Today, Copenhagen hosts its annual Kulturnat (culture-night). It is a city-wide event, where lots of musea, public institutions, art galleries, and much more open their doors to the public with special events to celebrate art, culture, history, and society.
Having lived abroad for some years, I have missed events such as this, and I couldn’t find local equivalents. I think it could be interesting to attend such events abroad, if they take place.
So, does your country have something like Kulturnat? Is it on a set schedule (annual, bi-annual, other), or is it more sporadic? What are the highlights of such events, if you have them?
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I think in general it is 18th May, when all the Museums are open for free. I thought that was an international day of Museums. But there is also the Summer Night of Museums, 17th June.
Art galleries are usually open for free as well, on these days. But some places have their own “open doors” events inbetween. Sometimes it is a whole week.
In Paris once a year you have the Nuit Blanche (white night). Lots of museums and open air air locations offer artistic performances and the like. There’s also les journées du patrimoine (heritage days), an event held during a weekend in the whole country where places generally not open to public can be visited.
We have a very similar concept in most major German cities, normaly it’s called Lange Nacht der Museen/Long Night of the Museums. The event is usually always annual.
Sometimes it has a different Name, in Nuremberg it’s called Blue Night, we were in Karlsruhe this year and it was called Kamuna, peak German humor Ka=Karlsruhe
mu=museum
na=Night.
But the concept is everywhere the same. Mixture of open Museums, music, readings, performances, theatre, workshops, video installations and parties.
In Germany we have “Lange Nacht der Kultur” (long night of the culture, called long night of the museum in other cities) at times, but I’m unaware if they follow an official schedule or if every city does this on it’s own. Another example is “day of the open monument” which is always the second Sunday in September. For example we have a – still inhabited – mansion of our local Prince in town. You can visit it on guided tours for a fee regularly. At the day of the open monument access is free, and you get additional free guided tours through areas which are usually off-limits.
Each year the second weekend in September have the national Open Monumentendag, Open Monument Day, where a lot of monumental buildings and smaller museums (which are often housed in historical buildings) open their doors and you can visit for free and there’s often lots of special tours and activities.
And some cities host a “museumnacht”, museum night, where the city’s museums will stay open until late and they’ll have special events and tours and sometimes concerts. Most of these are annual events as well.
We have a “museum night” that takes place in late May every year. It’s pretty much exactly like Kulturnat: open museums, cultural events, performances, exhibitions, and so on. There’s also a theme that changes annually; this year’s theme was “history”.
The second last Friday of September is Culture Night in Ireland. Cultural institutions like galleries and museums open late and have lectures and performances. Places that usually charge money, or are closed to the public (for example, the freemason’s lodge in Dublin) are open and free for that evening.
In Bergen we have the single day Kulturnatt in autumn and the much bigger Festspillene in may/june festspillene is opened by the king every year
[https://www.kulturnatt-bergen.no/](https://www.kulturnatt-bergen.no/)
[fib.no](https://festspillene.no).
I don’t think we have anything nation wide, but we have a *Kulturnatt* in several towns. We call it *Kulturnatta* here in Gothenburg. We also have *Kulturkalaset* (formerly *Göteborgskalaset*) which is similar, if a bit more mainstream and over several days.
Oslo has kulturnatt each year in September with museums, galleries, churches and other venues open
There’s also Musikkens dag in the summer, with a lot of open and free concerts
In September there’s also the Oslo open houses, a weekend with access to interesting architecture
And, there’s two evenings/nights with walks along two of the cities rivers, with lights and events along the way
Each of the events are well worth participating in, at least as a local recident
The UK tried to launch something similar. “Museums at Night”, in some places just called “Lates”, was a thing from 2009-2020 every May and October across the country. It stopped during COVID and never returned, but there were already questions about funding before that.
It’s less of a big deal over there though as museums tend to be free anyway – it was more to do with the extra events. All public museums are free and many private ones follow the trend. I’m living in Germany currently and I hate shelling out 20€ just to visit a museum. I’d be far more interested in a Culture Night as a result.
We just had ‘Lange Nacht der Museen’ (long night of museums) which is held every year in early october throughout the country. There’s also ‘Lange Nacht der Kirchen’ (churches), Kriminacht and today I saw an ad for ‘Lange Nacht der Literatur’ (probably a new concept).
Yes. In Ireland we have Oíche Cultúrlann or Culture Night. Fell this year on September 22nd. Was a grand aul night. Traditional song and dance, food, Seanchaí (village elders who tell stories often throughthe Irishlanguage) telling old stories and of course alot of drinking is done🤣