The tradition of fascinators and hats during Ladies Day is usually more about showcasing excellent style than being practical. But this year, spectators at Aintree had good need for their headwear, as the sun shone at the racecourse for the first time in almost a decade.
A crowd of 45,000 people had been predicted, and as temperatures reached 19C on Friday, the Met Office said it was just short of being the warmest Aintree festival this century.
A strong breeze meant there was some clutching of hats but it takes more than a bit of wind to bother racegoers.
“I always wear giant hats,” said Chantalle Green, from Liverpool, who has been coming to Aintree for two decades and this year brought her 18-year-old daughter. “I think it should be a rule that everyone has to wear big hats.”
She had donned a dramatic sculptural black creation which she had hired for the occasion and was delighted to bump into the Guardian, having been featured 13 years ago in a similarly impressive brightly coloured fascinator.
It was an event she would not miss, she said, even though the cost of living crisis was making attending more prohibitive and many people were thinking twice about the tickets.
“I’m a single mum. Everything we’ve got I’ve worked for,” Green said. “You save up for this. You want to look good – it’s everything about the day, the getting ready, that makes it.
“You make pinches and squeezes. But I don’t do anything else the rest of the year – this is my best event.”
While the venue is home to one of the racing calendar’s biggest meetings, for many attenders it is as much a celebration of the enjoyment of dressing up, of taking pride in looking stylish and the power of a Liverpool institution that goes back nearly two centuries.
“It was all very last minute,” said Mary-Ann Smith from Warrington, of her striking blue and orange ensemble.
“This,” she said, gesturing to her bold blue suit, “was €7 from Zara. And the hat was in the TK Maxx sale.”
Smith is another Aintree regular, having come to the Grand National for the last 17 years with a big group of family and friends. “It is expensive,” she said. “But you make sacrifices. It will be beans on toast for a couple of months!”
Prices for the three-day event started at £31.50 a day to enter the festival zone and went into the hundreds of pounds for hospitality tickets. Meanwhile, a pint of Guinness set revellers back £7.80.
Charlie Stenson, a finance executive from Liverpool who came with her two friends, had just paid £47 for three drinks. “I’m scared for the rest of the day!” she joked. “It’s an expensive day. A lot of people can’t afford it.”
It was a first time Grand National visit for Raymond and Gillian Gilbourne, dressed in matching mint green outfits, and enjoying the friendly atmosphere and ease of travel from County Cork, in Ireland. Normally Cheltenham-goers, they were put off this year by a 300% increase in the cost of hotels.
Cheltenham attendance has been down for the last three years by a fifth overall and as much as a quarter on the first couple of days of the festival, with punters saying they found it hard to justify the cost. What was Cheltenham’s loss seemed to be Aintree’s gain.
“The ticket prices [for Cheltenham] have gotten a bit expensive,” said Raymond. “But the hotels in Liverpool are more reasonable and the journey was much easier.”
Gillian added: “We’ve always wanted to come to Aintree and we will definitely be back.”
