On 15th July, the world’s largest classical music festival launches its 122nd year. The BBC Proms offers an amazing range of music across the summer, with concerts every evening in the Royal Albert Hall, but with matinees and events at other venues also part of a packed schedule. The joy of The Proms is the promming – turning up on the day and purchasing a standing ticket for just £6 to hear some of the world’s great orchestras. However, you may want to purchase a season ticket or a weekend pass to prom, or to purchase seats… in which case you need to get your act together this week to secure the tickets you want. Here’s our Insider Guide to what to do and when.

You can see a full listing of Proms events here – just two handy pages in which you can view the venues, times, programmes and performers (far handier than the BBC’s own website).

A season ticket costs £240.00. However, you may want a half season pass – the pick of the big visiting orchestras always arrive in the final weeks of the season: £144.00 will get you entry to Proms 38-74. The cost of weekend passes vary from £16.50 to £27.50 varying according to how high profile some of the events are, of how many daytime/late night concerts are taking place. Season and Weekend Promming Passes can be purchased from 9am on Thursday 5th May. Note that to use your promming pass, you need to be turn up at the Royal Albert Hall at least 20 minutes before the concert begins to be guaranteed entry.

If you want to purchase seats, then Saturday 7th May is your key date. At 9am, tickets go on sale online at www.royalalberthall.com (not the BBC Proms website, not on Bachtrack!) or via telephone (0845 401 5040) or in person from the Box Office at Door 12 of the Royal Albert Hall. Online, the process can be fraught. ‘Waiting room’ queues are legendary and frustration levels can be high. Do three things to help you:

  1. Create an account with the Royal Albert Hall to save time having to register on the day. If you already have an account, try logging in during the week to make sure you remembered your password! If you wish, you can register your payment card beforehand too.

  2. Select the Proms you wish to attend now and create a Proms Planner (via bbc.co.uk/proms). Choose which concerts you wish to attend and which price band and once you are through the waiting room, you can speed pretty quickly to the checkout and secure the seats you want before others.

  3. On Saturday morning, try logging in early. It may be the website has changed and requires a 9am log-in, but in previous seasons it has been possible to log in from 8am, which puts you ahead of the crowd. Once you find yourself in the RAH ‘waiting room’ though, for goodness sake do not refresh the page or you’ll get booted to the back of the queue!

Do not get disheartened when you see your #2352 in the queue. It’s likely that many will be trying for the big BBC-linked ‘themed’ Proms – Strictly, CBeebies – and the queue will speed up once those concerts sell out (that was certainly the case with the Dr Who Prom a few years ago). If folks have submitted their Proms Planners, progress should be quite swift.

Highlights

So, which Proms should you be booking? In general, tickets for concerts by BBC orchestras will be easy to come by (other than the Last Night – for which special restrictions apply). Here are some of the highlights which could sell out very quickly:

Prom 2: Mussorgsky – Boris Godunov: Antonio Pappano and the cast from The Royal Opera, minus Richard Jones’ production

Prom 14: Rossini – The Barber of Seville: Glyndebourne Festival’s new production, starring Danielle de Niese. Glyndebourne Proms are always slightly more than semi-staged, and not one-off concert performances.

Prom 18: Mahler – Symphony No.3: Bernard Haitink conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s mighty Third, a work perfect for the cavernous Royal Albert Hall.

Prom 43: West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim and Martha Argerich – a starry pairing and an inspiring orchestra.

Prom 45: Janáček – The Makropulos Case: the legendary Karita Mattila heads the cast as Emilia Marty, the singer who’s reached over 300 years of age thanks to a magical elixir…

Prom 51: São Paulo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Proms favourite Marin Alsop and Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero.

Prom 59: Beethoven from the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and veteran conductor Herbert Blomstedt.

Prom 64: Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic tackle Mahler’s Seventh Symphony

Prom 68: Rossini – Semiramide: an Opera Rara special with a super cast headed by Albina Shagimuratova

Prom 69-71: Okay, three concerts, but three in a row pairing a Mozart piano concerto with a Bruckner symphony… but look at the performers: Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin for Proms 69 and 70, with Christian Thielemann and Staatskapelle Dresden for Prom 71. An embarrassment of riches…

Selection sorted? Credit card at the ready? I wish you good hunting and a Happy Proms Season!