What they needed
The course’s event calendar operates over 12 months of the year including:
- 16 high-profile international race days between October and May
- The Gold Cup Festival, known to attract over 260,000 visitors
- Major outdoor events including the Greenbelt and Wychwood Festivals, typically attracting 10,000–25,000 visitors respectively
- Regular weddings, parties, concerts, exhibitions, meetings, conferences, and visitors to the National Hunt Hall of Fame
Cheltenham not only needed cleaning teams to manage event cleanup, but also logistical support and facilities management services to help their events run smoothly. This included waste management and recycling teams who would ensure that events were litter-free.
With years of experience handling stadiums, racecourses, and international multi-day events with hundreds of thousands of guests, CleanEvent was the perfect choice to cover these requirements.
Challenges
The 2014-2015 period saw a major £45 million redevelopment programme at Cheltenham Racecourse. The new 6,500 capacity grandstand and Royal Box were fully opened at the 2016 Cheltenham Festival. The build phase of the project brought a number of cleaning challenges, but CleanEvent Services were able to ensure a ‘business as usual ‘cleanliness during this time.
Our results
- We provided professional commercial cleaning services for varied integrated buildings at the site, including the impressive Centaur, a 4,000 capacity multi-use indoor concert and event venue.
- We have a permanent team of 6 staff members that work at Cheltenham, increasing to 200 event cleaners on a busy race day.
- We were involved in the initial consultancy on the allocation of electrical positions, storeroom locations and water points for optimum working efficiency at the racecourse. The refurbished weighing room, new horse walk, and grandstand have been widely acclaimed and have significantly improved the visitor experience at this iconic venue.
- Through an extensive review and consultancy period, we helped Cheltenham reach an exceptional 67% recycling rate for accumulated waste at the racecourse. This achievement has significantly improved the sustainability rating of the home of the National Hunt, and places it high on the list of racecourse venues across the UK in terms of landfill avoidance.