More than 550 students broke a record in silence over the weekend.
The Inter-Residence Council hosted a Silent Disco Saturday night at Talley Student Center, featuring music played on headphones rather than out loud. The event was the largest event of its kind in the U.S. to date, with more than 550 students in attendance.
Dakota Bentz, a freshman in biomedical engineering, said she decided to attend Silent Disco because it was free and sounded exciting.
“I’m having a lot of fun so far,” Bentz said at the event. “Everyone is dancing and the DJs music is good.”
IRC executive board member Kris Gower, a junior in international studies, presented the idea for the Silent Disco to the IRC last fall after attending a similar event in London.
“We wanted to think outside of the box, and this was basically the biggest and craziest idea I could come up with,” Gower said. “Everyone immediately loved the idea and knew we had to try it.”
Initially, IRC surveyed University residents to see how much interest there would be in the event, according to Gower.
“Our results were really high, I think 83 percent approval,” Gower said. “We knew the event would be really expensive, so we didn’t want to go forward with the idea unless there was a lot of support.”
IRC paid the more than $20,000 price tag out of its budget, with help from the Union Activities Board and Student Government.
Ethan Harrelson, a senior in biology and student senator, handed out glow sticks from Student Government at Silent Disco.
“SG thought Silent Disco was an awesome idea and wanted to support IRC,” Harrelson said. “Our goal is to empower students, and we were able to do this by donating money to co-sponsor the event and buy glow sticks.”
The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Center also supported the event, and set up a booth at the event to give students more information on how they can get involved with the organization.
Adam Ward, a senior in environmental science, said IRC was giving the organization “face time, because a lot of students haven’t heard that GLBT is open to anyone and don’t know what the organization is about.”
Ward said there was a line out to Owen dorm, approximately 600 feet, when he was walking to Silent Disco.
“It’s a big success,” Ward said.
A unique aspect of the event was the presence of two DJs that students could choose between on their own headphones. The DJs competed to have more students listening to their music throughout the night.
“I like the competition between the DJs,” Bentz said. “I’ve been listening to DJ A most of the night.”
Silent Events Inc., the first American silent disco company, provided the headphones and technology for the event. Gower said IRC had initially planned to completely produce the event, but were excited to hear about a company that specialized in this type of production.
“I didn’t hear about this company until March,” Gower said. “They played a big part in this event’s success.”
The owner of Silent Events, Ryan Dowd, produced the first silent disco in the U.S. at Bonnaroo almost 10 years ago.
“We were using corporate headphones at the time, and I saw that people had a lot of complaints about the headphones and wanted to have more choices in the production of silent disco events,” Dowd said. “That’s when I decided to start my own company two years ago.”
Since then, Silent Events has been working to spread the idea of silent discos, although Dowd said many people still aren’t receptive towards the events.
“A lot of people don’t get the idea at first, but as you can see by the success of this event its really a lot of fun and successful with college students,” Dowd said.
In addition, Dowd said the event solves the problem of noise ordinances and actually makes it easier to talk to people when the headphones are off.
Brian Krystek, a junior in nuclear engineering, heard about the event through e-mail last year and wanted to attend.
“It’s one of the best ideas IRC has had for a student event I’ve ever seen,” Krystek said. “You can’t please everyone with music, so the music they have is probably the best for most of the audience. I definitely think they should plan this event again next year.”
Gower said the event’s target audience was freshman because it was at the end of Wolfpack Welcome Week.
“We wanted to offer an alcohol-free alternative to students at the end of their first week,” Gower said. “I already want to try it again next year outside, with more people allowed to come.”
Maria White, a sophomore in art and design, said she attended Silent Disco because she wanted to hear good music and dance.
“The music is mostly top-40, and I would like to hear more diverse options,” White said. “One DJ is more hip-hop, and one is upbeat. But overall the event at least meets my expectations.”
Matt Fitschan, a freshman in international relations, said he came because he saw videos of similar events online. His summed up the event in one word: “Awesome.”
