Isle of Man to keep TT public holiday despite schedule switch

Senior Race Day is "a chance to celebrate" the island's famous race festival, a minister has said

A key Manx public holiday will remain unchanged during 2023's TT festival despite proposed changes to the racing schedule.

Senior Race Day is traditionally a Friday holiday on the island, to coincide with the blue riband event of the fortnight.

However, in 2023 the race is due to move to a Saturday instead.

Treasury minister Alex Allinson confirmed the intention was keep Friday as a public holiday.

Changes to the schedule could see the races increased from eight to 10, running in blocks of two days back-to-back from 3-10 June.

A consultation on the changes is due to be launched in July.

'Very important'

Dr Allinson told Tynwald businesses had "got quite used to having a bank holiday on the Friday".

"There will be racing taking place on that day, and I think having a bank holiday on Friday is absolutely the right time to allow residents to join with our visitors in celebrating the greatest motorsport event in the world," he said.

"Whether we continue to call that senior race, whether we call that TT bank holiday, I think is certainly up for discussion.

"But I think it's very important that the Isle of Man is different from the United Kingdom, that we have extra bank holidays to celebrate things like Tynwald Day and the TT races."