I row and have just spent the full week at Henley as my club qualified for one of the events. Outside of the Olympics and World/Euro champs it is the one of the biggest regattas in the rowing calendar with top crews and athletes from around the world entering. If you participate in the sport it is a ‘must attend’ event as not only is it enormous fun you get to see some of the best athletes in the sport up close.
As for posh, it most certainly can be, I would say it is more middle class then out right ‘posh’. We did a survey down my club the other year and about 90% of members were uni educated and held down professional jobs. Most people’s exposure to the sport is from watching the Oxbridge boat race where they hear plummy voiced Archie Trixham-Windsor-Montague and his chums being interviewed and not unreasonably assume the sport is full of people like that. However if you go down your local rowing club it is a very different vibe with dare I say mostly normal people. The irony being that the most successful club in the country is the former poly Oxford Brookes who run one of the best rowing programmes in the world and would destroy either Oxford or Cambridge in a race.
Running a rowing programme is very expensive, those shiny yellow eights you see coming down the course cost upwards of £40k, well out of reach of you local comp which leaves independent and grammar schools as the main junior entry into the sport which is why you hear lots of ‘posh’ accents in the sport. After that lots of people take up rowing at uni which is where most of the non public school participants in the sport come from. If you join a club though it actually works out very reasonable compared to your typical chain gym. My club costs £50 a month, that gets me use of all the boats and equipment, coaching, use of the gym, insurance and full involvement on the social side of things (club bar, BBQs, parties etc). An 8 week learn to row course would probably cost £200-300 depending where you are.
You also have to remember that rowing is a very old sport and many clubs have been around since the 1860s/70s and they love their traditions like the loud blazers. Those blazers cost about £250 but they are a one off life time purchase. A big no no and faux pas is wearing a club blazer if you are not a member of said club. Both women and men wear blazers, women wear them over summer dresses and men wear them with chinos, shirt and tie.
As for Henley Regatta itself I would estimate that about 40% of the people there know nothing about the sport and are there for the prestige, pomp and ceremony. The riverbank viewing can be divided into several areas:
Leander rowing club by the bridge – members only plus guests – very nice, full of Olympians but you can’t actually see any racing as it is past the finish line.
Stewards Enclosure – occupies the last 500m or so of the course, grandstands, bars and restaurants, very twee, old school – members only plus guests
Remenham club – halfway down the course – this is the ‘rowers’ club, to be a member you have to be a member of one of seven London based rowing clubs and have raced at Henley or to a decent standard– is run by rowers for rowers and is a bit like a student union in terms of cheap booze, partying and lots of tall ripped men and women.
Corporate enclosures – open to anyone with deep pockets who don’t mind paying over the odds for Pimms and a sausage roll.
Pop up bars and clubs – mixed bag of on the day entry fee but otherwise open to anyone.
The river bank – free – there is nothing stopping you laying down a blanket by the river with you own booze and food.