Latin Late at the Horniman Museum

Young Londoners love the Horniman Museum for its family-friendly activities and traditional natural-history collection. Its overstuffed walrus, presumably preserved without reference to a picture of a live example, is legendary. But the endearing walrus is currently holidaying in a contemporary art gallery in Margate and on Friday

this week, at a lively after-hours session with a Latin American theme, admission is strictly for over-18s for once.

The evening, part of the museum’s summer-long Festina Latina programme, offers opportunities to pick up useful life skills at object-handling sessions (if you ever find yourself in trouble in the Amazon rainforest, knowing how to make poison arrows or use a blowpipe could come in handy).

You can watch the antics of Colombian acrobats from Circolombia, listen to storytelling, enjoy live music from all over South America or learn to tango in the museum’s Victorian conservatory.

Screenings of Joris Ivens’s poetic 1962 film ‘À Valparaiso’ – a portrait of a once prosperous and still beautiful seaport in Chile, built on 42 hills – take place at 6.45pm, 7.30pm and 8.15pm in the museum’s Natural History Gallery.

So, lots of fun, no kids – and there will be street food and cocktails on sale to add to the party atmosphere.