The Glasshouse

More than 6,270 attend the BBC Proms in the North East, with record numbers of first-time audiences and national broadcasts from The Glasshouse and Sunderland. 

The BBC Proms in the North East has drawn to a close, after a spectacular four days of world-class music performed across Gateshead and Sunderland.

More than 6,270 people attended the four-day festival – the busiest BBC Proms in the North East yet – including 4563 experiencing the Proms for the first time. Concertgoers travelled from all over the UK – from London, Belfast and Glasgow, to Carlisle, Manchester and Cardiff – to experience the BBC Proms in the North East.

Listens to BBC Radio 3 on BBC Sounds were up by over 25% week on week in Sunderland. Other areas in the North East such as Newcastle, Cleveland and Durham all saw week on week increases too. All BBC Proms from the weekend were broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and are available on BBC Sounds. In a historic first, The Glasshouse will also be the first venue outside of London to feature televised BBC Proms, with the two Royal Northern Sinfonia concerts set to be on BBC TV: Bach and Mendelssohn at the Proms will be on BBC Four on Friday 1 August at 8pm, and JADE & Royal Northern Sinfonia, which was on BBC Radio 1 on Sunday, will be on BBC TV later this year.

This year’s expanded weekend marks a cultural milestone for the North East. What began as a single concert and the first-ever live BBC Proms broadcast beyond London has grown into a regional festival of national significance – built on a long-term partnership between The Glasshouse and the BBC Proms. It reflects something bigger happening in the region: cultural organisations working together to share extraordinary music with more people, in more places.

Audiences were treated to a joyful, wide-ranging programme. North East native JADE made a spectacular homecoming debut with her home orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, marking a heartwarming return to a stage she previously performed on, aged 15. She was supported by another standout regional talent Finn Forster. Royal Northern Sinfonia were at the heart of the weekend, leading a breathtaking 200-strong classical epic and a joyful family jamboree. A CBeebies Prom brought little ones and their families into the heart of the festival, making the most of the accessible programme. Folk and jazz performances took the form of mesmerising folk songs of the Black British experience in The Sorrow Songs with Angeline Morrison and the first ever Sunderland Prom at The Fire Station with a special edition of BBC Radio 3’s ‘Round Midnight with Soweto Kinch, featuring genre-defying trumpeter Theo Croker, North East talent Rivkala and the Joe Webb Trio. Saturday night’s Prom showed Royal Northern Sinfonia in full force, joined by over 200 singers from across the region in Mendelssohn’s majestic Lobgesang. Conducted by Music Director, Dinis Sousa, the orchestra and choruses delivered a rousing, large-scale performance.

Beyond the seven ticketed events, there were free events including DJ sets, The Glasshouse’s BBC Introducing Stage, family arts and crafts, and pop up performances.

According to UK Music’s 2023 report, music tourism to the North East rose by 29%. As The Glasshouse celebrates 20 years and £1 billion of economic value generated for the region, the BBC Proms adds further weight to the region’s growing cultural and creative momentum.

Wendy Smith, Creative Director at The Glasshouse, said: “This weekend has been a landmark moment for our region: a celebration of homegrown talent, national collaboration and music of the highest quality. From Soweto Kinch and Theo Croker in Sunderland to JADE’s extraordinary collaboration with Royal Northern Sinfonia in Gateshead, BBC Proms in the North East is showing what’s possible when you invest in partnership and creativity. What began four years ago as a new kind of collaboration has grown into something bigger – a way to show the creativity and ambition that defines the North East and share it with audiences across the country.

We’ve always been a musical region in the North East and Tees Valley. Music runs through people’s lives, part of their identity, wellbeing and increasingly the region’s economic future. This festival is proof of the impact we can make when we work together. And we’re only just getting started.”

Sam Jackson, Controller, Radio 3 and BBC Proms, said: “The success of this weekend reflects the passion audiences in the North East have for the BBC Proms and live music. Bringing together world-class local musicians and international artists made for a compelling festival, and one that was accessible to all with Promming tickets at just £8 and every note broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds. Huge thanks to our partners, the Glasshouse International Centre for Music, The Fire Station and of course, Royal Northern Sinfonia.
The BBC Proms continues across the UK with a three-day residency at Bristol Beacon from 22 August, a special Prom in Belfast marking the centenary of Radio 4’s popular Shipping Forecast on 8 August, and our Proms debut in Bradford, with five-time Grammy Award-winner Angélique Kidjo, on 7 September.”

