Chepstow Racecourse Reviews 19

Pretty location and some great racing but the overall customer experience was appalling. Generally dirty, litter left everywhere, tables uncleared, the toilets are an utter disgrace, huge queues, disgustingly dirty and blocked with faeces. The bar queues beyond belief and the same for coffee, food I was told was an hour queue so we didn't bother. Oh and this was sold as the 'Premier' experience, are you kidding? Complete joke and an embarrassment to the sport of racing. Should be ashamed of yourselves.

Visited today for the Welsh Grand National. Car parking Marshall showed us straight to a space, staff were helpful and friendly. Queues for food were as expected! Queues for bets and coffees were quick. Atmosphere was brilliant and the Racecourse was beautiful. Looking forward to next year.

Dissapointing experience tonight from start to finish. Parking ‘attendants’ only present at the start of the event - they were nowhere to be seen at the end when there were hundreds of cars trying avoid pedestrians to exit the unlit car park. Alcoholic drinks were confiscated in entry and food and drink prices once inside were extortionate (£14 for 3 chicken tenders and a few chips). Queues were horrendous and seating extremely limited. Fairground rides were quite pricey - some charging £5 per person. As for the firework display itself - given that people were paying a tenner each to get in, and the event was packed, the firework display was mediocre at best.

My niece and I traveled up from Bridgend yesterday to see the magnificent Sir Tom Jones. The performers were absolutely amazing but 50/60 minutes into his performance, droves of people started to leave. Not sure what to make of the mass exodus, I asked someone and he said “the parking, the parking….” we worried and started to make our way out, missing the last quarter of Sir Tom’s performance. An absolute crime.

People were rushing left, right and center towards the car parks. It was chaotic and worrying. We got onto a muddy field in pitch darkness, we were slip sliding away down the steep areas. No gravel, no lights, no markers, no stewards. When we eventually got to the car, we had no idea where to go from there. People driving in circles. The car was stuck in the mud and wheels were spinning. The car was loosing grip. My niece was driving and getting very anxious, my fear was that the car would topple and that it EMERGENCY SERVICES WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE TO REACH US. No arrows pointing us to a direction, no security Marshall’s in the fields with flashlight. It was a disgrace.

Eventually to the left we saw hundreds of exceptionally slow moving cars. We filtered into the queue but again no traffic supervisors. After about an 90 minutes of stop/starting/heating on-off and worrying about the battery, eventually we made it to a sort of crossroads with thousands of pedestrian spectators spilling our of the venue with just three fellas trying to control the situation. One was on the phone, one was looking up for divine inspiration and the third one said that “all the pedestrians coming out of the concert had priority” as far as the eye could see thousands upon thousands of people. Would we ever get home.

It was frightening, unimaginable and terrifying. When we did eventually get out of the gates, turning left onto the road there was utter chaos. People tripping in front of the car, falling off the pavements. It was scary.

Can you believe that we missed the latter part of the concert and then got stuck for hours?? We’re heartbroken. It spoilt the event we had waited months to see.

Earlier today I wrote to Chepstow Council to inform them of Saturday’s dangerous situation. Health and safety was a joke. and

We’re requesting that our parking expenses are reimbursed and look forward to reading your explanation why such an important event was so poorly managed causing mayhem and anger.

We were a party of 7 seeing Tom Jones on Saturday 6th July 2024.

It was a really awful experience and we will never go there for a concert again.

After our minibus dropped us off, we had to walk a good mile to get to the entry gates.

The drink prices were extortionate with a 330ml can of cider costing £6.00. To make matters worse, the bar staff had been instructed to open ALL of your drinks as you buy them, making it impossible to put a few cans in your pocket until you're ready to drink it. I can only assume this is because they know drinks will inevitably be accidentally spilled, leading you to buy more. The only saving grace is we managed to smuggle a flask of Vodka in.

Tom Jones was excellent to be fair, but the organisers of the venue let the show down.

