Grand National Festival 2027 Hospitality

Grand National Day 2027 is Saturday 10 April at Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool, the closing day of the three-day Grand National Festival and the 179th running of the Grand National. Gates typically open at 10:00, while the National itself is traditionally not run until around 4pm (2027's exact time is still to be confirmed), so the day on course is a long one. What follows sets out the day itself and what a hospitality day at Aintree usually involves. Call Prestige Corporate Events on 0333 305 5377 and we will set out the hospitality at Aintree and book your group in for the day.

The three days sit inside the wider Grand National hospitality hub, and the festival is staged at Aintree Racecourse by The Jockey Club, with Randox as title sponsor through to 2029. ITV holds UK free-to-air rights to the Grand National through 2030, so the race carries a mass television audience alongside the crowd on course.

When is the Grand National Festival 2027?

The Grand National Festival 2027 is confirmed for Thursday 8 to Saturday 10 April, staged at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool. The three days follow the festival's usual shape: Opening Day, Ladies Day and Grand National Day. This page covers Grand National Day, Saturday 10 April 2027, when the National itself is run. Dates are set by The Jockey Club, the racecourse's operator, and have not changed since they were published.

The festival regularly draws more than 140,000 racegoers across the three days, with Ladies Day alone drawing its biggest crowds since 2012. Corporate hosts working to a fixed date in a client calendar tend to plan around the festival well ahead of the meeting itself, given how far in advance diaries fill for a fixture of this size.

The three days of the festival

Each day of the Randox Grand National Festival has its own character, and a corporate day out reads differently depending on which one a client-entertaining programme is built around.

Opening Day, Thursday 8 April 2027

Opening Day is the quieter start to the festival: a full card of racing at Aintree with more room to move around the course and a calmer pace than the two days that follow. It suits corporate groups who want a genuine day of racing and hosting without the scale of Ladies Day or National Day, and it is often the easiest day on which to hold a longer, more relaxed client conversation.

Ladies Day, Friday 9 April 2027

The Friday belongs to Ladies Day, the festival's biggest occasion outside the National itself, known for its fashion and its atmosphere as much as its racing. Recent renewals have drawn the biggest Ladies Day crowds since 2012, and for client entertaining the occasion often does as much work as the card. Expect the busiest concourses of the three days.

Grand National Day, Saturday 10 April 2027

Grand National Day is the festival's marquee day: a full card of racing that builds to the Randox Grand National itself, the 179th running of the race in 2027. The National is run over roughly four miles and two and a half furlongs, jumping 30 fences, with the field capped at 34 runners under the safety reforms introduced from 2024 onward. The race is broadcast free-to-air on ITV, so hosted guests are watching the same race the rest of the country is watching live.

The 2026 renewal was won by I Am Maximus, trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by Paul Townend, who regained the title he had first won in 2024. The same festival drew its biggest Ladies Day crowd since 2012, a reminder of how much demand this meeting carries even outside race day itself.

What time does Grand National Day run?

Gates at Aintree on Grand National Day typically open at 10:00, while the National itself is traditionally not run until around 4pm (the exact 2027 off time is still to be confirmed by The Jockey Club). That gap between gates opening and the race running is what makes Grand National Day a long day on course: a full card of racing, and hours to fill around it, before the race everyone has come to see.

That structure is also why the choice of day matters so much across the meeting. A comparison of the three festival days for corporate hospitality goes through the trade-offs in more depth.

What follows describes what hospitality at Aintree has usually involved in past years, so you know the shape of the day if and when anything opens. A hospitality day at the course has typically meant a private or semi-private space away from the general public areas, a seated dining experience rather than queuing at a kiosk, and a closer or more comfortable vantage point over the course than a standard entry ticket provides. Racecards and hosting have usually come with it, in a warmer and more sociable setting than a standalone ticket offers.

A standard ticket, by comparison, gets a guest onto the course and into the public enclosures, with catering and seating arranged independently once inside. The racing is the same for every guest; what changes is how the rest of the day around it is spent.

Where alcohol is served at Aintree, it is served responsibly and subject to Challenge 25: guests must be over 18 and may be asked for ID.

Getting to Aintree

Aintree Racecourse sits a short journey from Liverpool city centre, with rail, road and coach options all used on festival days given the size of the crowds involved. A full guide to getting to Aintree Racecourse covers the practical routes in and out across the three days, and there is a separate page on a dedicated race-day train from London, the Grand National Express, which pairs the journey itself with the day at the course.