If you thought museum sleepovers were only for children’s parties, think again. Staying the night in museums and galleries is now an increasingly adult-only affair.
The Natural History Museum ran its first Dino Snores for Grown-ups night in 2012, catering for increasing customer demand, says Eszter Dobos from the museum’s events department. “The event is most popular with the 25-45 age group,” she says. Most people attend as part of a couple or in a small group, but there’s a fair amount of mingling too – especially at dinner, says Dobos, so for some the appeal may well be the hope of meeting a soulmate among the skeletons.
At £180 for the night, it’s definitely not one for the kids. But your ticket price does include a three-course dinner (typical menu: ham hock terrine, roast lamb and banoffee mess with a sea salt crunch). A cash bar runs till 1am, but rowdy behaviour is frowned upon; hen and stag parties are strictly forbidden. Beds come in the form of foam mattresses under the famous Dippy skeleton in the main Hintze hall. Does anyone actually get any sleep? “Some do!” says Dobos. “But if you don’t want to go to bed you can join in the all-night movie marathon instead.”
Not to be outdone, the Museum of London ran its first Sleeping With Sherlock event in March, the adult version of its Sherlock’s Night Owls sleepovers. There were no sightings of Benedict Cumberbatch, but guests could attend lectures in forensics and scare themselves silly listening to ghost stories performed by actors.
This month, the after-hours festival Museums At Night returns (13-16 May), with more than 500 events nationwide including the chance for a sleepover at some of the country’s best known venues, and even a cold war-inspired rave with DJ Yoda at the RAF museum in Hendon. Many of these events are for over-18s only but there are plenty of family-friendly museum sleepover events too if you really have to let the children in on the action.
