CHESTER Races’ family funday attracted a crowd of more than 43,000 people at the weekend.
The attendance for the popular event at Chester Racecourse was up by four per cent on the fixture last year.
The annual event brought crowds of nearly 30,000 into the open course area to enjoy free family entertainment throughout the day including bouncy castles, face painting, donkey rides and Mr Alexander’s Travelling Show.
Emily Hughes,13, from Little Sutton, Ellesmere Port, said: “I love family fun day, we have been coming since I was really little. It’s a great atmosphere and we love the games that we play and the fun fair. My favourite things are the dodgems and the fun house.” Natalie Smith,13, also from Little Sutton, added: “I love coming to Family Fun Day to meet up with friends and family that I haven’t seen for ages.”
Attendance in the County and Tattersalls areas was up 20 per cent on 2009 driven by a special two for one offer on pre-sales. Crowds enjoyed six exciting races throughout the day with Masamaah taking the feature race of the day, the 3.30pm freebets.co.uk Queensferry Stakes (Class 1, Listed).
Richard Thomas, chief executive of Chester Race Company Ltd, said: “The day was fabulous.
“We didn’t have the luck of the weather but that certainly didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits as the crowd numbers showed. I spent the day in all areas of the course and saw thousands of happy families, groups of friends and colleagues all having a great day out.”
Rob March, head of marketing and PR, added: “Family Funday is by far our most popular fixture of the year and it is amazing to attract such huge crowds.
“People really enjoy this fixture and it has become something of a Chester institution - we have already been inundated with positive comments on our Facebook and Twitter pages.”