Saturday 19th May will mark Kew Bridge Steam Museum's first foray into the Museums at Night festival of after-hours events at museums and galleries.
This isn't to say that we haven't had dark and spooky night-time tours before, but there is something different about organising an evening as part of a much wider series of events.
The feeling of partnership with other museums throwing their doors open for night-time exploration, and the excitement at what some other sites are doing has really inspired us to create something extra special.
The question was how best to show off our towering steam engines. What would inspire visitors to come and have a peek inside the museum after hours?
Candles, was our answer. Lots of candles. We'll have the steam engines up and running as visitors explore, which will cast some pretty spectacular shadows from the candlelight. And we're running torchlight trails for our younger visitors, which should add to the eerie lighting effects.
The event is hugely reliant on our expert volunteers who will run the machines and guide the visitors. Luckily their passion for the museum is second to none, so they will be dragging people from the street into the museum if needs be!
Our limited budget means that marketing is heavily dependent on spreading the word through the local community (oh, the joys of flyering in the rain!)
Overall we have tried to create a family-friendly event, Steam Engines by Candlelight, that we would all really want to go to. Now we have to sit back and hope that others agree come Saturday night...
This post was originally published on the Museums at Night behind-the-scenes blog. Find Museums at Night events in your area at www.museumsatnight.org.uk