Wychwood festival community consultation page
Wychwood Festival
Wychwood Festival is an annual music festival held at Cheltenham Racecourse that has been operating since 2005. As well as music, the family friendly three day camping festival includes workshops, comedy, the Children’s Literature Festival and a headphone disco creating a fun packed weekend for the entire family. Wychwood Festival will return to Cheltenham Racecourse over the 30th May - 1st June 2025.
The Event Space
Cheltenham Racecourse has been the home for Wychwood Festival for many years and over the years the festival has moved around different parts of the racecourse. In 2023, the festival made the move to the Helicopter Field in the North East of the site, which is where the event will continue to take place for 2025.
The field shall be separated into four distinct areas for the festival arena, the campsite, the live in vehicle area and the accessible campsite (with accessible parking). Customers arriving in cars will be able to park in one of the designated customer car parks within the racecourse and walk over the festival site which will be fenced off in heras fencing. Customers will access the festival site via the main entrance which will split into campsite entrance lanes and arena only lanes (for day ticket customers). It is expected the maximum attendance for Wychwood Festival 2025 will reach 8500 attendees on the Saturday which will be split between camping / live in vehicle customers and day ticket customers.
We will apply to Gloucestershire District Borough Council to temporarily close the public right of way paths through the festival field between the 30th May - 1st June. Non festival goers will be able to use the other fields around Cheltenham Racecourse that are not being used for Wychwood Festival and customers for the event will need a valid ticket to gain access to the festival site.
Licensing & Consents
Wychwood Festival holds a premises licence for the event with Gloucestershire District Borough Council which includes all regulated entertainment for the event including live and recorded music, sale of alcohol and more.
Dates
Wychwood Festival will take place over the 30th May - 1st June 2025. The event site will open to campers at 9:30am on Friday 30th May and close at midday on Monday 2nd June. The main arena will be operational at the below times each day.
Friday: 11:00 - 03:00
Saturday: 09:30 - 03:00
Sunday: 09:30 - 03:00
Monday: Closed
The installation of the event shall start on Friday 23rd May at 08:00 and the derig shall finish by 20:00 on Friday 6th June.
Park Use & Timings
Whilst Wychwood Festival is open to the public no change to opening times of the racecourse to local residents shall change however restrictions will be in place for local residents to gain access to the site where the festival is taking place.
Local residents will be able to access a Cheltenham Racecourse car park on the venue premises and visit the site and walk their dogs in other fields not being used by the festival during the 30th May - 2nd June 2025. Outside of these dates access to the Helicopter Field will be maintained for local residents however there will be restricted areas where entry will not be permitted.
Traffic, Transport & Parking
Customers will be separated into multiple entry points as they arrive at Wychwood festival.
Day ticket customers and camping car park customers will access the racecourse via the main entrance, off of Swindon Road, and drive down the left hand side of the site to access the customer car parks. Day ticket customers will be signposted and directed to the car park on the left and camping customers will be signposted and directed to the car park on the right before the main festival site. An overflow car park will be maintained within the Cheltenham Racecourse premises in the event that the two main car parks are full over the festival weekend.
Live in vehicle customers shall park within the fenced perimeter of the festival and shall use a different entry to Cheltenham Racecourse to reduce the number of vehicles through the main entrance. Live in vehicle customers shall access the racecourse from the North of the site off of Southam Lane and turn left into the field through a dedicated entrance which will be managed by our security and festival campsite teams.
For Wychwood Festival 2024 a new area called the ‘Live in Saver & Park and Pitch Area’ was created for customers attending the festival. In this location festival attendees were able to park near their pitch. The below location is likely to be used for this area again 2025, which shall be contained in a heras fence perimeter, and customers shall have a 5-10 minute walk to site each day.
It is expected, based on previous data, that the majority of customers attending Wychwood Festival will arrive by car. A small number of customers will however arrive via public transport and pick up and drop off to the site.
Pick up and drop off customers will be directed to a designated point within the venue premises to drop Wychwood Festival customers who can then walk over to the festival site. For those arriving via public transport Cheltenham Spa is the closest railway station to the event which is approximately a 10 minute drive from the site. There are also numerous bus routes that stop close to the racecourse.
Finally staff and contractors shall have their own dedicated campsite within the festival site which will be maintained within heras fencing. Staff and contractor vehicles will access the venue via the main entrance and be directed to the staff campsite via vehicle signage.
The Landscape
We take great care of every venue we operate in and Proud Events has operated in many sites of national and international significance.
We may put in additional temporary ground protection to minimise impact from any vehicle use during installation and removal.
Safety & Security
We will have a security team on site 24 hours a day from the start of installation through to the when all the festival is removed.
When Wychwood Festival is open to the public our security and stewarding teams’ primary responsibility is the safety and security of guests, some of who are families with young children. They are also responsible for looking after the infrastructure and the park within our licensed area. We will be liaising with the police as part of our planning and they will be provided with details of our security plans.
Sound Management
Wychwood Festival will work with an experienced and competent sound management consultant in the planning and onsite phases of the event who shall monitor sound levels for the festival. Within the premises licence for Wychwood Festival the Local Authority has set sound levels that are considered appropriate for properties close to the site and the sound management consultant shall monitor these points to ensure these stay within the set levels. An acoustic plan has been developed by the festival’s sound management consultant and will be agreed with the Local Authority’s environmental protection team.
When the production team is onsite a resident telephone number will be provided so that local residents will be able to get in touch directly with the production team. If a sound complaint is made this will be passed onto the sound management consultant immediately who shall investigate the sound levels and report back.
Waste & Litter
We operate a ‘leave no trace’ policy for Wychwood Festival. Our aim is to minimise the waste created by the event and to recycle at least 20% of all litter and waste that is generated.
Our waste management team will be on site throughout and will be providing lots of extra bins, continually picking litter and making sure we take proper care of the site.
Supporting the Local Economy & Community Benefits
We will look to work with the local economy and community in a number of ways. These will include;
Look to offer work experience opportunities to young people locally to work as part of our operations, site and promoter teams
Encourage our suppliers, such as security and stewarding, to undertake local recruitment
Work with local suppliers wherever possible
Local Resident Discount
Information on Local Resident Discount to be updated shortly.
Local Resident Contact Information
Our team will be onsite from Friday 23rd May through to Friday 6th June 2025.
During the build and break the team can be contacted on a direct phone number between the hours of 08:00 and 20:00. During the live event from Friday 30th May through to midday on Monday 2nd June the team can be contacted 24/7.
The Contact Phone number will be added to this webpage closer to the event.
The below email address will also be monitored by the team whilst onsite if email is your preferred method of communication.
Ongoing Engagement
We will be holding initial virtual drop-in sessions on Tuesday 4th February between the below times:
13:00 – 14:00
15:00 – 16:00
17:00 – 18:00
If you would like to virtually pop in and chat to us, please contact us on wychwood@proudevents.co.uk and let us know which session you’d like to attend. We can then share the zoom meeting details for that session with you.
We are committed to ongoing engagement and will be available to chat through any questions, feedback and provide updates upon request. Please email wychwood@proudevents.co.uk if you have any queries and we will get back to you as soon as possible. This page will also be regularly updated so please check back.