Cheltenham Festival 2026 dates confirmed: March 10-13

The Cheltenham Festival for 2025 has concluded, and organizers are already preparing for the next festival in 2026. The event took place over four days, with varying attendance numbers. The opening day saw 55,498 people, while St. Patrick's Thursday had 53,366. The Gold Cup Day was sold out with around 68,500 attendees. However, the totals showed a decline. Approximately 219,000 people attended this year, down 22% from 2022's 280,672 attendees. Guy Lavender, the new CEO of Cheltenham Racecourse, acknowledged this drop. He believes high accommodation prices in the local area are a major factor. To address this issue, the festival has launched a partnership with Room To Race. This aims to offer more affordable hotel and ticket packages for festival-goers. Lavender also mentioned positive feedback on improvements made this year. Changes included larger areas for enjoying drinks, and ticket prices were frozen from the previous year. Though ticket prices for 2026 are not yet official, The Jockey Club has set up a page for fans to sign up for early ticket information. The dates for the Cheltenham Festival 2026 have been confirmed. The event will take place from Tuesday, March 10 to Friday, March 13 next year.