RAIN didn't stop play for the Haslemere Festival's first Proms in the Park on Lion Green on Saturday.

Nearly 700 people converged on the proms – a number which was swelled to around 3,000 thanks to Sunday's Party in the Park less than 24 hours later.

Music from bands of Bohunt, Woolmer Hill and Rodborough schools got the party started while the crowds set up their picnics Glyndebourne style.

The 50–strong festival orchestra was supported by a massed choir of more than 100 voices included the Festival Chorus, the Excelsis singers, the Bourne Singers, The Royal School Choir and the award-winning St Edmund's School Choir.

The programme had something for everyone, from The Dambusters to Matilda, The Hallelujah Chorus to Pomp and Circumstance, and Bridge over Troubled Water to Rule Britannia, Jerusalem and Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks – accompanied of course by a 30-minute display of pyrotechnics.

Volunteer Becca Dann said: "Despite the initial rain, it was a very civilised, very British affair."

For full story and pictures, see this week's Haslemere Herald.