The Louvre, about to break its attendance record, will launch free night

The Louvre, the most visited museum in the world, will beat this year its attendance record and propose from January a free night on the first Saturday of each month to diversify its audience, announced Wednesday his direction.

In view of attendance numbers at the end of November, the museum is expected to reach 10 million visitors by the end of the year, beating the annual attendance record set in 2012 with 9.7 million visitors, according to of the management, confirming a figure of the Parisian.

In 2017, the Louvre had recorded a sharp increase in attendance (after the year 2016 down, after the attacks of 2015 in Paris), welcoming 8.1 million visitors. With the Louvre-Lens, 8.5 million visitors will have admired the collections in 2017.

This upcoming record comes with the announcement of the launch of a free night every month, embellished with various fun activities, with the ambition to open up to a new audience, more popular, beyond the regulars and visitors. foreign tourists.

This new offer, from January 5th, will target first and foremost the people of Ile-de-France, but also young people and families with great children and teenagers. It is also offered to holders of the Culture Pass, which is being developed by the Ministry of Culture for young people.

The objective is that "this nocturne is a real lever of democratization of the Louvre," said the museum in a statement.

These twelve evenings from 18h to 21h45 (local time) will replace the first six free Sundays from October to March, the formula is abandoned, lack of success, free Sunday has not attracted those who do not come from 'ordinary.

"The number of national visitors coming for the first time to the Louvre was down on these free Sundays while the attendance of foreign visitors increased considerably, especially at the initiative of tourist agencies taking advantage of this windfall effect", says the Louvre.

"The popular categories have not been more numerous free Sundays: there is 16% of workers on free Sundays", according to a barometer of public Louvre.

The museum will propose to freely visit the wings Denon and Sully. The Richelieu wing will be free but only accessible by reservation. At the heart of oriental antique collections, several activities will be offered to visitors.

The year 2019 will be a test year, both on the choice of the time slot and the animations on offer.

In the Marly courtyard, at the first night of January 5th, a board games area and a reading corner will be nestled between two sculptures. Brass orchestra, tales, sketch workshops, unexpected presentations of works, treasure hunts will complete the discovery of collections by families.