Carols at Kings....

[mamakoula]

For many years I have REALLY wanted to attend carols at Kings. Listening to the service on the radio is a Christmas tradition.

Has anybody ever been and what time does line up for tickets start? We would be traveling a long way to get there so would not want to not get tickets. What time did you line up and what would you recommend? Do the same number of people as requested tickets need to be lined up as well?

Ta!

According to the Kings website "Normally anyone joining the queue before 9am will get in, but we cannot guarantee this."
Not sure I understand what you mean about requesting tickets but saving spaces for people who then only turned up at the last minute would not go down well!

thanks! Fair point about place saving etc and I agree with what you've written. A number of years back I remember reading an article about people lining up for entry and some would be there quite quite early. Wish I'd kept the article.

tickets/reserved seats generally only for the choristers families and a few great and good. Very very limited. everyone else queues. And yes you do need to get there very early especially if you want to be in the bit you see on tv rather than the outer bit of the chapel. People do save spaces in the queue though so friends etc can go to toilets get coffee warm up.

I have never actually been to the service though. Have been on christmas day a few times. Lovely.

Oh and don't bring children unless you are happy to leave/sit at the back. Teenagers already but it is boring for the very young

In order to see anything of the service you need to be in the first 125 of the queue (the rest are seated on the other side of the screen so don't see the service!). I think at some point in the morning, "tickets" are handed out and the rules explained. Anyone who doesn't get a ticket at that point won't get in.
Personally, I'd rather be at home baking mince pies than standing in the damp cold of a Cambridge December day!
If you are interested in attending something similar, the service you should go to is the St John's Advent carol service (which those in the know think is better!). You can apply for tickets for this - I think by the end of October.

Oh! Hadn't thought of a Christmas day service Thereonthestair, and ta for the suggestion of St Johns Lilymaid. would early queueing be something like 4 am or would it be an all-nighter?

Look out here to apply for next year's St John's Advent Services. I'm not sure when applications can start, but 31st October is the cut off date. There are people admitted on the day without these tickets (and a porter told us that it can be a bit of a scrum so that sometimes people just nip in without having queued for hours).
There's an Epiphany service in January that is also good.

For christmas day I would say you only neeed to get there about 90 mins early as obviously there is less demand and largely it is only Cambridge folk who go