Melbourne’s Open House event – the annual weekend in which the city’s eight top cultural venues open their doors for free – is extending “a special welcome” to people living in regional Victoria this year, with a range of free events, special offers and accommodation deals.

The 2-3 September program (now in its fourth year) includes special deals at selected cafes, plus $5 tickets to selected ACMI cinema shows.

This year’s participating venues – all state-owned – are the Arts Centre, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, the Immigration Museum, Melbourne Museum, NGV International, Scienceworks and the State Library of Victoria.

Among the weekend’s highlights will be a free concert at the Arts Centre, to be held alongside the Sunday Market. African musicians will perform with Indigenous performers and a range of refugee and migrant artists, as part of Multicultural Arts Victoria’s Mix It Up program.

The free special exhibitions – all within walking distance – will include The Paris End: Photography, fashion and glamour at The Ian Potter Centre, Rembrandt 1606-1669 at the NGV, and The Mirror of the World and The Changing face of Victoria photographic exhibitions at the State Library.

Scienceworks, in the city's west, will also host License to Spy, an interactive exploration of the world of spying.

Not all exhibitions at the venues will be free, however. The NGV’s Charles Blackman: Alice in Wonderland and Picasso: Love & War 1935-1945 will still require payment.