Great, well run event. Programs only available at Victoria Park so if you don't intend to head over to that area, don't purchase in advance.
Bad place to volunteer!
One of the best, love how it is through the city parklands. Very well run. On final day show jumping, previous year commentator mentioned how many rails the competitor could get down and did I miss it as I couldn't hear it and felt that is really good. Love it though and Adelaide always puts on a great Event
The grand stand tickets are a joke given the capacity, no where to sit! the audience are disgustingly rude and self entitled leaving their bags so no one else can sit
I would never to return again. Waste of money
Was a really good event. Pity that entry numbers and spectators seemed a but low. Parking on grounds would have been beneficial.
Don’t bother with the grandstand tickets unless you get there very early. Everyone claims their spot and then leaves their jackets so no one else can sit there and goes off and does their own thing. Left my elderly mother very upset and uncomfortable
Unfortunately our experience wasn’t great. We purchased Grandstand tickets but there wasn’t any seating available when we arrived so we went to get some food. When we came back most people had left to grab lunch as well. We saw some seating that had jackets across it but the end (enough for 2 people) was empty so we sat there. About 10 minutes later this extremely rude woman came up to us and accused us of moving her bag and that we had to move and that the whole bench was already taken. There were two ladies behind us who I’m sure would have seen that we didn’t but joined in with the rude lady shaking their heads at us. She could have spoken to us nicely but was so aggressive. We were told people weren’t allowed to leave their belongings to save seats but there no seats available as everyone had done this. What makes it worse is that woman only had 2 other people sitting there the whole time afterwards. The only nice part for the last hour was they offered us wrist bands for the giddy up area after we went to leave.
Wonderful event, worth the trip
Disappointed with the “vip peppermint grove” lounge this year, went to this event in 2019 & I thought was a lot better then. I bought a 3 day pass, so works out at $266 a day. In my opinion the food & viewing wasn’t worth it. There was a judges box for the dressage plonked on the vip side of the arena, so you couldn’t get a whole view of the dressage test, the heritage stand would have had a clear unblocked view. Outside of the undercover marquee they had iron chairs to sit on which were extremely uncomfortable & low chairs so you could barely see over the fence. Cross country day we went to the water jump area early to secure a nice viewing spot of the grass (within the pep grove site), in which we were not allowed in as they were still setting up bigger formal tables. According to the digital program (which was also disappointing we didn’t get a hard copy) cross country started at 9:30, however it had changed to 10am, this meant we stood outside in the sun from 8-10am waiting to get let in. I thought this was ridiculous, we just wanted to go to the grass section which we told security however it was a no go. The formal tables for lunch were so crammed in here our table was literally on a slope, it didn’t feel like vip, it looked like let’s just cram another table in for another sale. No room to walk around, let alone the prams that were also brought in. The buffet was a shambles, I don’t know why they call it a 3 course meal when it was just a buffet, then some small slices/sweets after. It took AGES to stand and line up for the buffet, this happened on the Sunday as well.
The 2019 event was by far better value, I believe there was also a World Cup show jumping qualifier running at the same time, so there was some night show jumping to watch & a lot more jumping on the Sunday. They also had a vip lounge members “walk the course” with Andrew Hoy, this was excellent, more personal. The Sunday time table really didn’t have that many combinations, just 11 riders in the 5 star & similar in the 4 star.
Positives out of this event was there was a big screen at the water jump to watch the rest of the course (didn’t need to be in the vip lounge to see this), handy to have toilets close by, the vendors were nice & helpful, & I met a few lovely people to enjoy the day with. However when you are flying down from Brisbane, paying $266 a day for the lounge (I’m also a non drinker, it’s a shame we can’t get a different coloured wrist band & not have to pay for the alcohol), then for the people drinking alcohol they put a “4 drinks only” sign up. The event was under done & definitely not the value for food/viewing.
Hoping that 2024 will have more to watch, I doubt any of this feedback will be taken on board, so I would definitely re consider the lounge for the 3 days, it’s not a vip experience.
Amazingly as always so grateful to everyone responsible for organising and completing in the event
Friendl Volunteers. Great be able to walk the courses.
All good except parking I paid for 3 days giddy up club that was ment to include parking .
But badly trained parking attendant's
Stuffed up this
An international quality event, where you can see some of the best riders and horses in the world compete in a world class setting in the Adelaide Parklands.