After the concert, we had to repeat the long mile walk back to the minibus pick up carpark, only this journey was much worse because lighting was very poor, even pitch black in places causing, someone to fall over a block holding the fencing in place, there was a lack of stewards offering assistance. Given the clientèle likely to watch Tom Jones is probably going to be over a certain age, the journey back to the car park was quite unsafe and way too far to walk!

At 62 years old with my disabled husband, finally went to see Sir Tom, the man himself, brilliant. We love him, you still got it Tom !!!
But the venue itself Chepstow Racecourse has some very weird rules.
At the disabled entrance on admission, in line were wheelchairs and mostly elderly people, a not so thorough handbag check and PATTED down (which I strongly objected to). What were they looking for, my flick knife, class A's and supply of alcohol?
At the bar whilst obviously I, as the carer was already carrying everything, they opened each can of drink we bought, why? what does this achieve? except that more gets spilt than drunk.
Toilets for the disabled were few, now it's obvious to me that disabled people take longer, have more urgency and they also need more room to manoeuvre, so why only a few loos!!!!!
The stage was so low and the raised area for disabled was very small, leaving most people seated in that area able to see only the screens, not Tom.
We decided to leave a little early, as we had read about the chaotic venue departures, not a car or coach in sight, we were forced to turn right when we wanted to go left, adding on an hour to our journey. Loosen up! Chepstow Racecourse Venue.

What a absolute Disgrace Chepstow car parking entering and especially exiting!!
Tom Jones concert last night !
Who organised car parking on a field especially with our weather!!!
One exit .Roads closed with no warning so rejoining a queue you’ve already spent a long time in !! Shame on whoever organised this .Pedestrians everywhere close to traffic!
It APPEARS that no changes have been made from last year so our voices are being ignored !
Thankyou for Ruining our experience Chepstow ..Never again 🤦‍♀️

Shania Twain 5th July. A lovely albeit wet event ruined by an absolutely shambolic exit from the car park which took almost 3 hours!!!!! No Marshall’s, no order, frustrated drivers trying dangerous turns and cars slipping on steep muddy inclines! You couldn’t say it was incompetently managed - there was absolutely no management or organisation!!!!! Late exit resulted in the most horrendous journey home with heavy fog and lightening. I will definitely avoid this venue in future.
UPDATE : I HAVE JUST READ OTHER REVIEWS FROM 2023 STATING SAME PROBLEMS LAST YEAR!!!!!!!!

We left the racecourse after the Shania Twain concert on Fri 5th July 24 which was fantastic! The parking was pretty expensive at £37 but very well organized on entry! My review is for the chaos that followed exiting the car park which was carnage due to no traffic marshals providing an organized exit from the event this led to many near misses as hundreds of cars tried to force their way out of the car park some sliding on the steep banks of the racecourse causing multiple cases of road rage and unnecessary delays, I've never witnessed anything like it! Our exit took just under 2hrs when we eventually got to the last road exiting the racecourse there were pockets of 5+ Marshals possibly 30+ in total with their hands in their pockets completely in the wrong area completely oblivious to what was taking place. Most people's lasting memory of the concert will be the car park exit. Not only was this a Health and Safety risk to the public but incredibly dangerous in the water logged conditions due to heavy rain at the event! I contacted Chepstow racecourse who were quick to reply and advised this was the responsibility of Live Nation who organized the event and would contact them to resolve future issues. Note that we have experienced very heavy rain and with a concert taking place sat/sun most cars will not have traction in the current car park so may well become stuck!
Incredible to read identical reviews from of a year ago and nothings been done !

Shania Twain was awesone, but.....DO NOT PARK in Chepstow car park, total utter shambles, 2.5 hours just to exit car park, no marshalls except at gate lounging about laughing...JOKE!!!

Had a great afternoon. Very good course. Lovely to be able to see the winners circle and finish line in one go. And to the kind gentleman who gave us a lift back to the hotel. When we couldn’t get a taxi. Thank you.

