Big kids queue for adult 'night at the museum': Grown-ups get to sleep over in Natural History Museum

Jaw-dropping: David Attenborough with a fossil from a gigantopithecus in the general herbarium in the Natural History Museum

What happens when one of the world's most revered museums, whose hallowed halls and 70 million historical specimens have lit the imagination of generations of children and their proud parents, decide to host an adults-only slumber party?

That is what some 200 people were finding out last night as they queued outside the doors of the Natural History Museum in London for its overnight exhibition.

The £175-a-head "Dino Snores for grown-ups" event is based on a similar concept for children – but with a few vital tweaks. Gone, for example, are the T-shirt making, torch-lit trails and live animal shows that occupied young ones. In their place is a more esoteric itinerary including lectures on the sexual habits of insects, edible bug tasting, life drawing classes and horror movies that will beam all night inside the 132-year-old institution. And when the hall lights finally dim, many are expected to have unfurled their sleeping bags underneath the museum's centrepiece: the giant diplodocus that usually provides the most memorable experience on arrival.

While it all may seem rather ridiculous, tickets have been sold out for months. When The Independent on Sunday dropped in yesterday, excited participants were already eagerly queuing at the South Kensington site for a 7.30pm start. Daniel Clancy, a primary school teacher from north London, said he was delighted to get a "unique chance" to spend a night at the museum. The 30-year-old and his girlfriend, Zoë Palmer, were given tickets as a Christmas present from the latter's mother.

Mr Clancy said: "We're both very keen to go and spend the night there. It brings back lots of childhood memories – I used to love going there as a kid – and it definitely has a jewel-thief feel to it, all a bit mysterious.

Gillian Beeby and John Godsland, both 40 from Oundle, Northamptonshire, said: "We decided we couldn't wait till we had a family and the 'Dino Snores' gave us the opportunity." Paul Whyte, 38, from Crawley, Sussex, said he had wanted to be an archaeologist after watching Indiana Jones movies as a child. Together with his wife Katie, the couple thought the night opening would be a perfect opportunity to avoid the "hustle and bustle" of the daytime crowds. Ellis Becks and Nick Searle, both 23, from Kettering said: "We found out about it while Googling dinosaurs and thought it would be really interesting to visit at night. We've even brought a dinosaur pillow and hot water bottle."

The Natural History Museum has run "Dino Snores" for chaperoned children for nearly three years, offering youngsters the chance to "discover what really happens when the staff and visitors have gone home". But this is the third pilot aimed solely at adults – with six more events scheduled for next year. Organisers say that demand is fuelled largely by a generation eager to relive the experience on offer to the kids – without the kids. And if social media is any indication of national psyche, there will be no shortage of take-up next year.

Those who cannot wait that long can get a good idea of what life is like inside the Kensington institution with Sir David Attenborough's Natural History Museum Alive show on New Year's Day.