The dark reality women face during Cheltenham

Catcalling and unwanted contact prompts council action

- ALEX ROSS

With images of jubilant jockeys and celebrity-speckled crowds of smiling punters, Cheltenham Festival, the pinnacle of the national hunt racing calendar, draws in more than 200,000 racegoers to the Regency town on the edge of the Cotswolds each year.

But away from the thrill of the racecourse atmosphere, a darker side to the four-day festival has emerged in recent years. More women have come forward to report feeling unsafe because of harassment, leading many to avoid the town centre altogether.

Increasing reports of catcalling, grabbing, and women being followed home have even prompted the borough council to open a safe space for students and young people aged under 18 to “escape” unwanted attention from groups of men.

“I don’t know a woman who lives in Cheltenham who has not been targeted in some way during race week,” Jo Surma told The Independent.

The 40-year-old, who has lived in the town for 13 years, joined a group of women at the theatre in the town on Tuesday, not realising it was the opening day of the festival when booking.

“We’d usually go out for a drink afterwards, but coming out we saw the groups of drunken men and thought it wasn’t worth it,” she said. “I know it sounds really low-key, but it is the volume of large groups of drunken men who pretty much see any female as fair game.

“You just become an object in their eyes. You get men shouting at you in the street, you leave a bar and you are followed by a group of men, and you get jostled and grabbed while waiting for a drink. Unless you are bolshy or with a large group of women, there feels like no safe place in Cheltenham in the evening during race week. It’s a no-go area.”