Cheltenham festival (on or off)

The behind closed doors festival would be a good idea as would other sporting fixtures.

 

I agree with everything you say but this thing seems to be escalating out of control. Probably just media hype but it seems to be catching governments on the hop.
I read somewhere the prime minister of Slovakia has it possibly caught at an eu summit.

 

I think it is just media hype, but the outbreak in Italy is fascinating. The fact that a doctor didn't self isolate when he got symptoms on his holiday in the Canaries is remarkable and it does suggest that countries haven't been as prepared as the general public might have wanted to expect.

I was fortunate to listen to the lovely Hannah Fry talk about pandemics at a conference and she showed some data they collected for her BBC4 program about how people pass diseases by contact.

Well worth a watch of - https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p059y0p1/contagion-the-bbc-four-pandemic

 

I would also agree with every word that Oddy has written and it is certainly the logical advice however the thing that you can guarantee will happen will be that plenty, and I do mean plenty, of illogical decisions will be made along the way. Largely I would suspect because of public panic, tabloid headlines, the incompetence of the Government and/or Civil servants and because the so called ‘experts’ will be making it up as they go along!

 

I can't see the festival being cancelled or affected due to flooding or coronavirus.

No contingency planning has been implemented at this time so obviously right now they consider the risk to be minimal. Guy was on the radio yesterday from the racecourse talking about it.

I was on the commute from Tewkesbury to Birmingham yesterday...train up and car drive back..no problems encountered.

Today in Bristol..no problems on the trains but will be driving to bristol and back on Friday. River levels set to peak in Tewkesbury tomorrow though but won't be as bad as it was the other week.

By the time the festival comes we would have forgotten about the flooding will be a distant memory and at worst I predict soft going. The coronavirus aspect might be more in to hysteria by then i suppose...maybe lots of hand wash dispensers distributed across the racecourse site for us all to use in between all the free water they 'll want to give away..

 

They'll be watering the course this time next week

 

Ian Renton - Regional Director of Cheltenham racecourse on BBC radio Gloucestershire this morning....confirming it's full steam ahead for the festival and no requirement to implement any contingency plans. The advice from the government is that these big events should go ahead as normal.

Also made the point that it's not like they have not had to consider problems before such as equine flu, beast from the east etc so really nothing to worry about..

 

What with the Coronavirus and this biblical rain you are kidding yourself if you think there is no chance of a cancellation. The rain isn’t stopping,it hasn’t stopped all winter. I was at Cheltenham in October and they were within 20 minutes of cancelling the meeting. Think about it, I’m not just talking about the town I’m talking about the surrounding areas all the little b&bs small hotels transport in and out of the area. I wouldn’t be surprised if people weren’t cancelling plans already. I have friends and family who work in the city and traditionally the festival is a jolly to do business. In the current climate they will not be at Cheltenham they’ll be at their desks keeping their heads down hoping they don’t get the tap on the shoulder. Hospitality being cancelled. Personally I’ve been inundated by Cheltenham to buy tickets as I’m the one that normally buys them
Everyone laughed when I brought this up earlier in the week. Now it’s trending all over the internet.

 

It’s snowing in North London.

Won’t affect Cheltenham in any way. Pretty though, so I thought I’d mention it.

 

I don't see any chance of the festival being cancelled Florida. This week have travelled to Bristol and Birmingham both by car and train this week and no problem.

Driven through Tewkesbury earlier and there is more water about. Roads were shut over a week ago and I think we will probably see same levels again. Most of the water is confined to the fields and most people don't go through fields to reach their destination.

It is still 10 days before the festival starts even from this weekend and plenty of time for it all to drain away. It would have to rain nearly every day for Cheltenham to be cancelled and no chance thst will happen. Cheltenham won't be flooded. Outside chance if you are staying in some remote village near the River Severn you might have difficulty getting out and to the course.

 

The river Severn is a couple of miles down the road and floods regularly Gloucester is currently flooded, the rain is not stopping any time soon. Nass can give us more up to date info.
As far as Coronavirus is concern. My wife works in the city and yesterday her bank were making plans for a disaster recovery. The city is taking this seriously.

 

I do live in the area Florida and live pretty close to the racecourse.

The River Severn and Avon run through Tewkesbury and currently it is one big river. This is not unusual. I know exactly what is happening in Tewkesbury and drove through it this morning.

We had a discussion at our place of work yesterday about coronavirus and best practice would lead firms to carrying out a risk assessment and consider their approach 're a business resilience approach.

In my opinion the festival won't be impacted by the floods or coronavirus but if you live in a remote village you might have some difficulty going to the festival.

Just my opinion based on where I live and local knowledge.

 

As Odddog has said it doesn't really make sense to cancel the festival.
However I also don't really understand why they have cancelled the Ireland v Italy rugby. Has Ireland even got any cases yet ?
Far enough they don't want Italian fans to travel but as far as I am aware there are flights cancelled between the UK and Italy so presumably there are thousands of Italians coming here every day anyway ? Anyway if they can cancel the rugby then you have to think the festival remains at some risk as well.

the flooding is a non issue - it might be run on soft ground but it certainly won't cancel the meeting.

 

Just reading on the internet. Bookies saying the market for the festival going ahead could be the biggest punt of The year.

 

Some leading health experts believe Ireland's move to cancel the rugby is unnecessary and contradictory to current advice..just saying!

I think it is ridiculous with no reported cases in Ireland currently...I m sure Italians are still able to fly to Ireland and go by ferry if they wanted to whether they are going to the rugby or just on a holiday...

I

 

Read this on another forum
Interesting reading to br fair might even watch it.


In 1918, as one global devastation in the shape of World War I came to an end, people around the world found themselves facing another deadly enemy, pandemic flu. The virus killed more than 50 million people, three times the number that fell in the Great War, and did this so much faster than any other illness in recorded history.

One of the questions that has been particularly vexing is why the 1918 pandemic human influenza A virus killed so many young adults in the prime of life.Usually, the human influenza A virus is deadlier to infants and the elderly. But the 1918 strain killed many people in their 20s and 30s, who mainly died from secondary bacterial infections, especially pneumonia.

Genetic material from bird flu virus picked up just before 1918

They found that a human H1 virus that had been circulating among humans since around 1900 picked up genetic material from a bird flu virus just before 1918 and this became the deadly pandemic strain.

Anyone with Netflix should watch a series from last year called Pandemic. It predicted the current situation and that it would start in a meat market in China.

 

And then an Italian traveller enters Dublin with the virus