First Night of the Proms
Royal Albert Hall

As first nights of the Proms go, this was a humdinger. Optimism oozed out of the happy Prom-goers as they embarked from train after train at South Kensington tube, and wound their way towards the Royal Albert Hall. It felt like the moment we’d dreaded would never actually come, a true “back to normal” – so expectations for a stellar evening were high. And, as it turned out, deservedly.

Poured into their seats at the nation’s best-known amphitheatre, the audience’s crescendo of excitement knew no bounds; and when the Prommers took their standing places in the centre of the hall, the sight of so many people was breathtaking. Launched in 1895 by impresario Robert Newman, with a young Henry Wood as conductor, the original ambition of the Proms was to unite us into a nation of believers in classical music. Here, it seemed to have a new ambition, which was to unite us again into a nation of believers in the joys of a shared experience; and as with the first goal, it succeeded with trumpet blasts.