Saturday is the Last Night of the Proms, but is it still relevant to modern Britain? Sarah Urwin Jones asks key figures in the music world how they�d change it

Time to break out the swanee whistles, don your Union Jack hat and polish up your sea shanties. Yes, the annual flag-waving jamboree that is the Last Night of the Proms is upon us once more, and you're not getting in without a very large kazoo.

Of course, unless you've been camped outside the Albert Hall in London for the past week or are a generous sponsor of the Last Night, you're probably not getting in anyway on Saturday, no matter how big that airhorn you're wielding. But the question is, would you really want to? Is all that foot-stomping, choral-shouting and fierce balloon-one-upmanship really our 21st-century British bag? Indeed, if it hadn't been going for the past 100 years, one could be forgiven, in this modern Britain of red tape, draconian immigration laws and neighbourly suspicion, for thinking that this is one great big Britishness test, designed to weed out those who don't know the verse of Rule Britannia and chapter of Land of Hope and Glory.

The immutability of the Last Night, and the suggestion of anachronism, is no new concern. The Last Night, like the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College, Cambridge, is a "British institution".

Would Sir Henry Wood have approved? He may have started it all when he programmed his Fantasia on British Sea Songs in 1908, but it was Sir Malcolm Sargent, who reigned as Last Night conductor from 1947 to 1967, who really created the specifically "British" tradition of conductor's speech and attendant "patriotic" songs, from Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance No 1 (Land of Hope and Glory) to Parry's setting of William Blake's Jerusalem.

Ever since, despite cringes of embarrassment from corners of the BBC and the public at large, there has been uproar if changes have been made. Just think of the (albeit ludicrous) second-half programming of Sir Harrison Birtwistle's Panic in 1995, a year when the promenaders were exhorted to "leave their klaxons and pop-guns at home".

The Last Night might have been fielded out to the home nations with the successful Proms in the Park initiative in the past five years, but are we celebrating national differences or perpetuating the same Victorian vision - in Scotland's case a very tartan one - that some say blights the English Albert Hall original and its Rule Britannia? Is our inability to change the Last Night, in the face of the massive cultural developments in the UK in the past 50 years and an ethnically changing population, nostalgia or isolationism? I asked a few of our musical brethren how they felt the Last Night reflects modern Britain - and what they would do to update it.

Nicholas Kenyon, outgoing director of the BBC Proms and future director of the Barbican Centre, London The Last Night is a great iconic event, but nothing's set in stone. There was a time when the Pomp and Circumstance was annexed by the far right, but two million people singing Land of Hope and Glory in the Mall on the Queen's Jubilee - well, that seemed totally inclusive to me.

I think we've managed to evolve it over the last 12 years by taking it out to all corners of the UK with Proms in the Park, using more international soloists and introducing Welsh, Scottish and Irish elements to the Sea Songs - that was controversial at first. There is a sense of tamper at your peril! What the British don't like is the feeling of traditions being thrown out of the window, of babies and bathwater. But as long as you respect the traditions, you can develop it.

Andrew Kennedy, English tenor, singing Elgar's Spirit of England in this year's Last Night of the Proms I'm a huge fan of the Last Night. It's an absolutely glorious and very inclusive celebration of Englishness and Britishness, with premieres never usually heard by such an audience. I don't think it's anachronistic - people are clamouring to go when other concerts aren't so well attended. A concert hall is usually a place where you can't cough or sneeze or make a noise, so the Last Night takes it back to music hall.

It's very quirky and English, very Monty Python - all funny noises and horns. It shows we can laugh at ourselves. If anyone tried to change it, they'd probably be garrotted.

For me, generally, the more flags the better. Remember Sarah Walker's Union Jack dress? I'd like to see it reverting to a more traditionally British thing, with more UK artists performing. All singers should be encouraged to sing Rule Britannia - it's an institution. In these days of complicated political themes and issues about immigration, there's nothing wrong with celebrating our culture - and the Last Night is one of our glorious cultural bastions, where everyone can enjoy a good old sing-song and just have fun. I think it's a unifying thing in society. Long may it last.

