Students and the Brit Thing.

'The Proms’ is a series of classical concerts given every year between June and September at the Royal Albert Hall in London, the most widely known of which is the Last Night of the Proms which many see as marking the end of summer. The Last Night of the Proms is also STUDENT NIGHT, when hordes of the creatures forsake the halls, the quads, the pubs, the clubs, and the canoodling corners of public parks, and instead squeeze themselves into the lower level of RAH where the seating has been removed to accommodate them.

They see it as both their right and their duty to be unruly. They wear silly clothes, do silly things, make silly noises, and permit themselves the silliest descent into an uncharacteristic excess of shameless jingoism. And then they wake up the next morning feeling even more ashamed than they do most mornings when they wake up and remember the night before. I suppose it’s fun in a mildly sadomasochistic sort of way. It also makes very popular TV viewing, especially among those to whom shameless jingoism is routine.

This is one of the medleys around which the second half of the concert is built every year. The tone is about a hundred years out of date, but even students like to pretend now and then.