The UK’s after-hours festival of arts, culture and heritage is set to return later this month, with the Museums at Night running from 25-27 October.

During the festival, hundreds of museums, galleries and historic spaces around the UK will open their doors after dark to put on an array of night time events that benefit from a certain special ambience due to their late hour.

"Early nightfall inspires spooky tours, light displays and cosy evenings of comedy, dance and theatre in unusual spaces," said Nick Stockman, campaigns manager for Culture24, which produces Museums at Night. "We hope everyone can find an exciting event that encourages them to spend more evenings in museums."

Among the activities planned for this October are a circus spectacular of vaulting acrobats and clowns and performers at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, a Halloween spectacular at Chiltern Open Air Museums in Buckinghamshire, a night of 80s nostalgia at the London Transport Museum, including a retro arcade of independent makers’ stalls and workshops, live illustration and tarot readings, and a celebration of “the hidden histories” of Gretna Green during a candle-lit evening in the Famous Blacksmiths Shop Museum at the UK’s most famous wedding venue.

Now in its tenth year, Museums at Night has become a popular event for generating interest and income for the cultural and heritage sectors. It runs twice a year and this year was extended into a conference in June, exploring the "Culture of Lates". A report from Culture24 claims that more than 18,000 Lates events have been registered with it since 2009, and £9.6m (US$12.5m, €10.8m) of ticket revenue earned from these events.