BBC Proms upgrades to full audiences

The BBC Proms will welcome full-capacity audiences this summer, after initially making just 1,000 tickets available for every performance.

The change comes after the government removed limits on people attending concerts, theatres and sports events on 19 July.

Additional tickets will be made available from Friday, just six days before the season's First Night.

Conducted by Dalia Stasevska, the concert will open with Vaughan Williams' Serenade To Music, described as "a love song to music and musicians" after a year of lockdown.

“We all feel like it’s a new beginning," Stasevska told the Radio Times earlier this week.

"There’s so much hope. I really can’t wait. The whole programme is a celebration of music and our love for it."

The season will continue with 51 concerts throughout the summer, including four "Mystery Proms" where the music and performers have yet to be announced.

Highlights include family concert by the Kanneh-Mason siblings; a night celebrating the Golden Age of Broadway; and the Aurora Orchestra performing Stravinsky’s The Firebird from memory.

Grammy-nominated tenor Stuart Skelton will be the soloist for the Last Night, accompanied by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Singers and classical accordionist Ksenija Sidorova.

The concert's programme will also feature Rule, Britannia! and Land of Hope and Glory sung in full, after a row over plans to play instrumental versions of the songs during the 2020 Last Night celebrations.

Dalia Stasevska, who conducted 2020's Last Night will oversee 2021's opening night

Tickets for the first half of the season will go on sale on Friday, 23 July; and tickets for the second half will be available from Saturday.

A certain number of Promming tickets will also be available on the day of each concert, giving audiences standing and seated access to the recitals for just £6, plus booking fee.

Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, audiences will also be encouraged to wear masks for the duration of their visit and they will be asked to have proof of a negative Covid test or their vaccination status.

The 2021 programme is still a slimmed-down version of a normal Proms season, which features about 90 concerts over eight weeks.

But it is a significant upgrade on 2020, when just 14 shows were played to an empty Royal Albert Hall.