Donington Historic Festival pledges ‘family-friendly’ prices

The Donington Historic Festival – now confirmed as an action-packed two-day event, featuring more than 300 iconic historic racing cars – has pledged ticket prices that will be well below the usual cost of top-quality historic motorsport weekends.

“We know that the cost of taking the whole family to a historic motorsport festival can seem prohibitive,” says event organiser Duncan Wiltshire, “so we have decided to keep ticket prices affordable. The popularity of historic motorsport has rocketed in recent years, with huge numbers of spectators enjoying the sights and sounds of fabulous, famous machinery, flat-out on a race track; but it has also tended to become a very expensive day out. The Donington Historic Festival offers all the thrills of the top, established events, but at a family-friendly price – and at arguably the best spectator circuit in the country.”

Advance tickets will start at just £18 for adults, with free entry for accompanied under-16-year-olds. On-the-gate adult tickets will be priced at £22. So a full day of motorsport, plus plenty of off-track action, entertainment and demos, can cost as little as £36 for two adults and their children.

A very busy two days…

Originally conceived as a three-day festival, the Donington Historic now packs all the action into two – Saturday and Sunday, 30th April and 1st May. As Duncan Wiltshire explains, “Contrary to what many people have assumed, this is not because of a certain wedding that’s taking place on 29th April – but because we have been asked by North West Leicestershire District Council to amend the schedule of the 2011 event. The benefit for spectators, of course, is that there will be just as much action, but all within the two-day weekend.”

For the cost of an entry ticket, spectators will experience an enormous variety of racing action covering the 1930s to the 1980s. The Festival includes Group C Le Mans sportscars, Porsche 917s and Ferrari GTOs, pre-War Bentleys, Bugattis and Alfa Romeos and far more besides. There is free paddock access, allowing everyone to get up close to these outstanding racing machines, plus off-track displays and action, Group B rally cars, historic karts, autojumble and memorabilia stalls, cafés, bars and food outlets – and club displays of selected classic marques, right next to the race paddock and trade village.

From Feb 1st, tickets will be available online at doningtonhistoric.com.