Northumberland Lights
Snooping around gardens, forests and old Edwardian buildings at night could be spooky, especially in the pumpkinny part of the year. But the illuminations of the Blyth in a New Light event, on November 2, will transform Ridley Park into a spangly glitter fest, and the only shivers down your spine will be if you fail to wear enough layers. Up to 50,000 people are expected to come to watch entertainers and outdoor performers, and to enjoy the ice-rink, food stalls and fireworks.
Also part of the festival, Kielder Forest, one of the most remote locations in Britain, hosts Wood Rush, a night cycle along a 13km trail that includes a dreamy 2km stretch along the new Lakeside Way path, with visual and auditory animations (Nov 12, £10pp, pre-book on 01434 652 220).
Brighton White Nights
The clocks will soon be going back, and the nights are getting darker, but Brighton and Hove council's doing its bit to counteract the effect, for one night at least. Its brand new White Lights festival will light up the city like a birthday cake, with artistic illuminations and installations, to "celebrate the start of winter".
On the line-up are romantic performance art and songs, comedy sketches of unrequited love and night-time tours of the Royal Pavilion - where the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra will perform while the Urban Playground dancers twist over the lawns. Late-night swimming sessions to music heard only underwater will be taking place at the Prince Regent Swimming Pool until 2am. Various other museums, restaurants and artists will leave their doors off the latch to allow visitors in.
• Oct 25-26, whitenightbrightonandhove.com
Picture perfect, London
Outdoor cinemas, cinemas like bars, secret cinema clubs ... the latest celluloid development is silent cinema. Not a throw-back to the pre-talkie variety, this experience follows in the mould of silent disco, with audience members each given their own set of wireless headphones to listen to the soundtrack, banishing popcorn-and-crunchy-packets noise pollution, and meaning you don't miss the action (aural at least) when you pop off to the lav or the bar. Launching at the Andaz hotel in London, the first screening on Oct 31 is The Shining, with monthly dates to follow.
• £10pp, silent-cinema.co.uk
Enchanted Forest, Perthshire
This autumn, the Enchanted Forest event in Faskally Wood near Pitlochry has a space theme, so you can expect encounters of the third kind down among the trees beside Loch Dunmore cast in multicolours by otherworldly lighting effects. Interactive displays, a kids' area, plus street entertainment at Pitlochry Autumn Festival in the town centre. There's a "space shuttle" bus to take you from Pitlochry's main street to the woodland (astronaut training provided).
• Oct 17-Nov 2. 0844 888 6688, enchantedforest.org.uk. Adults £11.50, children (3-16) £6.50, under 3s £1
Grizedale Big Draw, Lake District
John Ruskin aimed to teach people not to draw, but to see. Seeing as he lived down the road at the Brantwood estate by Coniston Water, Grizedale Forest's Big Draw event has taken his quote as inspiration to encourage visitors to experiment with sketching and art. Craft making and charcoal burning are among the activities available to entice folk to get creative among the forest's sculptures, which include works by Andy Goldsworthy.
• Oct 11, also 27-31. £2pp. campaignfordrawing.org
Klanging Banging, Leeds
Synthetic birdsong created from recorded traffic noise and bus brakes floats out from bird boxes hung in the branches of a canalside tree. Beneath a railway bridge an artist has playfully altered the acoustics of the space; an audio timeline traces Leeds's history from industrial to modern sounds. This is sound art, audio experiments that are part of Klanging Banging, a free sound-trail along the Neville Street tunnel, which leads from the station under the railway bridge.
• Until Nov 7. holbeckurbanvillage.co.uk/nevillestreet
Meet a really fungi
Will you unearth the rare pink ballerina, a fairy club or earthtongue? Discovering mushroom varieties such as these is the challenge of the day on various woodland walks run by the National Trust this month. Forage for edible 'shrooms at Attingham Park (today and tomorrow, 01743 708 162, £6 per adult, £3 per child), or Killerton estate in Devon (Nov 2, £7 per adult, £4.50 per child, 01392 881 345) and there's a mushroom photography class at Clumber Park, Nottingham on Oct 15, 20 and 23 (01909 476 592, £3pp).
• Booking essential, nationaltrust.org.uk
Love Food, Bristol
The tables will be heaving with artisan bread, wine, cheese, cakes, jam and other goodies from the region's small producers in a huge indoor market for the Love Food festival. And a country cider bar will stream green fizz to wash it all down with.
• Oct 19 and Nov 30, free entry. Paintworks centre, Bath Road. 07815 308 488, lovefoodfestival.com
