
Standing in the grassy field in front of the Castle, the summer light is fading. All around are groups of family and friends, sitting around picnics and glancing slightly to the left to see the floodlit castle.
The music has reached a crescendo and the fireworks begin to whirl upwards and burst into the sky in huge sparkling showers, scattering their light behind a cedar tree as they fall which in turn becomes silhouetted and part of the show.
Glittering white, silver, pink, blue and green – colours of all heights leap skyward to gasps of delight, smiles and laughter from everyone. The unspoken consensus is that it should never end. Of course, after the past eighteen months, the display is even more welcome than usual, the shimmering lights offering optimism and happiness if only for the moment.
Fireworks play their part in many different cultures and at many different celebrations. They are a major part of Diwali, the festival of lights, where they are interpreted as a way to ward off evil spirits as well as adding to the festive mood. Similarly, in many religions, lights, candles and fireworks are all used to all symbolise the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance and good over evil.
The concert, cannons, fireworks and spitfire included in the programme tonight however are simply part of a fun event which is now in its 20th year. The Battle Proms were created by Adam Slough and his father, a master gun maker by trade. He turned his hand to the replica cannons that form part of the orchestra whilst Adam organises the venues, the orchestra and the musical programme which runs from Beethoven to Elgar and promotes young soloists. (I have just recorded my latest podcast with Adam, so do look for it on Spotify etc)
In true British fashion everyone starts to queue rather early, coming armed with everything needed to set up a lovely picnic including, in some cases, the candelabra. Some guests take advantage of Adam’s hospitality and just collect picnics and tables or sit within canopies whilst others choose to do their own thing with varying degrees of organisation and success. Over the last twenty years it has built up from an initial audience of 4000 people to around 10,000 but, following Covid, numbers have dropped back to around 5000 this year to allow more space between groups. Next year I hope it will be back to full strength as audience participation is one of the key elements to atmosphere of the evening.

The Army Red Devils – I clearly did not get the message about the dress code
The event starts in stages, with a Napoleonic era cavalry display, an evening gun salute from the canons and an army parachute team dropping in.
Then, sometime around 7.30pm, there is a distant deep hum. Thousands of people turn and start scanning the skies and, as the noise grows, suddenly a spitfire swoops down and banks behind the castle. A gasp of pleasure and the spitfire turns, reaches up to the heavens and rolls downwards before leaving to the sound of Elgar from the orchestra. It is always a majestic moment, whatever the weather is throwing at us that year.
The musical programme then continues through various old favourites before finishing with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture, all 194 of the cannon and the grand firework display. Needless to say, the horses and dogs have been transported to the far edges of the estate long before the start of the show under the careful supervision of Maggie the groom and are safely out of earshot.
Maybe, like magpies, we just like bright shiny things but these days fireworks are increasingly used to celebrate any and all special occasions. They are noisy and fun and signal instant glamour. Like shooting stars and fireflies, they are a magical source of temporary happiness even if, after a few minutes, the sky turns back to darkness.
We don’t offer fireworks very day which makes this event far more special and more appreciated and we do all need such a festival to ward off evil spirits. Equally, it is just as important for the camaraderie and the joy of getting together with old friends. Even better the armed forces charity, SSAFA raised over £10,000 from the generosity of all there. It is a great charity which steps out to help families face to face, to find out what is needed. A huge thank you to all.
“What was important wasn’t the fireworks, it was that we were together this evening, together in this place, looking up into the sky at the same time.” — Banana Yoshimoto
Loved reading about this- how often do you have fireworks and open it to the public? We visited once a few years ago in May (and sipped champagne!) – would love to come back for fireworks!❤️ Thanks for the photos!
Battle Proms is once a year!
I wish I could have been there. How beautiful.
fondly Jenny
Maybe next year?
Hello Lady Carnarvon.
