Families Admitted for Free at National Children's Museum Friday

Families get free admission to the National Children's Museum at National Harbor on Friday.

The 23,000 square foot facility opened in December with a .

Friday will be the second time the museum has offered its Free Family Night, sponsored by GEICO. The first time was in January, when crowd showed up that that exceeded the museum's capacity. The museum had to close its doors, according to Michal Miller, National Children's Museum spokeswoman.

The museum is doing something new this time that will allow more people to participate. Instead of opening to everyone for three hours, as it did in January, the museum will offer families one of two 90-minute sessions, either 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., or 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. 

Ninety minutes is the average time most families spend in the facility anyway, according to Miller.

Multiple children's events and activities will take place on Friday, from performances in the theater, to a variety of crafts and activities in three activity rooms. A Festival of Nations is also taking place there this weekend, so family night activities will focus on intercultural crafts, Miller said.

Families will gain entrance to the first session with wristbands, which they can begin getting at 5 p.m.

"Once we run out of those wristbands and hit capacity, we'll start distributing the bands for the second session," Miller said. 

She declined to offer what the museum's capacity is, but said that its crowd control was for the benefit of the people who attend and necessary to comply with fire code.

The line for wristbands should begin at the museum's front entrance, according to Miller. Last month, the line was solid by around 4 p.m., she added.