Record attendance packs out Langtons Gardens for the annual summer concert
'Perfick’ weather and a ‘perfick’ performance attracted a capacity crowd to Havering Council’s popular Langtons Summer Concert on Sunday 10 June.
Langtons Gardens in Hornchurch was filled to capacity as the Westminster Philharmonic Orchestra, led by evergreen conductor and presenter Jonathan Butcher, performed a programme of light classics ranging from the Johan Strauss II Waltz: Roses from the South to Mendelssohn’s Nocturne From A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
The concert was flavoured with popular favourites from the film The Wizard of Oz and a selection from Cole Porter’s Kiss Me Kate and the now traditional finale featuring the theme to the popular TV series Darling Buds of May, which starred David Jason as Pop Larkin.
The event took on the air of a ‘mini-Proms in the Park’ as around 3,000 residents, the largest audience that concert organisers can remember, enjoyed the June sunshine and packed the grounds with picnics, deckchairs, flags and bunting.
Shortly after the beginning of the concert, the gates to the gardens had to be temporarily closed to late comers with the event organisers allowing entry only as other concert-goers departed.
Councillor Viddy Persaud, Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure, said:
"The Langtons Summer Concert is always a popular event in Havering’s cultural calendar and Sunday’s huge attendance shows that it is now a summer staple that brings the community together.
“Thanks to the concert organisers, the Westminster Philharmonic Orchestra, the Friends of Langtons Gardens and concert sponsors, West and Coe, all of whom contributed to a really successful Langtons Summer Concert."