"It's been really nice these last couple of years – an Indian summer, almost," says BBC producer and programmer Lindsay Pell, optimistically. Organising the annual event is no small task. Proms in the Park has expanded massively since it began seven years ago, with 4,000 in the audience and a simple link-up to the Albert Hall. "We've got 20,000 in the audience this year and more planned for next year," says Pell. "There will be 140 singers on stage at one point, with the National Youth Choir of Scotland and the Glasgow Gaelic Choir, as well as Dame Evelyn Glennie, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Red Hot Chilli Pipers. Tickets went before we had a chance to tell people about it."

Pell's 'day job' is as senior producer in the BBC's Music Department, working on Radio 3 documentaries and broadcasts. A radio producer by training, her TV knowledge has expanded alongside the Proms in the Park. "We started out with a TV producer, but I took over after two years. You have to be able to speak TV language and orchestra language in this job. As well as being a TV event it's also a big event for the public out there in the park, so we have all these agendas to hit. It's quite a 3D puzzle putting all that together and making sure people enjoy themselves."

This year's puzzle is made up from the now established mix of well-loved classical pieces and well-known repertoire – from Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra, used so memorably in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, to the Adagio from Khachaturian's ballet Spartacus, which as those of an older vintage will remember was used as the theme tune to The Onedin Line.

"I do try and programme variety. If you're outside at night in the cold, you probably don't really want to concentrate for more than four minutes at a time, so I try to do different things to keep everyone interested and in party mood," says Pell. "But at the same time I try to stay close to my classical roots and introduce something unusual, something exciting and modern. A couple of years ago we had Swedish trombone virtuoso Christian Lindberg playing the Motorbike Concerto, a rigorously contemporary piece of work. But if audiences don't have preconceptions – and ours really are there to enjoy themselves – they'll often really take to these works."

This year's contemporary piece will come courtesy of world-famous Scottish percussionist Glennie. "She suggested a work called Drummer Queen by Matthew Hindson. I love it. It's definitely a bit 'out there', quite in-your-face contemporary classical music with what is essentially a massive drum kit."

Glennie will play in a line-up that includes Maria Friedman, who sings a medley of tunes from musicals past and present. "Getting the right people is really important. I have to think what big classical name the audiences would like to see, but I really object to the idea of getting someone who's commercially famous but not particularly outstanding musically. They've got to be well known but with an outstanding international reputation, which is why we've got Evelyn, for starters."

But alongside her own programming issues, Pell also has to deal with the ponderous issue that has always dogged the Proms – that of tradition. The format of the event in the Albert Hall has changed little since Sir Malcolm Sargent first whipped up the Prommers with true pomp and circumstance in the 1940s, despite concerted attempts at modernisation. But then singing, stamping and whistling along to the Henry Wood Fantasia On British Sea Songs is all part of the enjoyment for many audiences – although this year that particular joy is off the menu, in part to celebrate the centenary of British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose own Sea Songs will be played instead. But the gap will also be filled by a new work, a rare inclusion of new contemporary music into the hallowed second half of the Last Night.

"We are bucking tradition just a bit this year," admits Pell. "Proms director Roger Wright has commissioned young composer Anna Meredith (formerly composer in residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra] to write a piece, called Froms, that will involve a live link-up between all the Proms orchestras around the country: a world premiere of five concerts at the same time. It's a super piece and it will replace those Sea Songs that we've previously broadcast from Proms in the Park around the country."

Traditionalists need not fear – after the shock of the new it's business as usual. Scotland will say goodbye to the Albert Hall just before 'Jerusalem' for Pell's own Scottish version of the Last Night. "This year we've got Carmina Burana, followed by 'Highland Cathedral' and a very wild version of 'Auld Lang Syne'," says Pell with something approaching glee. "There's nothing quite like hearing Scots joining hands and singing 'Auld Lang Syne'. We do it better than anyone else."

The Last Night Of The Proms, BBC Proms in the Park will be broadcast live on BBC Radio Scotland and live on TV via the red button on BBC Television www.bbc.co.uk/proms/2008/promsinthepark/glasgow.shtml