Arrive early to avoid Greenwich Park queues this summer
Queuing times to get in are expected to be as short as 20min for this summer’s Olympic competitions in Greenwich Park.
But spectators are advised to arrive as early as they can, organiser LOCOG has said.
Jennifer Impett, LOCOG’s city operations manager, has told H&H that the park will open from 8am, 2hr before the start of competitions, on dressage and showjumping days (28, 29 and 31 July and 2-9 August) and 8.30am, 4hr before the first rider, on cross-country day (30 July).
“We estimate it will take 20 minutes to walk to the park from Greenwich station and will take another 20 minutes to queue up at the security gates,” said Miss Impett.
LOCOG will close roads and impose a one-way traffic system in Greenwich during the Games to allow for the influx of visitors on foot that the competition will bring.
Equestrian competition manager Tim Hadaway told H&H: “Ticket holders should arrive as early as they can.
“We shall have four big screens around the park so they can sit down and watch footage of the day before’s competition and possibly a recorded course-walk.”
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Rules as to what spectators can bring into the park will be released soon, said LOCOG spokesman Fran Edwards, but she added that the rule of thumb was “the smaller the better”.
“For example, we will allow a packet of sandwiches, but not a picnic basket,” she added.
This news story was first published in the current issue of H&H (29 March 2012)
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A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.