Battle Proms and Picnic at Highclere Castle

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Last Saturday, I met up with some good friends in order to attend this year's Battle Proms picnic and concert. This year marks 200 years since the Battle of Waterloo, and the Battle Proms celebrate this event with music and patriotic displays. This year also marks 75 years since the Battle of Britain. The events of the afternoon were a showcase of horses in the battlefield with people in fashion during the Napoleonic times (British and French 1700s military and civilian fashion), a Spitfire fly-past, World War II era tribute singers, a classical music concert, canons, and fireworks. Much of the music was inspired by wars. This was also a charity event to support veterans.

The event took place at Highclere Castle. The castle (more technically a stately home) is used in filming the popular television series Downton Abbey.

My friends were delayed in traffic, so I watched the display of the horses while I waited for them. The horses and their riders demonstrated battle moves that would have been used in the Napoleonic Wars. Some of the riders were redcoats (British), and some were French. 

When my friends arrived, we set up our picnic area and ate, nearly finishing in time for the Spitfire fly-past. I didn't get any picnic photographs, but we had a couple of bottles of wine and cheese or ham sandwiches (with crisps) and fruit, followed by dessert.

Music followed with several songs, and the larger canon was fired along with a troop of redcoats firing muskets and smaller canons being fired during the song "1812 Overture Op. 49" by Tchaikovsky.

Later, "Wellington's Victory - Battle of the Vittoria, Op. 91" by Beethoven was played, and 193 canons sounded during the song along with musket fire and fireworks.

All of the popular battle songs were played, including "Jerusalem" and "Rule Britannia" too, and fireworks signalled the end of the finale. We also had "God Save the Queen" (queue flag-waving), and "Auld Lang Syne" was played by bagpipe. A lot of flags were waving. Apparently, 10,000 people were in attendance.

The weather was decent, although slightly chilly, but all of us had a good time. 

I was not aware of Battle Proms before and found out about it in January when I was looking for information about any special events taking place. I was particularly looking for information about another anniversary of Trafalgar or similar events, which I went to in Portsmouth in 2005, and I came across this special concert. I assumed that this was a one-off concert, but the concert does take place annually at various locations throughout the summer months. For more information, visit: http://www.battleproms.com

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