Anita BriggsBy Anita Briggs, Digital Media Content Creator

RBS Museum Lates: First Look Live was a journey into unknown territory  for National Museums Scotland and proved to be a roaring success.

We’ve had the idea of having an after hours event for the 18+ age group for a while and, with the support of the RBS Group, RBS Museum Lates was conceived. Tickets went on sale in the first week of October and were completely sold out within a fortnight! All together some 1,200 were distributed, and they proved to be the hottest tickets in Edinburgh.

Many departments, led by our Learning and Programmes team at National Museums Scotland, worked together to bring First Look Live to fruition and this led to the exciting line up and array of live acts and activities on the night at the National Museum of Scotland.

Radio 1 DJ Ally McCrae played host to a stellar line up of Scottish talent, with exclusive performances by Ben Butler & Mousepad, S-Type and Found. A Chillout Zone provided a laid-back calm in the South Hall with face painting and retro games. The Imagine gallery became the cool dance spot with Silent Disco from Fresh Air FM under the watchful eye of the giant Chinese Dragon.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Special activities could also be found in Natural World galleries with safari snaps and creepy crawly encounters, bracelet making on the Magic Carpet in World Cultures and contributing to an evolving artwork in the Connect gallery.

As a roving photographer, I took shots throughout the evening of before and during the event and uploaded these to Flickr and posted regular tweets on Twitter.  A time lapse video of the action in the Grand Gallery was captured showing the whole event from set up to finale too!

You can see more of the live action here:

If you missed out on First Look Live, tickets are now on sale for RBS Museum Lates: Night of the Mummy on Friday 24 February, when we add our Fascinating Mummies to the mix…!

In the meantime, this is what some of those that came on to First Look Live had to say

“This is just a really good idea for an alternative night with friends!”

“Music and drink make standing in a museum more fun.”

“Fantastic venue and concept – awesome silent disco.”

“Vibrant atmosphere, a great feeling of excitement on entering the Grand Gallery, v-well put together, an unexpected and different night out.”

“Music and hot booze in a wonderful environment and I’ve had a good look at this rock!”

“It was all amazing! Loved every bit  music everything. No kids!”