Lates is one of the Museum’s biggest events, staged on the last Wednesday of each month (except December) and themed around a science-related subject. It’s free and attracts around 4,000 visitors over the course of each night.
The average age range of visitors is 18–35, usually young professionals looking for a free, fun and engaging night out.
Why join us?
We offer you the opportunity to run an event with lots of very keen and eager-to-learn adults. In some cases we may be able to offer some financial assistance to help support your event too.
Upcoming themes:
- 29 May 2019: Measure of All Things
Partnering with the National Physical Laboratory, we’ll be celebrating the redefinition of the Kilogram and the exciting world of measurement. - 26 June 2019: Sexuality
Collaborating with Pride in London, we’ll be exploring sexuality with live music and performances. - 31 July 2019: Space
As part of our Summer of Space season, we’ll celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landings and all thing space. - 28 August 2019: Driverless!
Lates will be exploring the themes of our new exhibition Driverless: Who Is in Control? - 25 September 2019: Top Secret
We'll be exploring our new exhibition Top Secret, looking at the world of codebreaking, ciphers and secret communications as well as quantum computing. - 30 October 2019: Halloween
We'll be conjuring up a spooky night of events as we look at the science behind Halloween. - 27 November 2019: Art and Science
We’ll be exploring the worlds of science and art and the crossover between these two disciplines. - 29 January 2020: Medicine
Lates celebrates all things medicine as we launch our new Medicine Galleries, which are based on the extraordinary collections of Henry Wellcome and the Science Museum.
Please note that we confirm all events for each theme around 8–9 weeks before the event.
What we're looking for
Three different types of events fit into Lates:
1. Talks
- 30 minute talk repeated 2–3 times
- Caters to around 100–360 people over the night
- Introduces people to a concept and enthuses them about it
- Teaches audiences more about a subject they may know a little about
2. Drop-in events
- Run from 18.45–21.30
- Caters to around 400–600 people over the night
- Can be anything from showing off new technology or demonstrating scientific concepts to a performance or an experience
3. Workshops
- Run from 18.45–21.30
- Caters to around 500 people over the night
- Can be something that everyone contributes to create a collective result
- An alternative is a ‘make and take’—something for visitors to create and take away that can be completed in 15–20 mins, makes no mess and is rewarding and aesthetically pleasing
- Can also involve people learning a task, e.g. dance, drumming, knitting, games etc
Things to bear in mind
- Audience interaction: how will you keep your audience engaged?
- Jargon free: our audiences generally have no specific scientific knowledge so technical language must be kept to a minimum
- Humour: Lates visitors always respond very positively to added humour
- Social media: opportunities for our audiences to show their appreciation
- Costs: we have very limited funding but we can offer some assistance
- Resources: as a museum we are sometimes restricted in what we can do
- Health and safety: risk assessments and method statements will be required for most events
