Tim Price takes the British Open Championship at Gatcombe in 2022. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
It’s getting all too routine to see events falling out of the British Eventing calendar as the cost of living crisis rages on and the financial reality of hosting events becomes increasingly untenable. But for all that, it was still a major shock when Gatcombe’s Festival of British Eventing, which takes place in early August in the unique terrain of Princess Anne’s Gatcombe Estate, announced today that it would not be running any longer.
The Festival has undergone some major changes in the past number of years: while it used to host international classes, including a CCI4*-S that was a popular part of the now-defunct Event Rider Masters line-up, it has been national-only in recent years. Those national classes have still had major status, though, as they’ve been the hosts of a plethora of national championships from Novice to Advanced, including the coveted British Open Championship at the top level and the Retraining of Racehorses Championship at Intermediate Novice. But in 2023, despite the best efforts of the on-site team, much of the weekend’s scheduled competition had to be necessarily abandoned due to relentless rainfall.
This has played no small part, it would appear, in the tough decision the organising team has come to.
“It is with a heavy heart that The Festival, which has played a significant part in the British Eventing calendar since 1983, cannot run this year. The event has also been a huge part of my family’s lives and those of many others for 40 years,” says Event Director Peter Phillips – son of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips and brother of Zara Tindall – in a statement, which cites ‘the ever-increasing costs associated with operating on a green field site’ and the current economic climate as the root cause of the event’s demise.
“[The event] has built up a large community that has enjoyed and celebrated The Festival each year. I would like to thank everyone who has been involved over the past four decades; our sponsors for their unwavering support, the large selection of trade stands and arena entertainment and our spectators who have loved coming to Gatcombe to watch the world-class equestrian sport from the famous Park Bowl.”
Gatcombe’s unique terrain will no longer feature in the British eventing landscape. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Captain Mark Phillips, who designs the event’s courses, adds, “The horse trials at Gatcombe and, more recently, the Festival of British Eventing have been a major part of my life for over 40 years when The Princess Royal and I first had the dream. The dream became reality, and with it, many special memories of the many riders, horses, volunteers, sponsors and spectators all of whom massively contributed to the history of the horse trials at Gatcombe Park. It’s truly a great sadness that the original model and indeed the sport has changed so much. Since Covid, costs, particularly insurance, have risen so much that the numbers no longer add up. It is an end of an era, the next 40 years of the sport will be different, let’s hope it can be equally special.”
British Eventing’s new CEO Rosie Williams shares in the disappointment, and is working towards reallocating these important championship classes.
“It is incredibly sad news for everyone involved in the sport,” she writes. “My focus this year is very much going to be on how we can implement a strategy that works for the sport going forward. We need to do everything we can to find a way to support our organisers, landowners and stakeholders to make events at wonderful venues like Gatcombe become viable. We will work hard as a governing body to assist in any way we can for the financial risk and burden to be minimised so that we can welcome Gatcombe, and others like it, back into the calendar. We will continue to be ongoing in discussions with Peter and the team at Gatcombe and will also be, as a matter of urgency, discussing a tender process for the national championships which will need to find a new home for this season and going forward.”
We’ve previously seen these classes run at Burgham, in 2021 when Covid forced Gatcombe’s cancellation, but for now, we have no news of where they might go next. We’ll keep you updated as the story develops.
