Jasmine Ponting remembers working at the Cheltenham Races, just before lockdown
Last year in March, I found myself working at Cheltenham Racecourse during their 4-day festival. The decision for the festival to go ahead was highly controversial due to the fact that Coronavirus had already claimed lives in the UK. Three days after the races took place, the first lockdown was announced.
As I walked up to the racecourse on my first day of work, I could sense all of the excitement and anticipation. Everything looked normal as staff members hurried around in preparation and racegoers began to queue up in a mostly disorderly fashion. The only glimpse of difference I could see was the numerous hand sanitisation points dotted around which read ‘Don’t pass it on!’.
My job was working on the gates – helping everyone to scan their tickets. I was advised to stay away from people as much as possible and hand sanitise often. But, the severity of the virus was unclear to me at this point. A mass of people would pour in through the doors each day in a continuous flow. In the conversations I overheard, Coronavirus was discussed like bad weather – something that would go away soon and was nothing to really bother worrying about.
When I went for my lunch break each day I got to see more of the frenzy. Large groups of people gathered together; greeting friends and shouting out with each win. I found it hard to keep my distance from the racegoers as many of them got within my ‘bubble’. As a lot of alcohol was consumed by people amongst the festivities, I also found myself being staggered into on more than one occasion.
Knowing what I know now and seeing how race week played out, I really don’t think it should of went forward. Besides the fact that it sent out mixed messages about the severity of the virus, there were hardly any measures in place to prevent the spread of it. But, due to the scale of the event, there couldn’t of been enough done anyway.
I now look back at the festival with disbelief as I recall the thousands of people who turned up compared to life afterwards – with lockdowns and much improved safety measures.
