Brussels’ museums will come alive after dark on Saturday, 17 October 2026, as Museum Night Fever returns for its 19th edition. A total of 28 cultural venues across the Belgian capital will welcome visitors for an evening of exhibitions, performances, workshops and music.
Organised by Brussels Museums, the city’s museum federation, the annual event brings together major institutions and smaller venues for a programme developed in collaboration with emerging artists. From 7:00 pm until 1:00 am, visitors can explore familiar collections in a different setting and discover museums they may not previously have visited.
Brussels City Hall joins the programme for the first time this year, offering an opportunity to discover its interiors after hours. Other participating venues range from Autoworld and Train World to the House of European History and the Musical Instruments Museum.
The evening combines access to collections with creative activities, inviting visitors to experience museums as spaces for performance and participation as well as exhibition. The involvement of emerging artists adds another dimension to the event, bringing new interpretations and contemporary perspectives into the participating institutions.
Art, workshops and music after dark
Across the participating locations, the programme combines exhibitions with activities and performances, giving visitors several ways to experience the collections beyond a conventional museum visit.
At the Art & History Museum, an open studio will invite participants to explore modern Inuit art through practical experiments with colour and form. Drawing inspiration from its clean lines, simplified silhouettes and contrasting shapes, visitors can work with watercolour pencils or try a simple block print using a woodcut and watercolour.
The activity offers an opportunity to respond creatively to the exhibition, experimenting with soft colour gradients, pigment and contrasting forms rather than simply observing the works on display.
The Fashion & Lace Museum will host a workshop called “The Texture of Scent”, while the Belgian Museum of Freemasonry will offer a DJ set combining contemporary house music with samples from CEDOM’s Masonic audio archives.
The variety of activities makes it possible to build an evening around different interests, whether photography, history, fashion, transport or contemporary art. With 28 venues taking part, the event also offers a chance to move between institutions and experience different sides of Brussels’ cultural scene.
The six-hour programme leaves room for several stops, although the range of activities means visitors will need to make choices. Individual venue schedules provide a useful starting point for deciding which exhibitions, workshops and performances to prioritise.
Afterparties at Botanique and C12
The museum programme finishes at 1:00 am, but the evening continues at two afterparty venues for those with the appropriate ticket.
At Botanique, the programme spans club music, trance, pop and neoperreo across three stages. C12 will host Berlin-based Hyperaktivist, whose psychedelic-tinged techno will be accompanied by sets from Laura Charlier and Keyser.
In the smaller C11 space, RaQL will bring deconstructed Latin club sounds, alongside NMSS and Vera Moro. The afterparties extend the event’s combination of cultural discovery and nightlife beyond the museums themselves.
Tickets and transport
Presale tickets are available until 16 October 2026. A standard ticket costs €18 and includes access to all 28 participating venues, shuttle buses and the Noctis night bus network.
A combo ticket costs €29 and also provides access to the afterparties. On the day of the event, prices rise to €22 for a standard ticket and €33 for a combo ticket.
The organisers’ online programme provides details of the activities at each venue, allowing visitors to choose their stops and plan an itinerary before the evening begins.
