BBC Proms are hit by popcorn protests
NewsA number of people who attended Glyndeboourne’s Dialogues des Carmelites at the BBC Proms, have told us they were irritated, outraged or just plain put off by the sight and smell of popcorn being sold in the Royal Albert Hall.
The opera is a tale of martyrdom during the French Revolution.
Perhaps the hall should have supplied knitting needles.
Henrietta Foster writes: WTF is the Royal Albert Hall doing selling POPCORN during the Proms??? Involved in a near fight at one tonight. Ruined the first half of a superlative evening.
Here are some Twitter responses:
Dear @RoyalAlbertHall and @bbcproms, please, please, please stop selling POPCORN. It’s noisy, smelly, intrusive and completely inappropriate at a concert and it causes big fights in the audience, ruining the evening for all around. Not what you want in Dialogues des Carnélites.
— Jessica Duchen ✍️🎶 (@jessicaduchen) August 7, 2023
Noticed popcorn at Dunedin/Bachx2/Mozart prom on Sunday as well as Carmelites. Echo comments about latecomers – change in @RoyalAlbertHall policy? Cinema now dreadful – person next to me had 12in pizza on shared armrest for Oppenheimer @CurzonCinemas – very unpleasant
— David Cairns (@DavidCairns46) August 8, 2023
@RichmoMusic possibly too hot a topic for BBC; Albert Hall selling popcorn during Proms screams “newsworthy discussion”?! Reading tweets today from patrons disturbed at last night’s Glyndbourne Carmelites by people crunching popcorn.
I’ll leave this here. Cheers— James Alexander #IAm European 🇺🇦 (@jamesa0330) August 8, 2023
Absolutely this! I was amazed that @RoyalAlbertHall would think this appropriate at the Proms. Popcorn is a famously noisy snack and is bad enough at the cinema! https://t.co/FLlB7VbIp7
— Stephen Maddock (@stephenm68) August 8, 2023
Perhaps brioche would have been more in keeping…
A new concept: a pop-corn opera! Considering the final scene, it is not in good taste to use ketchup.
Not popcorn, certainly. But perhaps sugar free candy that we could discuss during the interval. A Dialogue of the Caramel Lites.
I love Poulenc and I like popcorn, but the two do not mix. Still, it could be worse. Reminds me of hearing a very good string quartet in Texas – the interval came and the burgers were served in the auditorium. Maybe they’ll start this next year at the Proms, as they search for an ever more diverse and youthful audience to ‘connect’ with?
Here’s an idea – just have talented musicians playing interesting programmes. Dilute the output of dead white men if you must.
Personally I am not averse to totally avoiding badly written meandering passages of pseudo-music by any number of second-rate ‘others’ whose presence before the public is seemingly because they have some axe to grind on alter of inclusion, as opposed to having original thoughts and the where-with-all to express them with skill and fluency.
Burgers could be an excellent idea after a staging of Jeanne d’Arc au Bucher.
The thing is, young audience can have good manner, too (see the classical concerts in Eastern Asia… or even Southern Germany), just don‘t give them an impression that it‘s ok to treat Poulenc opera the same way as Barbie the film. It‘s not about if one is better than the other, it‘s that different art forms should be listened to in a different manner. And people should just be more considerate.
OK I know Salzburg isn’t Southern Germany, but went to a non-classical concert in a large venue and the burger stand operated throughout, as did the bar and merchandise stalls. People just wandered in and out all performance with burgers, beer and T-shirts. Note they were not all young by any stretch.
The performance sounded wonderful… from radio. Almost feeling lucky that I wasn‘t there.
BBC proms standard has been dropped on many levels, but it really shouldn‘t be for the standard of supposedly music lovers. Tickets can be cheap, but the manner shouldn‘t be cheap.
Is this serious? I don’t even go to the cinema because I don’t want to hear people scrunching away. I will never go near another Prom as long as this continues. The Royal Albert Hall is not your living room FFS.
Why is it not possible to get through a concert without food?
Do you eat popcorn at the movies? Or soda and candy? Why not concerts then? It might make them more enjoyable.
I would prefer to focus on the music or film: that’s enjoyment- not munching on ghastly processed pap.
“Do you eat popcorn at the movies? Or soda and candy?”
No, I don’t, although the average volume at cinemas is so high that it is less of a problem.
The imbecile who thought this a good idea should be fired immediately and should be grateful that’s the only thing that happens to them………..
Let them have cake instead
Attend, sit down, shut up, listen and leave when over. Great music well played with well behaved audiences is more than enough. When will the nonsensensical attempts to ” amp” up great music end?
And so continues the roll out of the diversity and inclusivity agenda. The munching and crunching of popcorn is a fitting background to some of the offerings being performed on stage. I await the pop and fizz of Pepsi and Coca-Cola cans being opened.
Pierre Boulez, Brian Ferneyhough or Joseph Haydn on Radio One, or Glastonbury. Diversity is more than one-way.
I have nostalgia for the halcyon days when people ate before going to the concert hall or theatre , finished their drinks in the bar, then alternately coughed , rummaged in handbags , and unwrapped boiled sweets all the way through the performance.
I loathe the smell of popcorn in cinemas. No idea why. Is it the oil or is it the corn? Bad idea for a venue with so many people
THE BREXIT CLASSIC FM PROMS!
A few years ago, The Proms advertised for personnel that did not need to know anything about music to work for them. It seems that the people they employed are even better than that: they don’t know a bloomin’ muck about anything! IDIOTS!!!
The Proms with its pretence of being the world’s best festival is now just a mediocre Little England festival. A sort of series of live Classic FM programme.
Only someone suffering from an intense form of derangement could bring Brexit into this.
Do you sit on a park bench shouting at pigeons?
Only if said pigeons voted for Brexit…
I googled ‘why sell popcorn’. This came up:
‘Profitability. With minimal costs, popcorn delivers attractive profit margins. While the average food and beverage profit margin is between 20-30%, margins for fresh popcorn can easily be as high as 80%.’
Bagels even more profitable – and quieter………..
Its not just any popcorn. It’s Joe & Seph. Fiver a packet.
To be honest, there is a ridiculous amount of nonsense being talked about audience behaviour on Monday night. From my seat (in the Circle) I saw no inappropriate snacks or drinks being consumed. A couple of people in the stalls have got their KIAT about it. My only complaint would be about the number of people coming in late both at the start and after the interval. Indeed, other than that I thought the audience behaviour exemplary.
“My only complaint would be about the number of people coming in late both at the start and after the interval.” That is hardly trivial…….
I agree, but the headline relates to a few trivial complaints about popcorn, rather than the number of audience members turning up/returning late
Ah yes, we can always count on classical music old-timers to feel their hallowed traditions have been violated. And you wonder why young people don’t go to classical music events?
“Young people” are conspicuously absent from many screenings at our local cinema but popcorn is available regardless.
More junk food. Just what we need.
Were they NOT selling popcorn for ‘Apocalypse Now’?
At my first Prom, in 1969, I bought an ice cream in the interval and was still eating it as I tried to return to my seat in the Balcony. A liveried usher blocked my way, saying “don’t you realise that this is not a cinema or a music hall? This is the ROYAL ALBERT HALL!”