Byrne reflects on stellar Tramore August festival Reflecting on the four-day Tramore August festival which concluded on Sunday, general manager Owen Byrne said he 'couldn't be happier' with the way things went. Perfect weather conditions no doubt contributed to the large crowds in attendance, with figures well up on previous years. "We were very, very pleased with the gate receipts and overall we were up around 35 percent on last year which was noticeable," Byrne, who has been in charge at the Graun Hill venue since 2018, enthused. "Our pre-sale tickets and the tiered structure we had for pricing worked extremely well this year. People had bought their tickets much earlier for a discounted price. They were able to buy those tickets up to the middle of July for E15 for an adult and E10 for an OAP. "We put those tickets on sale from March until July and from July we went E15 for an OAP and E20 for an adult and then only in the last week we went to the gate price (E20 OAP, E25 Adult). "It worked extremely well and while we used to do it, we promoted it a lot more. "The weather really transformed our numbers and we had extremely strong walk-ups. Everyone seemed very happy and bookmakers were well up. "I've been racing in Tramore for 25 years and I don't remember crowds that big consistently over the four days. "I'm really pleased with how it went and really pleased from a marketing point of view. We had a really good consistent run at that and we couldn't be happier really. "I'm delighted for the team and we had lots of calls yesterday from trainers that were hugely complimentary on the delivery of safe summer jumping ground, that wasn't over watered. "Saturday was our busiest day and we had in excess of 8,500. We had 26,000 over the four days and that's up because usually we are around 22,000 to 23,000. "That's a massive rise for a track like us because small tracks need to be supported and we are very lucky because we do get the support."
