Proms on the Hill

This September, we once again attended Proms on the Hill.

Proms is an annual event at the base where Ethan works and has been a British tradition for many years. Here's a little history about Proms from Wikipedia:

Although earlier promenade concert series had existed, the first Proms concert was held on 10 August 1895 in the Queen's Hall in Langham Place, under the auspices of impresario Robert Newman. Newman's idea was to encourage an audience for concert hall music who, though not normally attending classical concerts, would be attracted by the low ticket prices and more informal atmosphere. In addition to promenading, eating, drinking and smoking were all allowed. He stated his goal as follows:

"I am going to run nightly concerts and train the public by easy stages. Popular at first, gradually raising the standard until I have created a public for classical and modern music."^[2]

So basically, Proms is an less-formal orchestral concert for the layman. For our Proms, the orchestra is seated on an outdoor amphitheater. The Americans are encouraged to invite our UK friends for the evening, and we all gather and bring along food, chairs, etc.

This year, we invited some of our closest British friends, who all happen to be families from Tim and Maddie's school. We all brought along food and drinks, and had a wonderful evening. I should note that a big part of our enjoyment was the perfect weather. Last year, I remember I sat there shivering in the Yorkshire wind, and the concert seemed to last f-o-r-e-v-e-r. But this year, there was no wind and no rain (yes, this is noteworthy for this region).

This year also happened to be the 50th Anniversary for the base, so there were a few added surprises to the event. They had a stunt plane flying over us at the beginning of the concert. (As you can see, Collin was entranced.) They also had some extra fun fireworks in the middle and end of the concert.

It really was a wonderful evening. I love community events like this where people all gather just to be together. We brought along glow-bracelets for the kids, and let them run around the nearby field (always being able to see where there were even when it got dark!). It was a fun night for all.

As we were leaving, our friends asked if they could come again next year. They are of course welcome to, but I can pretty much guarantee that the weather won't be quite as nice as it was this time. (But then again, they're the ones who are British, so they're used to it!)