So here you are stuck in Edinburgh and you think you are missing out? Wrong. You only need to get along to the Big Screen in Festival Square and you will think you are actually in the Royal Albert Hall in London! And you can download the songsheet for the event from the BBC website.
After a packed two months, the 116th BBC Proms comes to a spectacular end on Saturday 11 September. The world-famous Last Night Of The Proms celebrations will extend far beyond London’s Royal Albert Hall, as people come together across the UK to be part of the magic of the Last Night.
Ambitious live events take place at Hyde Park in London, Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland, Singleton Park in Swansea, Buile Hill in Salford and Caird Hall in Dundee on Saturday 11 September as a potential audience of 70,000 people gather across the UK to celebrate the end of the world’s largest music festival (with millions more watching or listening to the Last Night Of The Proms on BBC TV and Radio).
The UK-wide event features artists including Renée Fleming and Maxim Rysanov (Royal Albert Hall); Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, José Carreras and Neil Sedaka (Hyde Park); Russell Watson (Hillsborough Castle); John Barrowman (Buile Hill Park); Nicola Benedetti (the Caird Hall); and Catrin Finch (Singleton Park). All six of the BBC Performing Groups will be in action, together with the Ulster Orchestra and BBC presenters to mark the conclusion of the annual BBC Proms season.
The evening culminates in a live big-screen link-up to the Royal Albert Hall for the traditional participatory festivities and flag-waving that round off the world-famous Last Night Of The Proms.
Audiences can also join in at more BBC Big Screen events than ever before across the UK and in Edinburgh that means getting along to Festival Square on Lothian Road.
The Big Screen is a unique collaboration between the BBC, LOCOG and UK local authorities. The London 2012 Organising Committee is a partner of the Big Screens. During 2012 the screens and the areas around them will become “Live Sites”. They will be the destination for live coverage, local content, news and events related to the Olympic and Paralympic games.
The screens are usually the latest twenty-five square metres daylight digital video displays, with a computer-controlled playout and audio system.
Each screen is customised to reflect life in its host community with a broad range of local content, including a local events listings, events and partnerships with community, arts & media organisations.
The Big Screens relay a combination of major broadcast events, news, sport, music, documentaries and much more. There are also interactive facilities enabling the audience to text their comments, send photo-images to the screen or play interactive applications.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
Following your advice to ‘get down to Festival Square’ I did just that. There was no-one there at all. Me, on my own in the square. Why was this. Obviously Edinburgh locals know that there is barely any sound from the large screen in Festival Square and what there is is drowned out by background traffic noise.
It is misleading to advertise Last Night of the Proms (which conjures up great music, flag waving, bobbing and singing in a crowd of like minded people) when you must know that there is not adequate sound for an event like this.
I eventually saw a young couple sitting on a wall at the back under the trees. They were more annoyed than I was and couldn’t just go home again, having travelled from Newcastle to celebrate the Last Night in Edinburgh, the home of festivals.
What a debacle. Next time if you feel the need to advertise this event at least have the courtesy to make people aware that sound is not included.
We are quite dumbfounded – and just as angry for you as you are yourself. We have no idea why the sound could not have been turned up on this occasion. Yes, we had the same vision as you – flag waving and group singing. We must apologise but have sent an enquiry to the BBC to find out what happened on Saturday. We also have no idea why the event was not well enough publicised to encourage others along. We got our information through the BBC press office, but there is also a Big Screen page on the BBC here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bigscreens/events/ Perhaps you could also direct your comments to the BBC?
We have now had some email contact with the BBC. They first of all replied:-“Edinburgh council did not put any infrastructure in place i.e.seating, so this was classed as a normal screening with all the usual sound settings in place. At 10pm the screen mutes in line with our agreement with the local environmental health.
I apologise for the inconvenience, however, our website and Facebook page did reflect the above information. I also informed BBC Scotland for their press release.”
When we pointed out that their website does not in fact reflect any of this information they then replied as follows:-“Our website has been updated so the information has been removed, however, you can still see it in past events and on the wall (exchange
with Ashley Paton) on our Facebook page .” However the Facebook exchange shows the BBC telling Miss Paton to go along to Festival Square about 7.30pm.
Upon further enquiry to the BBC it seems that the position is that they simply did not know that the sound is turned down at 10pm. Their final reply is as follows:-“My apologies – I thought by saying that there would be no infrastructure and reiterating that this was just a screening and not an event wouldn’t actively encourage anyone to go along, however, I didn’t want to put anyone off going to see it if they would really enjoy it. The sound settings for each screen are all set locally and it was only on
investigation that I discovered that it muted at 10pm. There is normally a screen producer or manager in place to flag these issues up, however we have only just hired a new screen producer for Big Screen Edinburgh. I can only apologise for the inconvenience and say that lessons have been learnt this year and will not be repeated next year.”
So maybe the new screen producer for Big Screen Edinburgh could get in touch with us to let us know what the position for any future events is?
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