Proms to welcome back audiences and Rule, Britannia! to the Royal Albert Hall

The Proms will be a “curtain-raiser” for normality when the concert series returns to the Royal Albert Hall with a programme celebrating British musicians, its director has said.

The festival will open on 30 July with Vaughan Williams' Serenade To Music, described as "a love song to music and musicians" after a year of lockdown.

The Last Night will also see Rule, Britannia sung in full, after a row over plans to omit the lyrics in 2020.

‘Going to be a curtain-raiser’ for normality

The 2020 edition featured a reduced orchestra playing to an empty auditorium due to coronavirus restrictions – with the singers placed in the stalls to ensure social distancing.

This year’s event, however, will feature an audience and mark the 150th anniversary of the Royal Albert Hall and 80 years since the famous venue became home to the Proms.

Director of the Proms David Pickard told the PA news agency it would be a “very moving moment” when the “first notes sound” at the start of the season.

He added: “It’s partly been the circumstances which made us go in this direction but it feels absolutely right for where we are at the moment.