Cheltenham Festival organisers defend event going ahead last month

Cheltenham Festival organisers defend event going ahead last month

Over 60000 racegoers attended

The organisers of Cheltenham Festival have defended their decision to go ahead last month after fears were raised the mass gathering helped spread coronavirus more widely around the country.

The four-day event saw more than 250,000 racegoers attend, despite the pandemic seeing the cancellation of other large sporting events in the days after.

A number of people reported on social media that they attended the festival, only to go on and develop symptoms of Covid-19.

However, festival organisers defended the decision to go ahead and said it complied with the government guidance at the time.

At the time of the festival, which ran from March 10 to March 13, the Government had not put any social distancing measures in place.

The day before the festival started, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said there was "no rationale" to postponing events.

Published: by Radio NewsHub
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