Party marquee new option at Echuca for cup

“It won’t be expensive, but will still include drink and lunch vouchers, along with some form of entertainment — probably a DJ,” Echuca Racing Club general manager Garry Armstrong said.

The March long weekend cup day meeting is the biggest on the club’s calendar, with interest already high in regard to marquees, umbrella packages and general attendance.

Mr Armstrong said the new cup party marquee offer would cost somewhere in the range of $100.

“It won’t be the high end, people will get some lunch, entry and a couple of drink vouchers. And they will still have their own area,” he said.

The cup party marquee will complement the regular all-inclusive area, which generally costs $170 a person.

Those two separate areas will be complemented by the extremely popular umbrella packages, which cost $150 and can comfortably accommodate up to 10 people.

“We normally have a president’s marquee, but we will be concentrating more on people enjoying themselves on the lawn.

“We will be operating on the one-person-per-two-square-metres for all our events that are inside,” Mr Armstrong said.

He said the club’s biggest race day of the year was expected to attract 2500 to 3000 people.

“The quality of the racing is also a big drawcard, with our two $100,000 races.

“We have the Moama Bowling Club Echuca Cup and the VOBIS Gold Eldorado ,” he said.

In keeping with the theme of “making it easier for racegoers” Mr Armstrong said the club was expanding its bus services to and from the course.

“We want to make it easy for people to get here and get home.

“We will be able to get people to and from the course with the four buses we have scheduled.

“They pick up from half a dozen points and if we have a large group, 15 or more people, we will go and pick them up and get them to the course.

“We will take them home as well,” he said.

“People will not have to worry about driving,” he said.