The BBC Proms closed on Saturday with a star‑studded Last Night at the Royal Albert Hall, featuring Sir Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen, comedian‑musician Bill Bailey and trumpeter Alison Balsom.
Conductor Elim Chan led the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus and BBC Singers in a programme that mixed orchestral tradition with popular music. Soprano Louise Alder and rising West End vocalist Sam Oladeinde joined the ensemble for a rearranged, six‑minute performance of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody to mark the song’s 50th anniversary, while Balsom delivered a programme that she said would be her final Last Night appearance.
Thousands of spectators filled the hall waving Union flags and, according to event organisers and activists on site, around 10,000 European Union flags distributed by pro‑EU campaigners. The atmosphere reflected the Last Night’s long‑standing role as a civic and cultural ritual in Britain, combining classical repertoire, popular tunes and communal singing.
Bailey made his Proms debut on the Last Night, performing Leroy Anderson’s novelty piece The Typewriter and saying he felt moved by the occasion. "I'm very patriotic. I mean, I'm very proud to be British," he told reporters after the performance, describing the event as inclusive and celebratory. He also said he wished his late mother could have seen him on the bill and that his 93‑year‑old father was due to attend.
For Balsom, the evening carried a different resonance. The 46‑year‑old trumpeter, who has performed with many leading orchestras and is married to film director Sam Mendes, confirmed in a BBC Radio 4 interview that she would step back from the Last Night stage. "This chance to play the Hummel at the Last Night of the Proms... it feels very final for me," she said.
May and Taylor joined the orchestra for a reimagined arrangement of Bohemian Rhapsody, originally written and sung by Queen’s late frontman Freddie Mercury. West End singer Sam Oladeinde took the vocal lead on the piece, supported by the full BBC forces on stage.
The Last Night programme retained several traditional elements: rousing orchestral numbers, communal songs and light‑hearted features that distinguish the finale from earlier Proms concerts. Elim Chan’s programming and the inclusion of popular musicians underlined the event’s effort to bridge classical and popular audiences.
Meanwhile, media reports said a demonstration linked to supporters of activist Tommy Robinson took place a few miles from the Royal Albert Hall and that clashes between demonstrators and police were reported. Some accounts included allegations that demonstrators directed threats at political figures; those reports were carried by national outlets and local eyewitnesses.
The Proms season, which runs through the summer, is a fixture of the British cultural calendar and culminates in the Last Night, an event noted for its mix of pageantry, patriotism and musical variety. Saturday’s concert combined that tradition with tributes and farewells, closing the BBC‑led season with performances that organisers described as celebratory and, for some participants, personally significant.