00:00In Bristol, music and spectacle have come together in unusual performance designed to mark a major cultural weekend for the
00:07city.
00:08Musicians from the Para Orchestra, alongside players from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the National Open Youth Orchestra, performed inside
00:16a balloon.
00:17The ensemble, which includes both disabled and non-disabled musicians, staged the event as a celebration of two Lamarque occasions
00:24happening at the same time.
00:26From the 7th to the 9th of August, the BBC Proms will return to the Bristol Beacon for the third
00:31time since the venue reopened in November 2023.
00:35Other BBC Proms events over the weekend include a choir concert at St George's and a live recording of BBC
00:41Radio 3's jazz show, Round Midnight.
00:44Over the same weekend, the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta will also take place, one of the city's most recognisable annual
00:51events.
00:52It's great. I was just saying to someone, actually, we packed up here in August last year after last year's
00:56Balloon Fiesta, got planning in September, and it's been pretty dismal since then, hasn't it?
01:01So we just wanted to say to the city, look, the weather's improving now. What have we got to look
01:07forward to? You know, it's going to be amazing, isn't it?
01:10Organisers say the alignment of these two events offers a unique opportunity to showcase Bristol's cultural identity.
01:16Music from the Proms programme is expected to feature as part of the Balloon Fiesta experience, bringing together live performance
01:22and large-scale outdoor celebration.
01:25I've got one big secret that I want to tell everyone, but I can't tell. No one will let me
01:30tell you all yet.
01:32No, we've got, obviously, three days of amazing ballooning fun here at Ashton Court Estate.
01:37Over a hundred hot air balloons. Some new special shapes that are never flown here, so there's a scarecrow coming
01:42over from America.
01:43There's some more shapes coming over from Europe, and then hopefully, maybe something else up our sleeve.
01:50We've got lots of activity in the arena for motorcycle display teams to meet the pilot, where you can come
01:56in the arena and, obviously, meet our pilots and get in balloon baskets.
01:59We've got In the Clouds, which is an immersive hot air balloon experience, so you go inside an actual balloon
02:05envelope, and that's back for the second year.
02:07And then we've got great locals like Puxton Park are coming. Josh from the Pony and Trap is bringing his
02:13pony bus, so lots and lots to do throughout the day.
02:16The Parra Orchestra, known for its inclusive approach to performance, says the collaboration reflects a broader ambition to make music
02:22accessible and visible in new and unexpected spaces.
02:25Probably our title sponsor's new balloon, the pink one that's to the side. Probably my favourite for the moment, yeah.
02:33Very exciting to have one, literally fresh from the factory.
02:35It's fresh. It pretty much came out of the factory yesterday, so got its stamp of approval, and here it
02:40is, and thank God it works. It's brilliant.
02:44With both events drawing visitors from across the country, the weekend's being positioned as a significant moment in Bristol's cultural
02:51calendar, combining world-class music with one of the UK's most distinctive public gatherings.
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