NEWPORT will stage its first “light night” event next month as part of the national Museums At Night celebration.

Every year hundreds of museums, galleries, libraries, archives and heritage sites open their doors for special evening events.

For the first time, organisations and businesses in the city centre will be joining the city’s Museum and Art Gallery and staging a range of activities on Friday, May 16.

Museum staff will lead a historic pubs walk while Patrick Drewett, of the Chartist anniversary committee, will help people retrace the footsteps of the 19th century campaigners for democracy.

Penny Hallas family workshops will be held in the museum between 5pm and 6.30pm while there will be a Turner talk in the art gallery.

With shared reading and bedtime story sessions in Newport Central Library and other activies in The Riverfront, The Project Space and Caffè Nero in Commercial Street, there will be plenty going on for all ages in the city centre that evening.

Councillor Debbie Wilcox, Newport City Council’s cabinet member for leisure and culture, said: “This is the first time Newport has joined the Museums At Night festival but I know it has grown to be extremely popular in other towns and cities so I’m sure it will attract many people into the city centre for what promises to be a special and different evening.”