Galway festival figures reflect slide in racing attendances this year

The Galway festival wound up on Sunday with final crowd figures reflecting the general slide in racing attendances so far this year.

Sunday’s official final day attendance of 13,240 was up from the corresponding 2019 figure of 9,988.

However, it was the sole day of the week that saw such an increase and the final overall festival attendance was 116,720.

That was down over nine per cent on the 2019 figure of 129,058.

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At the height of the Celtic Tiger years in 2006 almost 217,000 crammed into Ballybrit.

The first post-pandemic festival with full crowds since 2019 tallied with a general drop in attendance figures at Ireland’s racecourses in the first half of 2022.

Recent Horse Racing Ireland half-year statistics showed a general nine per cent dip on 2019 attendance levels.

Despite poor weather conditions on Friday, that evening card was the busiest of the week with 24,486, down from almost 31,000 three years ago. The lowest crowd was on Tuesday with an official figure of 13,132.

In the circumstances of growing cost of living fears, Galway’s chief executive Michael Moloney said he was more than satisfied with the public response during the week.

“I’m very happy. They are incredible figures and everyone is very happy going home,” he said on Sunday.