Battle Proms

Now that my arms have recovered from waving my flag of St George - and Mr C's saltire - and the voice has returned after blasting out all the prommy favourites I wanted to do a bit of a write up of the Highclere Battle Prom. It can probably be summed up with one sentence - I loved every little bit of it. The beautiful setting, red devils, the cavalry re-enactors, the WWI field gun that featured when they played the 1812 overture, the spitfire flying overhead, doing victory rolls while the orchestra played Elgar...I could go on for ages. Did I mention the fireworks, that were in time to the music? Or the best part of 200 guns?



But one of the best bits was simply the endearing British dottiness of the occasion. We set up tasteful little camps in the queue waiting for the gates to open, where we listened to the cricket via our phones and had pre-picnic snacks. People wore union flag clothing and light up hats. They brought elaborate picnics and, once in the spectator area, made bases that were surrounded by union flag bunting, with lights and tables and - in one memorable cases - a life size cardboard figure of the queen. If you think the Brits are restrained and boring, go to one of these events and have all your ideas changed.



PS Next year, I'm getting a Ginger Spice type dress to wear.