The Big Ascot Food and Wine Festival

A royal ride through Windsor's heathland in 1711 and a purse of 100 guineas; that is all it took to start a legend.

While out riding near Windsor Castle, Queen Anne identified an open stretch of heathland at East Cote, near the village of Ascot, as ideal ground for horses to gallop at full stretch. The first race meeting took place on 11 August 1711, with Her Majesty's Plate offering a purse of 100 guineas. It was the beginning of one of the most storied venues in world sport.

Royal Ascot's carriage procession, its famous Enclosure, its entire social season; all of it traces back to the Duke of Cumberland's royal stewardship.

The Duke of Cumberland, uncle to King George III, took charge of Ascot's development and introduced a more structured programme of racing. His influence cemented the racecourse's connection to the Crown, a relationship that endures to this day. The Royal Enclosure, the famous carriage procession, and the social calendar that surrounds the racing all trace their roots to this era of royal stewardship.

A single Act of Parliament turned open heathland into the blueprint for a world-class venue.

The Enclosure Act of 1813 formally set aside the land at Ascot Heath for racing, protecting it from development. This legislative safeguard ensured the racecourse would remain a permanent fixture of British sporting life. The Act also paved the way for significant investment in facilities, grandstands, and the surrounding infrastructure that would transform Ascot from open heathland into a world-class venue.

Eighty thousand racegoers, a curved roof, and the foundations for a very good food festival.

Ascot closed its gates in 2004 for a comprehensive rebuild. The old grandstands were demolished and replaced with a striking contemporary structure designed by HOK Sport (now Populous), featuring a sweeping curved roof and vastly expanded hospitality facilities. The racecourse reopened in June 2006, with capacity for 80,000 racegoers. Crucially, the new design also created flexible occasion spaces that would later host concerts, exhibitions, and food festivals.

Ascot's grounds proved as natural a home for fine food and fizz as for the favourite in the Gold Cup.

With its new facilities in place, Ascot Racecourse began hosting a broader calendar of non-racing occasions. Fireworks nights, Christmas markets, summer concerts, and food festivals joined the programme. The racecourse's expansive grounds and modern infrastructure made it a natural fit for large-scale outdoor showcases, and the Ascot brand lent an air of quality that attracted premium food and drink producers.

Artisan producers, celebrity chefs, and English fizz; Ascot proved there was life beyond the racing calendar.

The Big Ascot Food and Wine Festival emerged as part of the racecourse's growing non-racing calendar. The festival brought together artisan food producers, wine merchants, celebrity chefs, and live entertainment across the Ascot grounds. Visitors could sample everything from English sparkling wine to street food, all set against the backdrop of one of Britain's most recognisable sporting venues.

Relaxed in spirit, rigorous in quality; Ascot's food festival borrows the racecourse's standards without the dress code.

The Big Ascot Food and Wine Festival has established itself as a fixture on the south-east's festival calendar. The format typically features live cooking demonstrations, wine and spirits masterclasses, artisan market stalls, and live music. It draws a crowd that appreciates quality produce and a relaxed atmosphere, quite different from the formality of Royal Ascot but sharing the same commitment to doing things properly.

Three centuries of hosting practice make Ascot's food and wine festival the most effortless place in England to impress a client.

The Big Ascot Food and Wine Festival sits comfortably within a venue that has spent over 300 years perfecting the art of hosting. Ascot's non-racing occasions now attract tens of thousands of visitors annually, and the food and wine festival remains one of the most popular. Corporate hospitality packages offer a refined way to entertain clients and colleagues in a setting that carries genuine prestige, without the dress code demands of a race day.