Late night games at the V&A

I heart the V&A. Every last Friday of the month they throw open their doors until 10pm for fun free stuff.

Friday night's "Playgrounds" theme included a game called An Expedition with Mr Mirrors. It promised riddles and puzzles in a treasure hunt through the galleries.

Unfortunately I didn't participate. By the time we'd reached the place to sign up, all 300 spots had gone. Boo. I'd spent a crucial half hour queuing at the bar on arrival (I'm northern, it's ingrained) when I should have been queuing there. Oh well. The Silent Relay game looked fun too (people in comedy moustaches sleuthing round the place for clues) but we didn't have the patience to line up for another 45 minutes.

We did get to pass the giant parcel in the entrance hall though. It looked like a huge egg.

I didn't see what the parcel contained as it was unwrapped in stages during the evening. By complete coincidence I met someone  who works at the V&A (the lovely Celine) at a party on Saturday night who revealed that there were hundreds of origami shapes inside. How sweet.

There's something very special about galleries and museums at night. So even though we didn't manage to play many games (just as well for my friend who admitted "I'm not a joiner" half way through the evening), we enjoyed wandering through rooms like the new Medieval & Renaissance galleries.

Digital design exhibition Decode is also on at the moment (until 11 April). Some wicked interactive design was scattered round the V&A such as the movement sensitive mirrors (pictured second from above) and these:

Up close they look like mini tower blocks of light, about 40cm high, floating on the water in the garden. The beauty of them is that they each have a movement sensitive camera which briefly displays a pixelated black and white image of you on its front, like this one of my friend:

 

Way cool. Yes the V&A Lates are a thing of joy and well worth queuing for.

Stitched Up is the V&A's next late Friday on 30th April which will explore British craft traditions to celebrate the Quilts exhibition.

Other highly recommended monthly (free) lates I like are:

Late at Tate Britain - first Friday of every month. Next one is Shards of Utopia on 9th April.
Science Museum Lates - last Wednesday of every month. Next one is Experiment Earth on 31st March.

There must be more I don't know about, so do let me know.