Let it Shine

We’re getting into the spirit of summer with a new venue guide that highlights the very best of this sweetest, steamiest season. Prestige Venues & Events present summer packages and events for business and leisure alike; from family fun days and team building activities, to outdoor dining and English garden parties. Our Let It Shine guide focuses on offers from May to September at outstanding venues, such as The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and Brighton’s state-of-the-art Amex Stadium, and includes hospitality packages for iconic British events, like Royal Ascot, Jardin Blanc at The RHS Chelsea Flower Show and The Open Championship. Our chefs have created menus that embrace the summer and use colourful, seasonal produce. With barbecues and hog roasts available to private hire guests at Knebworth House, as well as the venue opening up its grounds for  “It’s A Knockout” and sports day-style team building activities (because all work and no play…). Barbecues are also on the agenda at Edinburgh Corn Exchange and The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.  Perth Racecourse is teaming finger-licking BBQ food with a vintage-style funfair, whereas Aberdeen Football Club will be taking ‘pride’ in special screenings of the Lion King at their drive-in cinema. Cinema-inspired treats also feature in the summer offer at Leeds’ Headingley Carnegie Stadium, which is sweetening corporate events with popcorn and pick and mix, mini ice creams and chocolate bars or – for a healthier option – fruit kebabs, mixed nuts and seeds. In the capital the Thames takes centre stage, with restaurant cruise Bateaux London hosting rooftop parties aboard their Scandinavian-designed vessel, The Harmony. Guests can enjoy an off-the-grill menu in a setting of flowers, fruit trees and the backdrop of London’s most famous sights. Further up river, the recently launched Bateaux Windsor is offering a prosecco reception for guests, followed by a formal dinner, as the boat glides through one of England’s most historic, picturesque towns. From a quintessentially English town, to a traditionally English pastime: The Apex and The Athenaeum – both in Bury St Edmunds – are swapping lunch for afternoon tea this summer, with a free bottle of fizz to enjoy in the sunshine. Event organisers who feel summer just wouldn’t be complete without a glass of Pimms (correct!) should head to Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms, where it will feature in post-conference drinks receptions, alongside mini strawberry tarts. Event guests at three of Tyneside’s top museums – Discovery, the Laing Art Gallery and The Great North Museum: Hancock – will also be offered seasonal drinks in the form of fruit punch at lunchtime. While IWM London, one of the capital’s leading visitor attractions, is serving post-conference classic cocktails. Also in London, thrill seekers can mix business with pleasure at Emirates Aviation Experience , where they can take the controls of a flight simulator before relaxing on a terrace that overlooks the Thames – a great team building day out. Other team building activity days can be found at Glasgow’s Hampden Park Stadium – where clients can follow in the ‘bootsteps’ of their heroes and become footballers for a day – and the city’s Hamilton Park Racecourse, which runs a variety of group activities too. The word famous Ascot Racecourse is available for team building activities this summer in its gorgeous grounds. Plus, those who book before 31 October 2...