SOME of Oxford's most recognisable buildings were lit up for one night only in a dazzling display of colours, with organisers hailing the stunt a runaway success.

The Bodleian Library, the Museum of Natural History and the Ashmolean Museum were bathed in glorious lights on Friday as part of a unique gathering centred on Oxford University buildings.

The Society of Light and Lighting which ran its third Night of Heritage Light teamed up with university staff who were entertaining thousands at the Curiosity Carnival, held across the city.

Other buildings lit up included the Museum of the History of Science, the Radcliffe Camera and the Radcliffe Observatory.

Lesley Paterson, who organised the Curiosity Carnival, said thousands of people had visited Oxford to take part in the events and be wowed by the setting.

Dr Paterson said: "It was brilliant. We don’t know the final numbers yet so we will get those but we know we had at least 10,000 people."

She organised the event as Oxford celebrated European Researchers' Night 2017, along with hundreds of other cities across the continent.

Events were held in an attempt to make academia more accessible to everyone, especially those who might have been intimidated by it before.

Dr Paterson said she was particularly surprised by the number of children who, despite cultural norms, showed no fear to dig into bugs at an event highlighting how people can get protein from some less traditional sources.

She said: "I couldn’t believe the number of children who didn’t think twice about eating bugs. "Culturally we are not brought up to think about eating them as protein sources - but they didn’t think twice.

"I ate a mealworm – it was like a Rice Krispie, it was OK and they were trying to get me to eat a cricket. They said if you eat prawns, crickets are similar but just outside water."

The event takes over a year to plan and develop so Curiosity Carnival 2.0 will need to wait until later than 2018 until it hits Oxford’s streets again.