Punchestown Racecourse expects to host almost 17,000 corporate guests at its national hunt festival later this month after selling out all hospitality spaces at the event.

A total of 812 national and multinational companies will be involved as sponors or guests at the festival, which begins on April 28th and ends the following Saturday.

The racecourse is hoping to beat last year’s record attendance of 106,689 as ticket sales are already 17 per cent ahead of where they were at this time in 2014.

On that basis, it is predicting that the figure will hit 110,000 for the 2015 festival.

Punchestown general manager, Dick O’Sullivan said on Thursday that for the first time since 2008, racecourse has built additional venues to cater for the extra demand.

“As far as economic indicators go this year’s Punchestown festival would give much encouragement,” Mr O’Sullivan added.