GATESHEAD'S new Baltic Square - which opens in mid-September - is the setting for the first BBC Proms in the Park in the North-East.

The Proms concert, which attracts more than 100m viewers worldwide, is one of the inaugural events of Music Centre Gateshead, presented by Music North, and heralds a major upsurge in the arts due to start when the nearby £44.7m Baltic centre opens next spring.

Tickets for the event on September 15 sold out within weeks of release in April this year, but now more have been released.

During the first half of the BBC's Last Night of the Proms broadcast, Gateshead audiences will be entertained by the Northern Sinfonia, Northumbrian piper Kathryn Tickell and her band, folk musicians Alistair Anderson and Nancy Kerr, singer Graeme Danby and the Sinfonia Chorus. A familiar face with Sinfonia audiences, Howard Griffiths, will conduct.

During the concert interval, BBC-1 will show highlights from Gateshead and other Proms in the Park events in London, Cornwall and Liverpool.

The broadcast then goes live for the second half of the concert to the Royal Albert Hall when the audience in Gateshead will enjoy all the well-loved numbers of Last Night of the Proms, such as Rule Britannia and Jerusalem relayed live on a giant screen. Northern Sinfonia in Gateshead and the BBC Symphony in the Royal Albert Hall will then perform Land of Hope and Glory live in a synchronised performance not attempted before.

A spectacular closing finale will be provided by outdoor event producers, Alan Hillary Events, responsible for breathtaking fireworks displays on Tyneside since 1980, such as New Year's Eve celebrations and both Tall Ships races.

The Proms is the first event in Baltic Square, which opens at the same time as the Millennium Bridge, and will be the centrepiece of a weekend of live performance on the square, providing an early insight into the mix of music that is integral to the development of the £70m music centre.

For tickets, £12, call freephone 0800 953 0070; this is a promenade concert, standing only. The venue is wheelchair accessible.

l Baltic, the ambitious new international centre for contemporary art, is at the heart of a £250m scheme to regenerate Gateshead Quays.

The transformation of the disused 50s' flour warehouse into one of the biggest temporary art spaces in Europe will be completed for the opening on March 9, and bring artists from all over the world to the region.

Its multi-purpose space will include five galleries, artists' studios, a cinema/lecture area, library, archive and three different food and drink places, including a roof top restaurant with views over the Tyne.

Of the £45.7m cost of the venture, £33.4m came from the national lottery, with the remaining £12.3m split between Gateshead council, English Partnership through One North-East, the European regional development fund and Northern Arts.

The director is Sune Nordgren, aged 53, whose aim is to create a prominent art institution similar to the Guggenheim in Bilbao. The first artists in residence move into the building in January and begin work preparatory to the opening.