Final preparations are underway as the Bristol Beacon gets ready to host a whole bank holiday weekend of the world-renowned BBC Proms. These will be the South West’s first-ever full-scale orchestral Proms and, with six performances taking place across three days from Saturday, August 24 to Mon, August 26, it will be the largest Proms residency outside of London.
The Bristol Beacon said: “People are being urged to book their tickets in advance – unlike the traditional promming tickets in London, where people queue up on the day outside the venue, for practical reasons ticket buyers in Bristol will need to buy them beforehand.
“Seated tickets are nearly sold out, but there are a number of traditional standing promming tickets still available, for just £8.72 each (including booking fee).”
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Bristol-based Paraorchestra are amongst the highlights and will be performing The Virtuous Circle, a new commission that reinvents the way that orchestral music is performed with a new type of immersive show for audiences to enjoy.
Much of The Virtuous Circle will take place on the floor of the Beacon Hall, where Paraorchestra musicians will be constantly on the move, along with a company of dancers. As well as being able to sit, audience members will have the opportunity to go wherever their curiosity leads them, including amongst the musicians and dancers.
There will also be a “CBeebies Prom: Ocean Adventure” and “BBC Singers at 100”, among others. The CBeebies Prom will also see additional activity from the Beacon’s family friendly Hoo Ha festival, bringing a range of free musical activities and experiences for children and their families to enjoy.
Todd Wills, artistic director at Bristol Beacon, says: “Being able to play host to the iconic BBC Proms is an enormous honour for us. Our beautifully transformed auditorium now offers some of the best acoustics of any venue in the UK, so to be able to use it for the greatest classical music festival in the world is an absolute dream come true.
“Part of our mission in our building’s once-in-a-generation transformation was to be able to offer an expanded orchestral programme, which is something we know our audiences want – we’ve seen unprecedented demand with sold out performances for our last three orchestral concerts.
“The Bristol Proms offers four very different concerts that will appeal to broad and diverse audiences. We can’t wait to see our auditorium filled with world-leading musicians and rapturous audiences from all across the South West.
“If you’ve never experienced an orchestral concert before, now’s your opportunity. It’s something you will remember for a long time.”
Jonathan Harper, Chief Executive at Paraorchestra says: “We’re thrilled to be combining the world premiere of The Virtuous Circle with our debut at the BBC Proms. It is extra special that we have the opportunity to first showcase this concert in our home city and utilise the new technical flexibility available at our partner venue Bristol Beacon.
“We are grateful to the BBC Proms and to Bristol Beacon, and to funding partners including Arts Council England and Bristol City Council, all of whom are supporting ground-breaking orchestral music of the highest calibre.”
For more information or to book Proms Bristol tickets, visit here.