Bhubaneswar: The present generation’s environment friendly millennials have found a cool way—silent disco— to dance to music of their own choices without creating a cacophony. A silent disco or sometimes known as silent rave, is a music and dance event where people rather than using a speaker system dance to music which is played on their wireless headphones.
It may be mentioned here that in Bhubaneswar, the state government as well as the Centre levy fines on parties, people or establishments if they are found to play loud music post 10 pm. Soon, the Smart City is going to witness its first silent disco event at a plush hotel here.
Orissa POST interacted with some of the city-based disco-jockeys (DJs) and youths to know more about the growing rage of silent disco.
Speaking on the history of silent disco, DJ Maneesha said, “The idea of Silent Disco was first introduced in the 1969 Finnish science-fiction film Ruusujen Aika (A Time of Roses). She added that the lead characters in the movie were seen wearing headgears which are now called headphones.
In early 90’s, eco-activist started awareness campaign against sound pollution and hence the era of silent disco started. It was in 2005 that this kind of parties were commercial exploited. “You may recall the seventh season of Big Brother (a reality show) where the contestants took part in a silent dance party,” she pointed out. Maneesha mentioned about the scene in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, a 2016 Hindi film, where Anushka Sharma takes Ranbir Kapoor to a silent disco.
For Rinky, who goes by the stage name DJ Rix, silent disco is indubitably “funky” and at the same time self-sufficient as one can listen to music without even disturbing another person on the dancing floor.
While most of the DJs highlighted the non-disturbing nature of silent disco, Romila Rout, an analog/ mixed-signal design engineer said the charm of this kind of disco is much different as tunes could be heard only through wireless headphones, which glows red, blue or green depending “on which genre of music one is listening to.”
Amrit Mohanty, a student at a private engineering college here, lauded the organisers for organising the first such event. He said, “Well that’s a start and I hope more such events are organised much often after success of this event which is guaranteed.”
