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Queues, rituals and the Prommers' Stamp: a beginners guide to the Proms
By Hannah Nepil

Posted: Mon Jul 6 2009
The BBC Proms have their own unique atmosphere and culture, honed over 115 years of Promming. Here's how to fit in like a seasoned pro and enjoy your first time

© BBC/Mark Allan
Tickets
As soon as the programme comes out, go through it carefully – not in a nerdy way; just so you can choose your concerts and plan your ticketing strategy. If you’re going as a one-off, then it’s worth buying a seat. If you want to go on a more regular basis then it’s more cost-effective to Prom, which means buying a standing ticket in the gallery or the arena. The gallery has the advantage that you can spread yourself out but the arena is much closer to the action. If you plan to go very often, you can get a season ticket in advance, guaranteeing entry to any Prom up to ten minutes before the start of the concert and potentially working out at less than £2.25 per concert. Otherwise, just turn up on the day, queue, and pay £5 for one of the 1,400 standing tickets.

Queueing
This can be part of the fun or a necessary evil. The latest you can join the queue is 45 minutes before the start of the concert, when Prommers are admitted into the hall. The most sensible time to arrive, however, depends on who’s playing. It’s infuriating to wait in the queue, only to have the door shut in your face at the last minute due to high numbers. If it’s likely to be a popular performance, like Sir Simon Rattle with the Berlin Philharmonic, get there early, particularly if you want a good position in the hall. Stewards hand out raffle tickets, allowing people to leave the queue for up to half an hour and then reclaim their place. (There used to be a website where enterprising individuals offered to queue on the behalf of prommers who couldn’t get there on time – in return for a small fee. However, the site has now been banned for legal reasons.) Feature continues

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Etiquette and ritual
Prommers have an eleventh commandment, ‘Thou shalt not barge in at the front if you’ve only just arrived’. In the past, this unwritten rule tended to be left to the prommers to enforce, resulting in some frayed tempers and righteous bristling during the concert. Once the music has started, the only real etiquette is to listen quietly, however there are a couple of traditions unique to the Proms:

Calls
These range from welcoming the orchestra in the language of the players, to a vocal tennis match on the Last Night. Somebody will shout out ‘Anyone for tennis?’ at which point the audience in the arena call out ‘ping’, and are answered by a ‘pong’ from the people in the gallery.

Prommers’ Applause
Similar in technique to normal applause but in the arena, you get a unique strain – the Prommers’ Stamp – the mark of an exceptional performance. Someone will begin to stamp their foot slowly, and is joined in unison by other Prommers. The speed will pick up until it gets too fast to maintain and dissolves into general applause.

Survival
Those prone to queue-rage should bring provisions: chocolate and an entertaining companion for ordinary Proms; sleeping bag and thermos flask for the Last Night. It’s also worth taking some packed dinner and a drink in with you: the Royal Albert Hall charges high prices for drinks and it can get hot in the hall, particularly if you’re packed into the arena with all the heaving bodies. Once or twice during the season you’ll hear a dull thud from behind you, like a tree falling over. Then you turn round and realise that somebody has fainted. This isn’t part of Promming protocol, so feel free to sit down if you feel tired. You’ll still get the benefit of the music and it’s quite cosy being engulfed by a forest of legs.
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