BBC Proms 2013 First Day Booking QUEUE BUSTER

Queue buster TIP !  One of many Proms rituals is compulsive complaining. One of the usual targets is the first day tickets go on sale. This year  114,000 tickets were sold online in the first 12 hours,  an increase of 17% over 2012, which itself was 12% up on the previous year.  So anyone who logged in a few seconds after 9 am was LUCKY to be number 8000 in the queue.

Top sellers were the Doctor Who Proms and, the First Night of the Proms, which indicates that by far the greatest demand came from buyers after spectacular events, rather than classical music per se. As a friend noticed, once the message came through that Dr Who had sold out the queue moved from 10 per minute to 50 per minute. "Maybe they should have  a separate  queue for Dr Who", he remarked. It might work.

Surprisingly the Wagner Proms weren't swamped. Perhaps there were just too many to choose from, and people can't afford to go to everything. Top seller in the "classical" slot (as opposed to classical augmented by a sense of occasion) were Proms 33 and 35 featuring Maris Janssons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.  Perhaps the programmes were the draw, Beethoven Piano Concerto no 4 with Mitsuko Uchida  and Berlioz Symphonie fantastiique, and Mahler's Second Symphony, always a block buster. Perhaps the draw was down to the relative lack of orchestras from outside the UK, which in some ways is a blessing as some visitors have turned out to be a disappointment. Normally, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra would  be a surefire hit but playing Bach under Lorin Maazel ? Maybe not.

Perhaps the secret to getting what you want on the First Day of Booking for the BBC Proms is to go for the top sellers. If everyone takes less time getting things sorted, the queues move faster. There's no need at all to book everything in advance. Let common sense prevail!