The Proms' usual pageantry returns after a sombre finale last year in the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks in the US.

Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs is one of the highlights on a night which reverts to the familiar rousing atmosphere missing in 2001.

Organisers say ticket sales have broken records and raised more than �3.6m for the first time.

Proms in the Park have expanded

Half the 73 main Royal Albert Hall concerts were sold-out in the century-old summer series.

Leonard Slatkin will lead the BBC Symphony Orchestra on Saturday night, which features the traditional favourites Land of Hope and Glory, Jerusalem and the National Anthem.

Those rousing anthems were replaced in 2001 by what organisers decided were more appropriate pieces such as Barber's Adagio for Strings and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

There were American and British flags waved by people singing The Star-Spangled Banner and God Save The Queen.

US broadcasts

This year's Proms included "Composer Portraits", Poetry Proms, the Proms Lecture and more than 30 pre-Prom talks.

There were five BBC Proms in the Park events around the UK including the first Prom in the Park in Belfast and the brand-new BBC Blue Planet Prom in the Park.

Overall there will have been more than 340,000 attendances at BBC Proms events between 19 July and 15 September.

Leonard Slatkin leads the Last Night

The US National Public Radio is broadcasting 12 concerts attracting up to two million listeners.

American audiences will hear the Last Night live, coast-to-coast, following a successful broadcast last year.

Nicholas Kenyon, Director of the BBC Proms, said: "It is fantastic that the BBC Proms continue to grow, and continues to be valued by a huge audience, live and on air.

"Our sense of adventure in the repertory has been as great as ever, and through digital and online broadcasts we are exploring new ways of communicating with our audiences.

"The pessimists are wrong. Classical music is flourishing, especially at the Proms."