The queue to happiness
BBC Music Magazine
|August 2025
From an indicator of ongoing popularity to an unlikely dating service, the queue to buy tickets for the Proms is an institution we should cherish, says Tom Service
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I’m not saying anyone should be delighted to be 114,327th in line, but on the day that tickets went on general sale for the BBC Proms, my heart soared to see there was such a massive number ahead of me in the online ticket queue. And why? Because I knew that I and 114,326 others were part of an exponentially longer line of Proms fans that stretches back to the inaugural summer of 1895, a queue that would reach the moon and back 117 times if everyone was stacked on top of one another. Providing they kept their hats on, that is.
This story is from the August 2025 edition of BBC Music Magazine.
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