When I got to know about the Museum Night happening in Leipzig & Halle, I got super excited. The same “tradition” is also held in Lithuania and every year, on one special night, ALL the museums are totally free to enter and are opened till midnight. What surprised me was that here you still need to pay 10eu for the general ticket, so it is not exactly for free. However, as there are so many cool museums in Leipzig, where each of them usually costs around that or even more, I thought it is worth to give it a try.
Choosing A Route
To decide which museums should be included in my personal Museum Night was not so easy as there is a great list of amazing museums in Leipzig & Halle. However as I had a few museums which I always wanted to see, it made my choices easier. On my "to see" list was Völki, Panometer, Kunstkraftwek, MdbK and it was also filled with one more name - Inspirata - as I was exploring the museums with my fiance who is always interested in experiments and science. After writing down this list I realized there is no chance we can visit all of these museums in 6 hours (as the “Museum Night” is only lasting from 18h - 00:00h). So our final decision was really dependent on transport (which by the way is also included in the ticket price, which I found very useful!), and the locations of these museums.
Discovering Inspirata
I have heard that Inspirata - the Science & Mathematics museum - is mostly for children and I didn’t really know what to expect, but as I mentioned before, I was together with a science person, so we just HAD to go there.
The first reaction was: “Oh, it reminds me our Lithuanian schools”. The "interior", the budget-friendly feel, even the smell remind me the school times, which is obviously not what you would expect when going to the Mathematics & Science museum (modern, advanced, high-tech). However, once we bought our Museum Night tickets and entered the rooms, we straight away felt the super positive vibes everywhere. People were having fun! You could hear the laughter all around: adults, teenagers, and children, everyone was occupied by their chosen experiments, puzzles or science games - it was beautiful. Of course, we tried a few experiments too! :D
Chill at Völki
After filling ourselves with the scientific vibes, we decided to move towards Völki. I must say, the weather wasn’t the most pleasant, as the rain didn’t stop for the whole evening. Once we reached the monument, (which we, of course, visited before, but never have been inside), we started looking for an entrance. Few seconds after we entered this enormously powerful space, we realized there is going to be a concert. We decided to go up, to have better acoustics and so started going up the spiral stairs. And we were going up and up and up, I thought the stairs will never end! We gave our full energy on climbing these stairs when at the top we realized there was an elevator - of course, there was!
The concert started with 3 people simply sitting on the ground, and playing super relaxing music, perfectly fitting for this ancient, historical environment. Everyone was chill, just sitting on the floor, with closed eyes, enjoying the echos bouncing from one statue to another. After checking out the very top of the monument (where we got totally smashed by the wave of wind and rain), we decided to do the same, just sit down and chill a bit, before going on a road again.
The Hypnotic Kunstkraftwerk
This was the museum I wanted to see the most, as I have seen some of their awesome 360-degree videos and it really caught my interest. Even the cold and rain didn’t ruin the cozy Kunstkraftwerk entrance filled with glowy fairy lights. Within the first second when we entered their space, my eyes lit up. While you are standing in one room, they play with the projector visuals and lead you through the different experiences, like displaying art from the Renaissance time, or immersing you in the water, or even surrounding you by night stars or some super extravagant art pieces. They let us experience so many different environments while we stayed in one place - this really got me and I was filled with excitement and great vibes.
The whole museum was full of different projector installations and interactive art pieces, which I found also very fun and unique.
So the initial plan was to finish the Museum Night in the museum of fine arts (MdbK), as we heard a lot about it but never had a chance to explore. However, the cold and hunger got us first and we found ourselves eating burgers some time before midnight, at home, cozy and warm.
All in all, we visited 3 different museums and it was for sure worth the money. Leipzig is full of artistic spaces and I cannot wait to explore further.
Thanks for reading my scribbles,
Justina from the #wootodoteam