This open-air concert was one of those occasions that show the British people at their best. Tickets were expensive, but thousands turned up. The gates opened at 4.30pm, people began to set up their picnics and then the heavens also opened, in a furious deluge that lasted an hour and then simmered down into a miserable drizzle.

My wife and I live in Bladon, so were able to delay arrival until the worst was over, tramping through mud to the concert location. It was an amazing scene; unfazed by the weather, people were picnicking under Union Flag umbrellas, collapsible tents or even just out in the open wrapped in rugs and waterproofs. They had brought camping tables and chairs, there were bottles of champagne and beer, and there was a great deal of good cheer. Gradually the rain stopped, and the concert began after a Napoleonic cavalry display and a Diamond Jubilee gun salute from the assembled cannons.

There was familiar music from Elgar and Strauss, played by The New English Concert Orchestra conducted by Douglas Coombes — “We’re going to give it a real go in these conditions!”. There was opera sung by Denise Leigh, and the young violinist Katy Smith in Bruch’s violin concerto. Smoke from dozens of cannon turned the air red in Beethoven’s Battle Symphony, which also featured uniformed musketeers, and the whole thing came to an end with Jerusalem, Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory, as fireworks crackled in the sky above. Vivid memories are the little boy who ran about with his fingers in his ears during the 1812 Overture, two girl ballet students dancing spontaneously to the Nutcracker, and people waltzing to the Strauss and bopping to the more rhythmic music during the evening. It was a fine example of people making the best of very difficult circumstances with humour, and determination to enjoy themselves. I take my hat off to everyone there.