Wonderful experience, as I was there. The speed the Red Devils descending left to right on the lawn was like a train going past. Fantastic. Last week I was reviewing the Proms on You Tube and the feature of the Red Devils ejecting from the plane and circulating over Highclere was brilliant.
The red smoke wind direction flares set up on the lawn. was better this time. Back in 2019, the red smoke wafted over the arena and many experienced a cloud of red smoke.
Did miss the big gun from the London Artillery Company. Perfect for 1812.
Hampers and champers evening. Fewer flags on poles, but I did my bit with my two.
Nice to meet John and Luis.
May have been a bit restrictive with COVID, but the organizers did their best.
Carry on HIghclere
I think Adam and his team did a great job – have you listened to the latest podcast?
Such a lovely description of what must be a very special event at Highclere. I must put this on my calendar and make the trip across the pond. Thank you for sharing such a fabulous event with your readers.
Thank you
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
Oh my, what a lovely celebration it must have been. I do love fireworks and their magic. I know all attendees had a wonderful time watching the festivities and being together again.
Best Wishes,
Pam
Lovely! I wish that I could have been there!
Nice, very nice.
Beautiful beautiful display. We can’t do that here right now because everything is so dry and we’ve already had so many terrible destructive fires. I miss the fireworks. Thank you for your pictures
You can hear Lady Carnarvon’s Battle Proms podcast here: https://www.ladycarnarvon.com/podcast/
Lady Carnarvon,
Just seeing far away the little Spitfire playing its part heralding the beginning of gorgeous colors of the fireworks makes me smile! And hearing the glorious 1812 Overture makes one want to stand and salute the majesty of the moment! It must be that giving thanks to light over darkness is the right thing to do these days. Thank you for a lovely post as we may be starting to go through another Covid darkness….
Martha G
What a beautiful night. Thank you for the lovely narrative Lady Carnarvon. I very much enjoyed the night on this beautiful Monday morning.
How wonderful. I look forward to your blog every Monday, but today I was transported. Thank you.
Patricia McClelland Nova Scotia Canada
What fun, with gasps of surprise and wonder! And your photographs are superb.
Thank you from Heather in very cold Marysville, Victoria
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
Absolutely wonderful, everyone together in celebration and hope. I revel in the photos and hope to participate some time. Love the cedar tree illuminated by the glorious fireworks!
Thank you and be well!
Best regards,
Charlotte Merriam Cole
Thank you
Another stellar report on the comeback of the fantastic event planned and pulled off by the Highclere Castle staff and so many other people. WOW!! I do not know what SSAFA stands for or what they do, but that charity will certainly be thrilled with the gift of monies raised for their work!! Oh – and thanks for a good hearty laugh upon reading your caption under photo of you standing with the Red Devils. Would love to come back to visit again for this event. Maybe next year? Is it always held the last Saturday in July?
Next year it will be on 30th July 2022
Dear Lady Carnarvon,
Thank you, once again, for your brilliant description of a truly wonderful evening – oh how I WISH I could have seen it! Thank you also for your fabulous photographs, they brought your words to life!
Once again I send love & best wishes to you & all at Highclere (including dogs & horses!) Yours,
Caroline xx
Lady Carnarvon l lovely pictures of fireworks and highcelere castle and thank you for email you send l would love to visit highcelere castle did you have a nice weekend you and lord Carnarvon
Wonderful weekend – thank you
Fabulous awe-inspiring editorial as always Lady C.
Marky and I can’t wait to introduce our 2 year old daughter Lilibet to your beautiful home.
Nick
Lady Carnarvon,
Your writing is so vivid, I felt as though I were there. I could hear the canons in my head. Thank you. I visited Highclere in October 2018 as part of a dessert and champagne fundraiser. I came all the way from the South Carolina, United States. Now, that I am aware of this event, I will add it to my calendar for 2022. How are tickets purchased?
Purchased through the Battle Proms website – https://www.battleproms.com/ticket-information/
As a regular to Battle Proms at Highclere, try and book early say January, as early bird tickets are about £4 cheaper.
