Weddings, business meetings and sponsored walks are as much a part of life at the region's racecourses these days as the beat of galloping hooves and the clink of Champagne glasses, as Karen Dent discovers.

EVENTS at the North East's racecourses probably take up more days than actual horse racing as the venues continue to diversify in the face of tough economic times.

Despite the recession, corporate meetings, fairs and weddings are still being staged to make the most of the large estates and ample space.

Charities and educational organisations are also switching on to what racecourses can offer as venues, and in the case of Hexham, it is to begin hosting a series of educational courses concentrating on countryside skills.

The region’s racecourses still consider racing to be their raison d’etre but diversifying to reap the best rewards from their land and buildings year-round is becoming increasingly important.

Helicopters and wedding marquees aren’t uncommon sights at Newcastle Racecourse on non-racing days, although passers-by may be more surprised to see people wandering around the Gosforth Park track in the dead of night.

But according to Tracy Skinner, the course’s events and venue hire manager: “We don’t class anything as unusual. We are seeing a lot more from charities, events like a midnight walk. We’ve got one in July for St Oswald’s Hospice. They hire the site.”

The midnight walk is like a sponsored walk with the twist that it is held at night. Ms Skinner said: “The first one was in London – the Moon Walk for breast cancer. A lot of people have taken it to the next level. The course is ideal for that.

“We are pleased to help charities where we can. We can give auction prizes as well as a competitive deal for them.”

Ms Skinner, who previously ran Dynamic Event Solutions, has been with Newcastle Racecourse since last November and is making the most of the venue’s sheer size to attract alternative events.

She said: “Because we’ve got such a large site, we are very, very flexible. We have over 33 meeting rooms and we have 812 acres of land, so we can run things like our own family fun days.”

On a day-to-day basis, hiring rooms for meetings remains the course’s most in-demand diversification. However, weddings are becoming an important sideline. The course has 16 booked for this year and also caters for Asian weddings, where the whole site is hired out and customers erect marquees for the festivities.

In September, the UK Wedding Show is coming to the course but its biggest annual event is a Christmas fair, held over three days in early November.

However, although the events are growing year-on-year according to Ms Skinner, the racecourse has not completely escaped the effects of the economic downturn. “We’ve got shorter lead-up times,” she said. “People aren’t booking as far in advance as before. It might have been a few months, now it’s a few weeks. But if we’ve got the facilities, we need just a few days [to organise].

“We have regulars like PricewaterhouseCoopers, they are a key client. Quite a lot is repeat business we’ve had for a long, long time. And we have helicopters coming to give tours of the city.”

There are 29 days’ racing at Newcastle this year and Ms Skinner says this is what the course is primarily about.

“First and foremost, we will always be a racecourse, but we can open up the estate for other things,” she said. “When we’re not racing, we are a conference venue.”

Hexham racecourse is feeling the effects of the recession on its weddings business but it is set to diversify further later this year by offering a string of countryside educational courses. Dennis Gallagher has worked as the course’s marketing manager for six years and says until the effects of the economic downturn began to bite, the events side of the business had been storming ahead.

But he said: “People are just not booking where they did before or they’re being very canny about what they will pay.

“This has been noticeable since the start of the year. One of the biggest things we were doing here was weddings. We’ve had two inquiries for weddings and one is booked. We were booked up nicely last year and probably had eight weddings in the year.”

The course is often hired out as an anniversary and birthday party venue and this type of event is still holding up strongly. A repeat visit from the North East Process Industry Cluster (Nepic), which is bringing hundreds of children to the course for three days, is also adding to the coffers.

“This will be their third year running with 600 kids. They use the whole of our main building,” said Mr Gallagher. “We can cater for 200 people in one room. We have the large room – 200 people in there, 80 in another, which is licensed for weddings, on the floor above there are three boxes. There is also a big hall which can take 80-odd people and a huge restaurant at the other end of the course.”

Like Newcastle, Hexham is opening up to charities and has proved a popular choice for sponsored walks. It also hosts an annual visit from a travelling stunt team.

But the next big thing on the horizon will be the forthcoming Countryside Skills training centre, offering LANTRA-approved qualifications in courses such as quad bike riding, first aid, livestock transportation, pesticides and tractor driving.

Mr Gallagher said: “It’s not yet off the ground – we’d like to think it will be by the end of the year. We are doing it ourselves, we will employ the lecturers. It was supposed to be last year but we didn’t really rush it. It’s now getting much closer, we are all ready to go when we get funding from LANTRA.”

Hexham offers 15 days’ racing a year in addition to two point-to-points and despite the recession, punters are still spending on the track.

“Racing is the one thing, fortunately, that is holding up well,” said Mr Gallagher.

“It’s essential for us to keeping advertising our way out of this problem. We have advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage is that we’re too far out of Newcastle for casual meetings, but the advantage is we have the car parking.”

He says diversification remains essential to the course and is hoping this year’s downturn is just a blip. “Hopefully we’ll get them back again,” he said.

In County Durham, Sedgefield Racecourse, with 60% of turnover generated by business customers, has seen corporate hospitality revenues “dip slightly”. But the venue said it was not having to slash prices to retain custom.

General manager Jill Williamson said: “Our packages include more for the client, such as free entertainment after racing and online booking discounts. Therefore, there is no need to drop our price.”

Page 2: We need everyone to have a great time, not an OK one