A SPECTACULAR programme of events will light up the night in Oxford, as museums open their doors for the national Museums at Night festival.

It ties in with European event La Nuit Des Musées, and coincides with International Museums Day, which this year falls next Monday.

Lucie Dawkins, of the Ashmolean Museum in Beaumont Street, said this year’s event at the museum on Friday would be “absolutely enormous”.

Research by members of Oxford University’s social science division will be presented from 7pm to 10.30pm. There will also be performances from Senegalese dance group Justice in Motion.

The Natural History Museum and Pitt Rivers Museum in Parks Road are hosting a multi-sensory evening, Sensations, on the same night, from 7pm to 10pm.

Guests will be invited to explore the museum displays in the dark with a torch. There will also be chilli-tasting workshops and live music, as well as a cocktail bar.

The Museum of Oxford, in St Aldate’s, is staging an African Dance event on Saturday. Attractions include a mini-market and drumming workshop during the afternoon, and music, storytelling and dance from 7pm to 10pm.

Elsewhere, the Oxford Bus and Morris Motors Museum at Long Hanborough will remain open until 9pm on Wednesday, with a jazz band and cafe open throughout the evening. It is linking up with the Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock for the evening, by sending vintage buses and a classic car along to its ‘Forged in Fire’ exhibition, which will run from 7.30pm.

Visit museumsatnight.org.uk.