The Proms is the world’s biggest music festival. And the one essential thing that every Proms boss has to do (the current incumbent is the genial Roger Wright) is to announce at the end of each season that it just got bigger — that more people than ever attended that summer’s concerts. The corporate pride of the BBC, which bankrolls the whole thing, demands no less.

Clearly not even the most Stalinist fiddling of the figures can ensure that the same number of concerts pull bigger and bigger audiences. So several years ago the Proms managers hit on a clever wheeze: each season they would add more events under the Proms umbrella, so that the total audience “reach” does indeed expand ever outwards.

The Last Night has already been turned into a multi-venue broadcasting link-up. And this year Wright has also expanded the Proms Chamber Music recitals at Cadogan Hall. There are 19 now, including 12 in three days over the Bank Holiday weekend, featuring brilliant young musicians. Wright has also expanded the “Proms Plus” events to include not just talks and discussions but films, a Proms Literary Festival, a “Proms Family Orchestra”, pieces written by teenage composers, a “Singing Day” for children, and an afternoon of Indian music in Kensington Gardens.

So you could enjoy a pretty full summer of “Proms” without ever setting foot in the Albert Hall, where the 76 main concerts take place. But I hope you sample those as well, because although the recession has robbed us of any visiting American orchestras (for the first time in living memory), there’s still a lot of top-notch stuff. And if you stand up, you can hear even the greatest musicians for a fiver, or even less if you have a season ticket. Still the best bargain in Western civilisation.

SIX UNMISSABLE PROMS

MAHLER NINE

Wonderful, autumnal symphony played by the LSO under the great Bernard Haitink, who is 80 this year and also celebrates the 50th anniversary of his British debut. Jul 20

THE FAIRY QUEEN

Glyndebourne’s riotous production should be vastly entertaining, even shorn of its lavish sets. Marvellous cast of singers and actors perform Purcell’s “semi-opera” loosely based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Jul 21

MULTIPLE PIANOS

Stupendous programme of music involving numerous flashing digits tickling many ivories. Includes John Adams’s preposterous but entertaining Grand Pianola Music and Stravinsky’s Les Noces. Aug 9

UKULELE ORCHESTRA OF GREAT BRITAIN

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