［CITY］
London … United Kingdom
［SCHEDULE］
2023：7.14 … 9.9
To the festival site ▷
The frenzy of “Last Night”, the last day of the music festival, is amazing. The excitement gradually builds as music such as ” Pomp and Circumstance,” “Rule Britannia,” and “God Save the Queen” are performed, and “Auld Lang Syne” appears to close out the evening. This is truly an evening to feel the “glory of the British Empire” through music.
This evening was not so much a concert as it was a festival, with the audience joining in. Union Jacks will be waved in the audience, crackers will ring, and balloons will fly in the air. The entire venue will be erupted in chorus. The Promenade Concert, nicknamed “The Proms,” ends on such a hot night.
The festival was founded in 1895. In the beginning, Queen’s Hall was the venue. After the Queen’s Hall was destroyed in an air raid on London in 1941, the festival was moved to the Royal Albert Hall in 1942.
After the war, the BBC returned to manage the event, and more than 100 concerts will be held during an eight-week period from July to September. It is literally the largest music festival in Europe.
The spirit of “a place to enjoy music in a casual atmosphere” that the festival was founded on is still alive and well today, and out of the huge 6,500-seat capacity, there are 1,500 standing seats in the arena section on the first floor and the gallery section on the top floor, and they are priced at only a few pounds. The arena section is literally a “free zone” where you can lie or sit on the ground.
Of course, there are many “regulars.” They are called “prommer.” They brag to each other about how many concerts they attend and bemoan the fact that they have become so. How very John Bull.