I booked the View restaurant for food and a drinks package for a Raceday to celebrate my husband's 50th birthday party and it was one of the best experience's and one that we certainly will not forget.

From start to finish the staff couldn't do enough for us, making sure we sat in the window seat, arranged for us to view the parade ring to meeting my challenging dietary requirements, nothing was too much trouble.

They even bought a 50th balloon and all came to say hi during the event. The staff and food were incredible.

Jodie and her team were absolutely fantastic and what I would say of you're thinking of booking, don't hesitate, you wont be disappointed.

We caught the park and ride to Geogre Ezra and A lovely man called Stu was helping all the customers and lifted a lady in a wheelchair The whole team was happy and helpful

Great night but was ruined by the two hour wait to get out of the car park. It was an absolute shambles no stewards in sight to direct cars they all appeared to be on the roundabout as we exited the ground. We paid for VIP parking but there was no VIP exit a disgrace.

The worst experience exiting the car park I have ever known. After such a fantastic evening what a shambles of an experience get it sorted if you want people to use the venue again. You need a separate exit for buses and cars taking over 1 hour to get out of such a small car park was atrocious.

2 hours to get out of car park. Shambles. Rude staff

Had a fun day with friends. Watching my syndicate horse run well balanced the disappointing facilities. Beware steps and steep sloping ground across the entire public areas. Lots of "temporary" marquees and catering facilities on the site but the only catering that appeared to be open to the general public was in a rather scruffy bar resembling a cattle market canteen. Staff appeared unprepared for the number of customers, ridiculous queues all day, cheap frozen Spar chips were served undercooked (discarded Spar bags scattered everywhere in public view) and the "cod goujons" turned out to be tasteless mini fishcakes.
Car parking on arrival was fairly well organised but after racing it was total chaos and every man for himself - vehicles going in all directions with total disregard for anyone but themselves . No-one directing traffic in the car park, the roundabout at the exit was gridlocked due to traffic exiting and also coming away from the town centre, traffic going left and right out of the car park was all trying to fight their way out of the same exit; took us 40 minutes to get as far as the roundabout and only then by adopting the same selfish driving methods as everyone else. According to regular Chepstow race goers this is the usual car park chaos so why has it not been addressed before now?

Went to racecourse on the 8th July to see Paloma Faith. She was very good but once she finished it was just empty the course. To try and get back into Chepstow town was nothing but a joke. My parter had trouble walking but she had no choice as you couldn’t get a taxi for love nor money. I spoke to several taxi drivers who said the racecourse has got the set up all wrong as they have closed a lay-by off which taxi’s used to pick up client’s, them as well as me think the racecourse don’t care about us punters once we leave the racecourse and they desperately need a rethink. Also another point paying 50 p on top of extortionate beer prices for a plastic pint glass which they say goes to “ charity” . Wat a joke. I urge the public to vote with their feet and make this a much to miss venue in future.

Had a day trip to Chester racecourse on the 12th of July 2019 evening meeting. Well attended easy to get to took the train from Cardiff Central and then got on the shuttle bus which was £1 to get to the course and another £1 on the return trip. The entrance fee was a bit steep £27 that was standard price no free race card that was an extra £3.

On arrival at the course there was a gentleman selling tickets for £5 cheaper directly in the car park but had no idea whether the tickets and guy were genuine. Once inside the main arena I did ask a steward was the guy outside selling tickets genuine his reply " I think so". Not a confidence booster for me so I paided the £27.00

As I said this night was well attended plenty of activities going on food stalls, craft beers and even had a live music event.

Downside as always with these events the queue for the beers were stupidly long and with 30 mins interval per race didn't manage to get a drink till the last but 1 race. Its 2019 you would have thought that the event organisers would have prepared better or even had self service pumps.

The toilets no 1 hate is no loo roll available again appears lack of preparation.

The positives outweighed the negatives will give Chepstow racecourse another try soon