Long Night of the Zurich Museums 2025
Saturday, 6 September 2025, 6:00 p.m. – 02:00 a.m.
During Zurich's Long Night of Museums there will be special activities and culinary surprises. Together with colleagues from the Palaeontological Institute, the Zurich Wilderness Park and the Entomological Collection of the ETH Zurich we offer a varied programme. The combined ticket for CHF 25 entitles you to visit all participating museums. Children born in 2008 or later enjoy free admission when accompanied by an adult. They require a combined ticket costing CHF 0.
Tickets can be purchased online – via Eventfrog. We do not offer the possibility to buy tickets at the museum.
6:00 p.m. – 1:30 a.m. Help create a colourful sea of flowers
On the museums night, we will transform the darkest corner of the museum into a colourful sea of flowers. By folding, rolling and cutting, we will create imaginative giant flowers out of paper. Let your creativity run wild and leave your flower behind for our oversized insects – the vital pollinators – in the museum!
6:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. Search for real fossils
School-age children and adults search for real fossils, that can be taken home.
6:00 p.m. – 1:30 a.m. Tombola
Buy a tombola ticket at the welcome desk. You might be lucky enough to win the grand prize: a private tour in the museum! Of course we also have smaller prizes.
6:00 p.m. – 1:00 a.m. 25 years of wild Sihlwald
The Wildnis Park Zurich will host a booth again at the Natural History Museum UZH and invites you to celebrate: 25 years of wild Sihlwald!
8:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m. Small wonders that are truely amazing
For once, the jewels and rarities of the ETH insect collection are not locked away behind glass! Explore the colours and shapes of spectacular insects through a binocular microscope and learn more about the diverse life of a hidden world.
Band – the Origins (8:00, 9:30, 10:00 & 11:00 p.m.)
Where the dinosaurs are silent, music speaks: the museum's own band "the Origins" brings new songs to life among the prehistoric giants.
7:30 – 7:50 p.m. How and why do organisms interact? (short talk)
Every organism interacts with many others during its lifetime. Some of them are enemies, others are friends. Can you identify a pair of interacting organisms and correctly guess how and why they interact?
9:30 – 9:50 p.m. How do goldfish hear us? (short talk)
Goldfish belong to the largest group of freshwater fishes known as the Ostariophysi. They are unique in possessing structural modifications of the first four cervical vertebrae as pairs of four ossicles connecting the anterior swim bladder with the inner ear, two organs fundamental to hydrostatic functions and hearing. Come and discover how this unique system works for audition and its extraordinary diversity in the fish that have conquered the hearts of human homes.
11:30 – 11:50 p.m. The deep roots of acoustic communication (short talk)
Palaeontologist Gabriel Aguirre will discuss recent findings on the deep roots of acoustic communication and how scientists “give a voice” to extinct animals. He will also refer to a recent interdisciplinary collaboration in which communication among humans and (other) animals is perceived across cultures around the world.
6:00 – 11:00 p.m. Street food on the ETH-Polyterasse
Treat yourself to a break and enjoy food and drink in the open air on ETH's Polyterasse.