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© Celia Topping
© Celia Topping

Dino Snores: a night at the museum

At a Dino Snores for Grown Ups sleepover, the Natural History Museum lets the adults in on the fun. We pack our toothbrush for a night with the beasts

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I can't remember how long I've wanted to do a Dino Snores all-nighter. Now, at last, I'm here, along with a bunch of other adults similarly intent on indulging their inner child in their favourite museum, with the prospect of a magical night ahead...

What's on the Dino Snores itinerary?

7.30pm

7.30pm
7.30pm
© Celia Topping

The small herd of adults surging through the Natural History Museum’s doors, clutching their sleeping bags and pillows, are as expectant and excited as any child about to camp out overnight in the museum under the watchful eye of Dippy the Diplodocus. The eager Dino Snorers spread out, each finding their own snug corner next to a skeletal glyptodon or stuffed giant moa bird.

8.30pm

8.30pm
8.30pm
© Celia Topping
The drinking begins in earnest over a three-course meal of bistro-style food, and some pretty cool raffle prizes are won, such as the much-coveted dinosaur cookie-cutters and curly-whirly, tyrannosaurus rex straws. 
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10.30pm

10.30pm
10.30pm
© Celia Topping
In the ‘Brutal Insect Sex’ lecture we learn how dust mites are nefarious date-rapists and we see some of the most peculiar-shaped penises known to man, all enthusiastically revealed by Dr Erica McAlister, resident ‘Fly Girl’ at the NHM. In stiff competition for Erica’s willy-heavy talk is Simon Watt, stand-up comic and biologist by trade, who manages to comprehensively answer our most burning biological question: ‘Who would win in a fight between a crocodile and a shark?’(The shark, surprisingly; it’s heavier and faster.)

11.30pm

11.30pm
11.30pm
© Celia Topping
Screwed-up faces and cries of ‘Euuurgh, it tastes like mouldy cheese and onion crisps!’ fill the dining room during the feast of edible insects, while on the far side of the museum a life-drawing session is taking place with a subject who looks curiously like a cross between Alan Davies and Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Vitruvian Man’, only without all the extra arms and legs. Not all the resultant drawings are particularly kind.
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12.30am

12.30am
12.30am
© Celia Topping
Everyone is free to roam the galleries in glorious peaceful seclusion while taking part in a treasure hunt. I come across an amorous couple, appropriately, under the ‘Extinction: Not the End of the World?’ wishing tree, where notes such as ‘I hope David Attenborough doesn’t go extinct’ are hung. I beat a retreat, only to find out later the couple had just got engaged. So, no extinction just yet… 

2.30am

2.30am
2.30am
© Celia Topping
The inevitable onesies come out, last drinks are ordered, ghost stories are told and the ‘Jurassic Park’ movie marathon begins in the Marine Invertebrates room, as our over-tired troopers settle down for the night. 
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6am

6am
6am
© Celia Topping
I wake, set adrift on my half-deflated air mattress. The central lobby looks like a vast emergency evacuation hall, with bodies all over the place. A full English breakfast and a mug of tea bring us back to life before, sadly, the doors open to the hoi polloi.

Want to go? Read more about Dino Snores here

Max Richter: ‘SLEEP’

  • Things to do
  • Concerts
  • Alexandra Palace
London’s arts institutions love a good sleepover. You can already get 40 winks at the Natural History Museum’ Dino Snores nights and the Science Museum’s Astronights, and now Ally Pally is getting in on the act too. The north London institution is collaborating with British-German composer Max Richter for two very special overnight events celebrating the tenth anniversary of his epic composition SLEEP. Comprising 204 individual tracks, SLEEP the mammoth epic, 8 hour and 30 minute-long lullaby was created for listeners to fall asleep to, and has already been performed live at some of the world’s most iconic concert venues, including Sydney Opera House and the Philharmonie de Paris.  And now it’s north London’s turn to host more of his truly special all-nighters, with two performances taking place this September, starting at 10pm and finishing at around 6am as the sun rises. Fancy bunkering down in the Grade II-listed Great Hall for the night?  Tickets start at £249.75, which gets you a bed and bedding, plus a light breakfast at the end of the performance. Sure, that’s pretty steep for a concert, but it’s not unreasonable for a one-night stay in one of London’s fancier hotels, and that’s how we prefer to think of the experience!
See all Dino Snores events in London
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