The Easter Festival, London: 19th - 22nd April 2019
A new venue, a new Championship Pairs schedule, and a price freeze!
Our usual venue for the Easter Festival - the Royal National at Russell Square - has been double booked for one day of the 2019 Easter weekend, so we have taken the opportunity to look for a new venue. We have found one which we think will be great so we will be moving the congress there in 2019.
We apologise for any inconvenience this change of venue may cause any of you who have already made bookings closer to Russell Squar, but we hope you can appreciate that is a good opportunity to move to a venue which appears to have many advantages.
ILEC Conference Centre
The congress in 2019 will be at the ILEC Conference Centre near Earls Court. It is just a short stroll from West Brompton station, which has both underground and national rail services.
It has an excellent playing room, and better 'break-out' areas for between sessions.
There is onsite accommodation (the Ibis London Earls Court), and unlike at the Royal National (or more specifically the nearby Imperial) the negotiated rates for bridge players include double and twin rooms as well as singles - giving couples, and those willing to share, a much cheaper option. The rates, per room, per night, are:
- £89.00 Bed and Breakfast for single occupancy
- £99.00 Bed and Breakfast for double occupancy (double and twin rooms available)
Please book directly with the hotel using this online booking page. Prices, dates, etc are shown once you have created an account and/or signed-in.
Early bookers pay 2018's lower entry fees!
As ILEC is a bit cheaper to hire than the Royal National we can make it a bit cheaper for you to play. As we are always very keen for you to book well in advance, so we can plan accordingly, we will charge the 2018 entry fees to those booking before the end of February. See the website for the updated price list.
New Championship Pairs format
In order to better accommodate the different start times which we offer on Good Friday, and to give you more bridge in the Championship Pairs, there has been a change to the format. Rather than playing longer sessions, you will now play five 18-board sessions across the two days - so you play 90 boards rather than 82 (in 2018) or 78 (in previous years) so get more for your entry fee. You can still choose whether to start early-afternoon (if you want the evening free), or mid-afternoon (if you have lunchtime commitments) and there will be no overlap between the different groups, thus improving 'security'.
|
|
Early start |
Late start |
Friday |
13:00 - 15:15 |
✓ |
|
|
15:30 - 17:45 |
✓ |
✓ |
|
18:00 - 20:15 |
|
✓ |
Saturday |
11:30 - 13:45 |
✓ |
✓ |
|
15:00 - 17:15 |
✓ |
✓ |
|
17:30 - 19:45 |
✓ |
✓ |
|