Again Lady Carnavon you brighten my Monday!
Now that travel is opening up we are planning a trip to London in the upcoming year !
We can not wait to see in person all the beauty of your castle and grounds
Carol
Huntersville, NC
Wonderful!
Lady Carnarvon,
There is just something exciting about fireworks! Glad that you were able to celebrate Battle Proms this year. Thank you for your support of the military. I found another quote that I would like to share from Nhat Hanh “You are like fireworks. You go out in your children, your friends, your society, and the whole world.” Your blog today did just that.
Oh WOW!!! Beautiful!
Thank you so much for sharing. Love your posts ☺️
It must have been fantastic.
I would be interested to know what you do with all your dogs? Ear muffs?
Sound proof rooms? Am sure they are well cared for.
Maggie looked after them on the edge of the estate.
Good for you, Lord Carnarvon, your staff and all of the Battle Proms organizers and musicians and firework technicians for pulling this off! How lovely and what a wonderful tradition to carry on. The Proms are a wonderful summer event there in England and the highlight would certainly be at Highclere especially as a worthwhile fundraising event. Always love firework displays and often try and sit near the front as I like to look back occasionally into the crowd during the display as just about all faces are lite up and all jaws are dropped in awe of the beautiful display LOL! A fun photo opp! Also appreciate your humorous comment about your “dress code” in the photo with the Army Red Devils as no matter how you dress your beauty always stands out! Thank you for posting next years Battle Prom date, hopeful I can come across and attend!
Continue to remain well and live in the glory of the beauty surrounding you and the enlightenment you provide so many of us.
Thank you
Lady Carnarvon , Your story telling brings to life the events as if I were fortunate enough to be there. I look forward to each Monday and your wonderful blog. Thank you!
Love reading your blogs! This evening sounded so fun and relaxing with some excitement thrown in! Can’t wait for your next adventure!
What a gift to all who could see and hear the music and fireworks. You’ll are amazing and so special.
Félicitations Lady Carnarvon, c’est magnifique !
Les photos me font rêver… J’aurai tellement aimé être présente dans ce lieu féérique !
Mais étant Française, il m’est impossible de venir vous voir, je le regrette bien mais attend avec impatience le moment où je pourrai enfin voir ce lieu que vous faites si bien vivre avec vos équipes et votre famille.
Je vous admire !
Thank you so much for your kind comments – I wish you could have joined us as well
My son and i attended this event and we even got chance to speak with you , you were so lovely that you took time to speak with us !
The event was just amazing and waiting for tickets to be available for next year !
The ending quote by Banana Yoshimoto made me choke up and almost brought me to tears. In fact my eyes are teary. It makes you think about what IS important, and its us. If I had been there in person, I absolutely know I would be full on crying.
Thank you for sharing the emotion with all of us.
Val LaBore
I so enjoy your blog and of course your lovely house! Thank you for sharing it with us.
Mrs. Lawrence Brewer (Tennessee, USA)
Do I see a shallow “ha-ha” fence in two of your pictures? You are doing a marvelous job with all kinds of events to allow the public to enjoy Highclere as well as to help maintain it. And then helping non profit organizations as well! I especially like your interest in bringing back some of the older ways of using the land (what you plant in the fields) as well as reviving areas of the estate to either their previous uses or being creative with another use (grape vines in an old protected garden area). I must to make an attempt to visit this special place before I am too old to travel. Thank you for your continuing stewardship of your husband’s family home.
You are kind
Just curious — how do your dogs react to fireworks? Mine find them to be quite unsettling!
Mine are carefully tucked away!
Thank you for sharing,looks marvellous,hope to visit you soon! Admired from Canada
Thank you! What splendid photographs! I am glad the weather was kind.
Jolly lucky
I got chills reading this! Thank you for a wonderfully written description. I felt like I was there. Hopefully we will be able to attend sometime. I am looking forward to listening to the podcast. I have been enjoying all of them. You have such interesting guests!
