Proms at Sage Gateshead review – festival goes north for euphoric weekend that moves from Brahms to barking like dogs

‘I’ll pretend it’s me and my friends and we’re just chilling,” jokes Rebecca Lucy Taylor, better known as Self Esteem, admitting to feeling “quite nervous” at the start of her debut performance with a live orchestra. Behind her are the strings, horns, keyboards and percussion of the Royal Northern Sinfonia (RNS). In front of her, an audience are making a noise that conductor Robert Ames later compares to “a jet engine”. The whole thing is being recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3. No pressure.

The world’s largest classical music festival may still be synonymous with the Royal Albert Hall, but the fastest selling concert in Sage Gateshead’s history kicks off the Proms’ first ever festival weekend outside London. This year, the festival travels to towns including Aberystwyth, Great Yarmouth and Dewsbury. “This is the most ambitious thing we’ve done to date. We don’t want the Proms to just feel like a London festival,” says Proms director David Pickard. “When Sir Henry Wood started the Proms in 1895, the original mission was to bring the world of classical music to a