Buenos Aires Up All Night

Senior Researcher Meg Weaver advises you to mark your calendars for an art-filled night in Argentina.

If you happen to be in Buenos Aires on Saturday, November 15th, basking in the spring sunshine, don’t miss the city’s fifth annual Noche de los Museos (Night of the Museums).

On this special night, state and national museums, universities, and private galleries open their doors for free from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. A city-wide artistic block party ensues, with films and performances of jazz, tango, folk, techno, choral, and rock music throughout the city’s many artistic venues. Last year 102 institutions participated and 414,000 people attended. Many train and minibus lines operate free of charge, too, carting culture lovers from venue to venue.

Expat Irish blogger, Paddy in BA, says he felt a bit like Ben Stiller’s security guard character in the 2006 film Night at the Museum

while strolling through the museums after dark (without T. Rex skeletons chasing him, of course). And the event reminded me of one of my favorite books as a kid, The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, in which a brother and sister run away to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and explore it at night.

Paddy in BA adds that Noche de los Museos is not all high-brow fun, as it ends with a smashing party down near Puerto Madero and runs into the wee hours. Last year’s closing party featured Argentine-American rocker Kevin Johansen & The Nada playing in front of 30,000 people from midnight ’til dawn.

Have you been to BA’s Noche de los Museos? Are there similar city-wide cultural festivals in cities closer to home? Fill us in on this awesome idea. Wonder if we can get something similar started here in DC. . .