Tickets for the Friday were €30 and for an extra €10 you could get access to the reserved enclosure. This is pictured below but don't be fooled as this is the quiet before the storm and this picture was taken around 12.30pm. This area was like a packed Dublin nightclub from 4pm onwards!
This is the Bollinger Champagne bar and the cheapest bottle was €88. I was wondering where the recession was as the punters were downing this stuff like it was water! There was a lot of men drinking the stuff also and not a bother on them either! Louis Walsh was floating around as he was judging the Ladies Day Competition. I believe he was having a chuckle with Enda Kenny later on in the day.
The €5.70 pints of Carlsberg seemed like a bargain compared to the champagne so I stuck to them. If you were drinking Guinness they costed €5.20 a pint. As the champagne bar did not serve pints it was a mission every time to get one. Ducking and weaving and side stepping around the punters was required but luckily enough spillage was kept to a minimum. At these prices you don't want to be spilling any beer!
The reserved enclosure area also had the biggest toilet queues (pictured below) I have ever seen in my entire life! We all associate a queue for the toilet with just the ladies toilet. This was not the case here and both man and woman had to queue. The ladies queue did not seem to move at all but the gents had a very quick turnover which was great!
It was unfortunate but I did not get to see much of the horse racing on Friday however Saturday proved to be a much more promising day. There was no rain on the Saturday and the majority of people were outside in the open. This made it much easier to move around the place.
It was very hard to pick horses on the Saturday as very little favorites were winning. One of the highlights for me was the three horse race on the Saturday at 3.10pm. The favorite for this race was even money. The winner was Grey Gold (6-1) and was a complete shock. I definitely missed out on that one!
In addition to the horse racing there was a lot of small stands where local suppliers were selling different goods ranging from clothing, accessories etc. Other stands were also there to advertise their products.
There was also a small funfair with the usual Waltzer, magic mirrors and other rides. If you have young children they were giving out colouring books and pencils for free. They also had a large section inside which was a children's play area with the usual bouncing castles etc. The army were there and they had several military vehicles that you could get inside and have a look.
Overall it was a very good festival but in the future they should limit the crowd to a certain number as it gets uncomfortable when it is that busy.
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