceiling in the space you've got booked before the quote. The second is warmth: the course sits on top of the Downs, and the event rooms can run cold once the autumn evenings close in, so for a winter party we ask about heating in the room as well. The third is the site itself: the course is on open downland, so an outdoor booking in summer gets the usual wind checks - every inflatable goes out with an anemometer and a written 24mph shutdown rule, and we'll say straight if the forecast is too much for it. The drive from our unit in Havant is seventeen miles or so: up the A27, then north out of Chichester on the A285 Petworth road, with the course sitting on the downland between the A285 and the A286 Midhurst road.

The paperwork side is the same as any corporate booking. We carry £10 million public liability insurance with licensed-premises cover, the risk assessment and method statement are sent with the booking, every inflatable carries a PIPA tag inspected annually by our in-house RPII inspector, the electrical kit is PAT tested, and the staff who set up and run the kit are ours, RPII-examined, first-aid trained and enhanced-DBS registered.

Getting your guests there

Most guests drive, up the A285 or over from the A27, and the parking is in the fields around the course: the venue runs complimentary car parks alongside the paid ones on its event days, and there's room for coaches and minibuses close enough that the walk to the entrance is a few minutes. It's grass underfoot, so an autumn or winter do earns a line about footwear in the invitation, and if any of your guests find walking a struggle it's worth asking the venue which rooms save them the walk from the car parks. Race days get a free Stagecoach shuttle between Chichester station and the course, with the last bus leaving about an hour after the final race; for a private evening the station is a taxi ride of a quarter of an hour or so.

Timing is the other thing to plan. The estate's big public days - the Festival of Speed in summer, the Glorious meeting, the Revival in September - all funnel traffic up the same few lanes, so it's worth assuming some queueing on the way in and out. A date near one of those weeks wants an arrival window in the invitations and some slack in the timings. On a private evening the numbers are far smaller, but we still build the delivery run into the schedule so the kit is in and working before the first guest arrives.

On the day

Two notes are worth taking before you plan the rest of the budget. In high summer there's little shade out on the open downland, so for a family day on the lawn in June or July we'd put one of our party marquees up alongside the games: it gives guests somewhere cool to sit and gives the buffet and the cake a base. The drinks are the other note: the in-house bar and catering are priced like premium racecourse hospitality, so it's worth deciding early whether the bar bill comes through Goodwood or whether you'd rather we staff one of our own bars alongside the entertainment.

To book the racecourse or any Goodwood event, ring us on 01428 751925 or fill in the enquiry form and tell us the date, the room or pitch, the expected numbers, whether it's indoors or out and how guests are getting there.