Just Stop Oil run onto the stage during BBC Proms opening night
Just Stop Oil activists run onto the stage during BBC Proms opening night at the Royal Albert Hall
- This is a breaking news story, more to follow…
Just Stop Oil has stormed the stage during the first night of the BBC Proms, throwing confetti and blasting air horns.
Two activists unfurled an orange flag as they ran onto the stage at the Royal Albert Hall, managing to run in front of the orchestra before they were dragged away.
They are said to have launched themselves onto the platform shortly after the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s rendition of Sibelius’s Finlandia.
Audiences loudly booed and jeered as the performance was interrupted, shouting for the campaigners to be taken off the stage.
Security tackled the troublesome protesters and hauled them off stage.
The eco activist group announced confirmed on Twitter that they had been behind the disruptive action.
They mocked the dedicated musicians with the idiom: ‘We Cannot Afford to Fiddle While Rome Burns’.
They said two protesters ‘set off confetti cannons and sounded air horns, demanding the UK Government immediately halt all new oil and gas consents and licences. They attempted to address the audience before being forcibly removed,’ the group said.
‘Tonight’s action comes in response to the BBC’s underwhelming coverage of the climate emergency. In recent weeks, the BBC has been accused of ‘false balance’ as well as uncritically regurgitating government and oil company propaganda.’
Activists unfurled an orange Just Stop Oil flag on the stage in front of a packed Royal Albert Hall
Security tackled the troublesome protesters and hauled them off stage
The activists were quickly taken off the stage as crowds loudly booed them
One of those disrupting the BBC Proms, Kate Logan, a 38-year-old mum of two from London, said:
‘Many years ago, I sang with a youth choir at the Albert Hall, never imagining I would one day disrupt a performance here to draw attention to the planetary crisis we find ourselves in. But that’s what this has come to — our leaders and the press have failed us for decades and now it’s up to ordinary people to demand the changes we need.’
The other eco zealot, Pia Bastide, a 29-year-old community worker from London, said: ‘I’m sorry to harp on about it, but business as usual isn’t working anymore. We can no longer ignore this crisis when extreme temperatures are scorching Europe right now. Last week, the Secretary General of the United Nations said that the climate crisis is ‘out of control’. I refuse to accept that my future is being sold away, one new oil licence at a time, and do nothing.’
This is a breaking news story, more to follow…
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