Oliver Searle, Scottish composer The Last Night doesn't speak to me at all. I last watched it nine years ago. All that knee-bending and shouting things in unison. They're probably laughing at us in Japan. It is a bit of an anachronism, a hangover from empire. Rule Britannia is just anathema and out of date, with pretty terrible words. Britons shall never be slaves? No, but everyone else has been. And isn't it the anniversary of the abolition of slavery this year?

To ring the changes, I'd commission a new fanfare every year from a British composer. The Last Night is a chance for influencing societal and cultural change with new contemporary commissions that reflect our modern state. That won't happen if we keep settling for Land of Hope and Glory or Flower of Scotland.

I think the BBC have been very lazy when it comes to commissioning new pieces, outside London, for the Proms. Proms in the Park is an ideal opportunity to show what we can do artistically and culturally in Scotland, but we always go and put our kilts on and do a "Scots Wa'hey!" I would commission something new and accessible from Eddie MacGuire or John Maxwell Geddes and not do twee Scottish.

Why can't Scotland's Proms trend-set? It needs opening out to all our communities. We've got probably one of the best tabla players in the world in Scotland, Vijay Kangutkar - I'd put him on the programme.

Vijay Kangutkar, Indian tabla virtuoso and tutor at the Scottish Academy of Asian Art I've never heard the Last Night of the Proms. I've no idea what they play. I think that Indian classical music would work very well, though - I had a vision for an Indian Classical Music Proms in London, which really took off, and I'm hoping to organise the same thing in Scotland.

I don't know about Britishness being reflected in music, but the effect of Western musical tradition in Indian classical music is that now musicians turn up on time, the concert starts on time, and the musician irons his shirt. It's all very punctual now.

Anna Meredith, Scottish composer I don't think the Last Night is the time for sneaking in titbits of "proper" British music - this audience is braying for camp with all the trappings, so, for one night, why not go a bit Sing-Along-a-Sound-of-Music? I'd want the audience (Edwardian dress compulsory) to split into four groups for some stirring part-singing with sopranos in the stalls and basses in the balcony.

Staging would include the recreation of famous battles, with a replica of HMS Victory bursting through the walls. There'd be dry ice, lasers, fireworks and foam, to accompany the culmination of my Prom Idol competition (vote for your favourite MP/footballer/ newscaster to sing Rule Britannia with the words taped to the inside of their shield). Then thousands of Union Flag balloons in the shape of Henry Wood's head would fall in a patriotic rainstorm on the jubilant throng below.

Garry Walker, Scottish conductor, permanent guest conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra I don't see how you can criticise the Last Night, even if it is a bit anachronistic - the fact that so many orchestras do a Last Night of the Proms shows it's what people want. It's not my cup of tea, personally, but it's got its place.

It should be a celebration. I'd programme Malcolm Arnold, who wrote some very funny national dances, with a great drunken bassoon solo in the Scottish section - just the humour this occasion needs. It would be interesting to know if they'd ever commissioned anything from ethnic communities within Britain - someone like Nitin Sawhney would be on my list. I'd also programme something by someone not British reflecting on something inspirational from Britain, to get the outside perspective. Korngold's incidental music to Much Ado About Nothing, or perhaps Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor or Berlioz's Waverley Overture, inspired by Scott.

Jamie MacDougall, tenor with Scottish group Caledon and presenter of Proms in the Park from Glasgow Green Proms in the Park in Glasgow is a great night, with a fair amount of picnics and booze, Saltires and Union Jacks on offer. I think we've got the balance right this year - we're opting out of the Rule Britannia finale for Highland Cathedral because we felt the tunes were too English. My ideal would be getting the kind of top international stars they get in London. Hyde Park gets all the glamour, but I think we've got one of the best audiences. I'd choose Bryn Terfel, and not because he's my son's godfather. I just want to do a duet with Bryn.