Once a year, Luxembourg City’s main museums and galleries open their doors at night to let everyone rediscover their collections but also experience something a little different.
All are hosting workshops, guided tours and live music or DJ sets throughout the evening. Here are some of the top picks of the most unusual and interesting ones on the agenda.
Villa Vauban
This collection of paintings by 17th century Dutch and Flemish artists of Italian landscapes are on view to the public for the first time, since most are held in private collections. Take a guided tour in English at 22:30 and use it as inspiration to create your own stamped postcard. Then stay for the sounds of SpudBencer on the turntables with a selection of soulful and jazzy tunes from around the world, from the ‘60s to the present day.
Casino Luxembourg
Head to the Casino’s ‘Aquarium’ to create a self-inflating paper balloon using the Japanese Kamifusen technique. Your creation can be used as a decorative item, lampshade or a toy. Workshops take place from 17:00 to 22:00.
Learn the Japanese art of Kamifusen or self-inflating paper balloons at Casino Luxembourg © Photo credit: Shutterstock
You can also join the Boogie sing-along karaoke night, and catch the trio SINGÜLAR who produce a blend of jazz, classical and electro music using a vibraphone, trumpet, piano and drums. They’re on at 20:30 and again at 00:15.
Lëtzebuerg City Museum
Ever wondered who was who in Luxembourg’s history. Well now you can take a tour through the portrait gallery of this history museum to find out about pioneers in the country’s history from Boch and Godchaux to Lippmann and Wurth. The tour in English is at midnight.
Throughout the evening up until 01:00 you can get a tattoo silk-screened onto your skin or sing along with Tanja Duprez and Nadja Prange, part of cover band the Noisemakers.
Nationalmusée um Fëschmaart
Irish-born British painter Francis Bacon revolutionised 20th century art, and you can not only see some of his works, but hear from him in Francis Bacon talks to Francis Bacon, a fictitious soliloquy about fear, faith, death, beauty and excess created by Luxembourg director Thierry Mousset and performed by Kristof von Boven in English several times during the evening.
Cape Verdean band Grupo Pilon will be performing Funaná music, and you can take a guided tour of Alfred Cunha’s photographs which document the fall of the Portuguese dictatorship on 25 April 1974, but also the fall of their empire in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, East Timor and Cape Verde (in English at 19:45).
Natur Musée
See how some insects and their larvae glow luminously under a UV light, find out how animals prepare for winter – from food stores to growing a thicker coat of fur – and head out on an enchanted night walk for children at 20:00 (in English and German).
Musée Dräi Eechelen
Equipped with a helmet, walk through the tunnel which connects the Thüngen and Obergrünewald forts and was built by the Austrians in 1732-33. Guided tours through the tunnel (just two metres high and one metre wide, so not for the faint-hearted) will set off every 30 minutes.
Join designer Julie Conrad to create a multi-functional pouch using reclaimed banners with a focus on sustainable crafting.
Mudam
“Thonk piece: 80% twins” sees Toronto-based drag queens Mary Messhausen perform intoxicating songs to open the gallery’s exhibition by Cosima von Bonin entitled Songs for Gay Dogs. Then relax in the restaurant area with cocktails and DJ sets.
Advance tickets are €10 for adults, €3 for young adults aged 16-26 years and free for those under 16 years, and €15/7 if you buy them on the night. You can find the full programme here.
