The core audience at the BBC’s Proms concerts come for reasons other than the music. “The origin of these summer traditions is a primal herd instinct, the urge to join with others in a festive act. When asked in a 2001 BBC survey why they chose to stand, most Prommers (38%) replied ‘because of who I was with.’ Others cited the ‘atmosphere’. These are herd reactions, innocent as chewing cud. But mass ritual can turn sinister when combined with feats of endurance that engender a sense of superiority – of being part of an elite that embraces pain.”