North East Mayor Kim McGuinness said: “The BBC Proms in the North East has once again shown our region is a natural home for world class cultural events. We’ve welcomed incredible musicians, and just as important we’ve celebrated homegrown talents like JADE and our Royal Northern Sinfonia to national audiences. The Proms weekend in Gateshead has become a fixture in the calendar through the growing partnership between The Glasshouse and the BBC that’s putting the North East at the heart of the UK’s cultural life. I’m proud the North East is leading the way and I’m excited to see where we take it next, with the event providing a platform for new and emerging talent from our region in future years.”

Speaking during her performance, JADE said: “My dreams became a reality not just because of the TV show that I did years ago, but it was because of all the opportunities that I had growing up – it was the youth centres, it was the community projects, it was the Customs House in South Shields where I could perform, it was the recording studio in South Shields called The Cave where I could go and write music for free. So I do think now more than ever it’s really important – and it is essential – to remember the next generation of artists. They need the funding. The arts need the funding. It’s so important, especially for working-class families. They need that opportunity, and there are so many incredible artists out there in the world that come from the UK or come from the North East who have thrived because of that.”

Audience members during JADE’s concert said:
“It was absolutely incredible – one of the best things we’ve ever seen live. We’ve followed Jade’s career since she was in Little Mix. Everything she said about the North East is true – there’s something really special about this part of the world, and she encapsulated that perfectly tonight.”

“It was amazing. Jade was inspirational and talked about the North East so much. I feel like the region is more my home than at the start of the night. Everyone felt the love in the room, and it truly was a statement for The Glasshouse as a destination and a venue.”

“I love that BBC Proms comes to the North East – we deserve it.”

For press enquiries please contact Susie Gray, Premier Comms – susie.gray@premiercomms.com or Orla Noble, Premier Comms – orla.noble@premiercomms.com

Download images from across the weekend

Credit: Thomas Jackson / Tynesight Media

About The Glasshouse International Centre for Music

The Glasshouse International Centre for Music is a home for live music lovers.

It’s a place where you can hear rock legends or pop icons on the same night as folk trios or string quartets. Where new musicians are nurtured and showcased on the same stages as platinum-selling performers. And where youth choirs and tambourine-shaking toddlers practise in the same spaces as its acclaimed orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia.

Because as an international centre for music they’re focused on creating and celebrating outstanding music – whether that’s unearthing or growing talent from the region or bringing the world’s best artists to their stages. And as a charity they’re focused on making sure all of that is available to anyone – no matter where you’re from, how old you are, how much money you have, or what challenges you face.

Which is why every year more than 2 million people are able to enjoy top-notch gigs, concerts, and classes – in their venue at Gateshead Quays, out in communities across the North East, and through livestreamed performances and digital lessons.

Whether you’re making it up or taking it in, you’ll find music lives and grows here.

More about The Glasshouse

• From global stars to artists starting out, The Glasshouse has hosted 10,022 performances, totalling 4.7m tickets. To have seen every performance would have meant seeing one show every day for 27 years.
• It’s hosted over 220,000 music lessons for North East folk. The region’s young people have learnt to play, sing or produce with us, on over 1.7m occasions.
• Royal Northern Sinfonia perform at The Glasshouse, tour the region, and have played to international audiences on four continents, with livestreams reaching people across five.
• Like stepping stones, artists like Ward Thomas have worked their way from their free stages to selling out its big hall and getting global recognition.
  The Glasshouse regularly opens its doors to a wide range of conferences and events. Since 2004, they’ve welcome over 400,000 delegates from the likes of Greggs, NHS and British Engines, and many, many more.
• The charity is one of Gateshead’s biggest employers, and so far it’s generated £500m of economic value to the region.
• The charity has been the proud guardians of The Glasshouse for almost 20 years, safeguarding it when live music was put on hold during the pandemic.
• The centre has 630 panes of glass and stands 40m tall.

About the BBC Proms

As the world’s biggest classical music festival, the BBC Proms offers eight weeks of world-class music-making from a vast array of leading orchestras, conductors and soloists from the UK and around the world. Across 86 concerts, the festival offers a summer of music that allows for the most diverse and exciting musical journeys. One hundred and thirty years after it was founded, the driving factor in building a festival of this scale is to offer exceptional music-making at the lowest possible prices, continuing founder-conductor Henry Wood’s original ambition of bringing the best classical music to the widest possible audience. With every Prom broadcast on BBC Radio 3, available across multiple platforms and 25 Proms programmes televised on the BBC, the Proms reaches far beyond the Royal Albert Hall. This year’s BBC Proms season runs from Friday 18 July to Saturday 13 September 2025.