The Punchestown Festival goy off to a flying start yesterday with a new record attendance for the opening Tuesday, despite the weather not being kind.
20,214 racegoers visited the Kildare track, among them a host of celebrities and politicians, including Taoiseach Enda Kenny. That was up 755 on last year and is the first time the track has broken through 20,000 on it’s opening day.
The move to a later afternoon start time has created the chance for more people to visit after at least most of a day at work and Kenny did have the Government’s Spring Statement to make yesterday.
In total the track is aiming to break 110,000 over the full five days of top class racing. This will include 16,000 corporate guests and 21,500 who will travel over from the UK, making it one of the biggest sports tourism events of the year.
The value to the local and national economy has been estimated at over €60 million.
