I Went To A Silent Disco And Here's What Happened

By Isabelle Garreaud on April 5, 2016

Marmotime/Instagram

I don’t know when exactly the silent disco craze started but after hearing a lot of talk about them and constantly seeing a bunch of people partying with headphones on in the NYC life Snapchat story, I decided I wanted to see what the hype was all about. They have been happening at musical festivals, private parties (like weddings), and, of course, at clubs in cities.

It didn’t take much effort to find a silent disco happening near me and I was surprised to see that it would only cost me $5 for a ticket. Well, that’s if you bought it early but the general admission price ($15) and at the door price ($25) is still pretty cheap considering it is NYC. My friends and I bought tickets for a quiet event (that’s actually the name of the website) on April 2 in Brooklyn a month in advance because we are that spontaneous.

I went to a silent disco and this is what happened. Hold off on your questions, you will see what a silent disco actually is later.

The party didn’t start until 10:00pm so my friends and I had plenty of time to get all dolled up and hop on a 35-minute Subway ride to Kimoto Rooftop somewhere in Brooklyn. We arrived fashionably late around 11 p.m. to, what appeared to be a hotel, that was so much less sketchy than its surrounding area. We automatically felt cool standing in line in a colorfully lit lobby, waiting for the bouncer to load us in a blue-lit elevator.

When we finally made it to the penthouse, we were guided to a hallway where we were obligated to check our coats. I don’t know if this is a rule for all silent discos but at this one, we had to pay $4 to check our coat and it wasn’t an option. After that, we were given our fabulous headphones, which we had to link our credit card to so, you know, we don’t steal them. There is a switch on the side that allows you to choose between three DJs: green was Top 40 hits and Pop music, blue was Hip-Hop and R&B, and red was 80s/90s music. The best part of the headphones was you could decide how deaf you want to be by the end of the night because you were in control of the volume.

This would be me trying to adjust my headphones.

If you ever get a chance to party at a silent disco, here’s a tip: DON’T WEAR EARRINGS. I learned very quickly that having headphones pushing against your super cute earrings all night isn’t fun. I ended up having to stash them in my pocket, which made me glad I opted for pants instead of a dress. You are dancing in a dark room all night so, really, what accessories you are wearing won’t matter because you can’t see a damn thing. I thought this one girl who joined our dance circle had brown hair but when I saw her in the lobby as we were leaving, she had orange hair. My point is, no one can see you so don’t stress so much on your outfit.

Picture walking in on this: a whole bunch of people with headphones on, dancing to a different beat singing a bunch of different lyrics that don’t match up. You don’t hear any music, only people talking/singing/yelling and the occasional DJ asking if everyone is having a fun night. That’s what is great about these silent discos, though, they don’t cause noise disturbance to those who weren’t invited. If you actually want to have a conversation with someone, all you have to do is take your headphones off and viola, you will be able to hear what they are saying in a normal tone of voice. Clubs may be fun and all, but at the end, your ears are ringing, your throat hurts from yelling and you’re complaining how you didn’t like the DJ’s music you had no choice but to listen to.

These quiet clubbing events are so much less stressful. You can bond better with strangers (especially if you are both listening to the same DJ) and don’t mind so much if you are a bad dancer because no one will know if you are off beat. I’m not one to go to dance parties but this one was fun because everyone was comfortable dancing with everyone else. At one point, I lost my friends and while walking around looking for them, I got pulled into four different dance circles, all because I had the same colored headphones as they did. That’s basically how the whole night went: dancing with random strangers until you switched DJ’s.

The blue DJ gave us glow sticks for listening to his music.

My favorite part of the night was when the song “Follow the Leader” by the Soca Boys came on and immediately everyone formed a long conga line that toured around the rooftop until the song ended. I had no idea whose shoulders I had my hands on, nor did I know who was holding my waist because I got pulled in before I even realized what song was playing. After the conga line dissolved, I met my friends at the bar and we got overpriced cosmos because we are 21 dancing on a rooftop in NYC. Everyone at this event had to be 21 or over but I wasn’t expecting the age group to be such a big range. There were college students like me, but also, people who have long since graduated. I guess you can never be too old to party it up in NYC.

We stayed the entire time until the DJs announced that they were wrapping it up and we should start leaving soon. That’s when we realized it was 2 a.m. and our feet were killing us so we figured it was a good time to leave. We returned our headphones and reality came back to us as we rode the quiet subway home. An hour later I was back in my dorm, telling my underage roommates how fun a silent disco is and throwing off the heels I know I will be putting on again.

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