Photo courtesy of Quiet Events Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Put on your headphones and a DJ battle and an epic dance party ensue. Take them off and it will be as quiet as an ice cream party.
Down in Toshi’s living room, a building that looms in the shadow of the Empire State Building, loud and slightly cheesy live music is just heating up. Bright red couches are filled with people clutching martinis, looking bored, blissful, or a combination of the two. No one is speaking – not that they could hear each other if they tried. This is a typical party: loud and noisy. But just beyond the deafening crowd at Toshi’s, there’s a sign for Quiet Events. If it’s too loud down here, just come up, says the sign.
Right next to the elevator, sits a table full of headphones and a few eager people checking in guests to the “silent disco” in the penthouse on the top floor. Up in the penthouse, everyone is wearing headphones – some with green lights, others with blue and even red lights. Even the three DJs have color, but the whole place is strangely quiet.
What’s going on here?” you might ask. Well, it’s a silent party. Put on your headphones and the music starts.
Peaceful clubbing is like going to a disco, but with headphones
The phenomenon is known as silent clubbing. It’s a growing trend in big cities where noise ordinances and other restrictions have encouraged clubgoers to get creative. In New York, thousands of people go to silent discos every week, put on headphones and just dance. There are several companies that host these parties around the country, but one of the most popular in NYC is Quiet Events.
Will Petz founded the company two and a half years ago, shortly after discovering a quiet club on a cruise with his family.
“When I first heard about it, I thought it was the stupidest thing in the world. But once you experience it, it’s great.”
“When I first heard about it, I thought it was the dumbest thing in the world,” Petz told Digital Trends. “But once you experience it, it’s great.”
When he returned to New York, Petz looked for another silent disco or club event, but found none. An entrepreneur at heart, he decided to start his own. It started with just a Petz, a few friends and some headphones. Now, two and a half years later, Quiet Events brings as many as 600 people nightly to NYC, has 3,000 headsets in circulation nationwide, and serves a loyal following of quiet clubbers.
Petz holds stationary silent discos in beer gardens, rooftops and bars throughout New York. He even invites pub crawls to mobile parties, where people with headphones on their ears quietly cross the city, moving from subway cars to ferries and roller coasters at Coney Island.
A lot of people think that hanging out quietly in clubs sounds like a silly idea at first, but Petz says he likes to challenge those people to give it a try. In the end, many of them end up seeing things his way.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
“The first thing you think of is an antisocial guy on a train with headphones on,” Petz said. “But it’s not like that at all. It’s actually very social. When you put on the headphones, you feel like you’re part of the group — you’re connected to everyone else. Then, when you take them off, you can actually talk to people.”
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We went to the Quiet Event ourselves and although the music is blaring through the headphones, as soon as you take them off, it becomes eerily quiet. You can hear people having long conversations, singing along to music that only they can hear, and breaking into what appears to be a spontaneous dance routine with those on the same station.
You control the music and the conversation
Most quiet events have two or three DJs playing different music throughout the night. Each DJ is assigned a frequency and a color, such as green, blue or red, so he can see how many people are at his station. And you can see, very easily. Each person’s headphones light up in the color of the station they’re listening to, leading to a strange form of peer pressure. You almost have a Facebook-esque “fear of missing out” feeling when you’re at a station that’s a different color than the crowd. Sometimes everyone seems to be listening to the same DJ, but sometimes it can be mixed pretty well. If the DJ plays a bad song, the audience will often riot and switch to another station. It exposes our natural instincts to rebel and follow the crowd.
“Here, all you have to do is take off your headphones and talk to people.”
Music is transmitted to the headphones via radio frequency instead of Bluetooth, to avoid losing the connection when you step out for a moment or during one of the company’s mobile parties where the silent disco is moved from place to place.
“You have more choices,” Petz said. “You control the DJ. You control the music. It’s about what you love. If the DJ starts playing rap and you hate it, change the station. It’s less about what the DJs like and more about what you like.”
In regular clubs, DJs can get cocky and stop paying attention to the crowd, Petz explains, but this doesn’t happen in quiet discos because the DJ is more aware of the crowd’s reaction to his music selections.
Resident DJ and personal friend of Petz Eziequiel Ramos told us that the silent events are his favorite because he loves the friendly competition that happens between different DJs.
“I’ve been DJing for over 15 years and for the last 2 years it’s been my favorite thing,” he said. “You see what other DJs are playing and if you see everyone nodding a different color, you think, ‘I’ve got to get the crowd back.’ It’s a fun way to be competitive.”
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Of course, the first time Ramos DJed for Quiet Events, it took him a while to adjust to the concept.
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“It was a little weird at first,” he said. “But I think that’s everyone’s reaction. It’s like, ‘What is this?’ but then you put your headphones on and you see everyone having a good time, singing and dancing. You ease in and get more comfortable as the night goes on. People are really getting into it.”
Quiet events bring people together
Back at Toshi’s penthouse, a group of people start singing, singing “I don’t care – I love it!” while I’m talking to Efthimija Johanides and her friend Tiffany Torres, who are coming to Quiet Events’ quiet club for the first time. Johanides heard about the event from a co-worker and was excited to go to another silent disco, having attended similar events during college at UCLA.
The only ones who didn’t start dancing were those without headphones.
“It’s very atypical, I think that’s the best word to describe it,” she said. “I’ve been to other silent disco type events at my university. We had them in the library during finals week with headphones on and the strobe lights off, but you could only hear the music through the headphones.”
“The place is great, but this is different,” she added. ” It’s nice to be on the roof in the summer with a beautiful view of the city. Besides, I really like this DJ.”
Her friend Torres agreed: “This is my first. It’s great — it’s really different. I would definitely be on someone else. I never heard of it until she told me.”
As we talked, everyone at the green station suddenly started singing “Cotton-Eyed Joe,” doing the same routine they probably all danced in high school. The only ones who didn’t dance were those without headphones and the few who listened to the blue station. A few of them moved over to join in the dance.
The spirit of quiet events is contagious, explains Petz.
“It’s a big party that only you’re invited to,” he said. “People are in their own zone and everyone can enjoy their own music, but it’s all about engaging people. Sometimes, when we do mobile parties, flash mobs break out. So you’ll have, like, 100 people hailing taxis at the same time, giving each other high fives or tipping street performers. It’s just good fun.”
After a night of great music and good conversation, we have to agree.
[Some photos courtesy of Quiet Events]
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Source: newstars.edu.vn