What a spectacular evening we had. I cannot describe the emotion and the happiness I felt. My husband and I were in awe – from the organisation to the music – just everything!
I enjoyed reading this so much…made all the more special because we were there on Saturday!
isn’t it fun?
Love my weekly “Highclere Fix”! You start my week off in such a pleasant manner. Hope to visit Highclere in September with a Viking tour. The same tour that was postponed last year. Quite excited and filled with anticipation of a glorious time. Have a marvelous August!
That sounds great, have you been watching Viking TV ?
Beautiful!! Maybe I’ll be back in England next year to enjoy it.
We visited in July of 2019 from South Carolina. How I wish I could be so fortunate to sit there in the evening and watch the fireworks. Such a beautiful place. I hope to return one day. Thank you for this blog. You do a wonderful job letting us all in to your life. So glad to see things are slowly getting back to normal. Thanks again for all the beautiful pictures. Oh and I LOVE your dogs too! Never enough pictures or stories about them!!
Mimi Ragan, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA
Thank you so much Mimi!
I would have loved to been there!
Another year!
Lady Carnarvon, the Castle is like a shinning star in the night. Just Beautiful. Cheryl.
Dear Lady Carnarvon
A beautiful night made even better with music and fireworks! The picnic idea was a great way to incorporate the audience and from your description a good time was had by all. I loved the photograph of the Red Devils plus 1 Blue Angel 🙂 Tell me, if you dress in red next year will they all turn up dressed in blue? What a hoot that would be lol.
I love Sydney’s New Years Eve fireworks and they are also accompanied by music and show off the Bridge and the harbour magnficently. A great celebration in anticipation of the new year coming in but it wasn’t quite the same last time with no crowds lining the foreshores. Better times to come I am sure.
Unfortunately our state (New South Wales) is in lockdown again battling this new strain and our Army is doing a great job delivering food to people so they can stay at home as our Government has told us to do. We will overcome!! We sure will !!!
I hope everyone at Highclere is well and our faithful band of chatters also. Best wishes to all
Joy Roebig
Orange Australia
Thank you – yes we will all get through it. Most at Highclere have had both vaccines now, even many of the younger team members…many of our visitors work in various NHS hospitals so it is interesting hearing their news. If I were to make a guess 95% of those in hospital now, maybe higher, are those who have not had a vaccine, whatever the strain.
It was so lovely to see you on Viking TV last week. Strolling through your beautiful gardens and visiting your animals was fun. And sampling the different cocktails with Highclere gin must always be fun for you and Lord Carnarvon.
What a great way to celebrate a gathering with fireworks. In Hawaii, our fireworks have gotten out of control on New Year’s Eve! It’s quite literally like a war zone and so hard on the pets. So watching your fireworks with music and Highclere Castle in view would be a lot more relaxing and appreciated.
Absolutely beautiful!! Thank you for sharing.
Dear Lady Carnarvon
Thank you for your Monday blog and the story regarding the Battle of the Proms. You and Highclere Castle’s team did a very good job with this program.
Great photograph of an outstanding Lady within a well-known group.
Earlier this week the (British) RAF MFAF Voyager arrived at Detroit Metropolitan Airport to participate in joint ariel exercises and training in Alpena.
Every Fourth of July the Detroit Symphony Orchestra performs an outdoor concert at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, which culminates with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, fireworks, and a succinctly timed cannon blast.
The more I learn about Highclere, the harder it becomes for me to decide the best time to visit.
Until Monday, have a nice weekend.
Perpetua Crawford
Thank you for sharing what must have been a wonderful night. A great reason to revisit Highclere whenever we are able to travel again. The Antipodes are a long way away. Whilst I love fireworks I also have a pathological fear of them so like the horses and dogs I may have to be banished to be the back fields.
Until we can travel again your newsletter transports me to beloved places.