What happens when you get over a thousand young people in the middle of Union Square dancing to their own individual iPods? A silent rave, of course. 18 year-old exchange student Jonnie Wesson organized the event last Friday evening.
Did you participate in the rave? Did you stumble across it? Comment below!
Did you participate in the rave? Did you stumble across it? Comment below!
Comments [18]
I went and it really was amazing.
It was less of a 'lets dance' as a 'lets go do whatever we want and not have to worry about being judged.'
Hell, I could have been dancing to spice girls, metallica, HIM, postal service, any of it, and you'd never know. Not only that, but I have no clue what you're listening to, and I don't care if you look silly dancing because so do I!
It was fun letting go of how I have to act and getting to do whatever I wanted for 3 hours!
This event was meant for fun, thats it. It was absolutely amazing and I can't understand why anyone would look down upon people just trying to have some fun.
i went to the silent rave, and it was AMAZING!! nobody looks like an idiot there because everyone is doing the same thing - dancing to their own music. i met so many cool people and i can't believe the publicity this event got!
it was amazing, i loved it, and i couldn't stop dancing even after i'd left.
Wow!!! An event where you can dance in a large group to earsplitting music of your own choice....and....
1) Whenever you choose, take your headphones off and be able to have a conversation without having to shout at the top of you lungs.
2) Have the perfect excuse to dance without a partner.
By the way, the advent of telephone earpieces has finally made it easy for me to walk down the street talking to myself without looking like a complete idiot.
I heard about the event the day before via bulletin from a friend on myspace. I had a wonderful time. My friend carried me on his shoulders for a while. It was so wild!
This is seriously, seriously fascinating. I can't believe I didn't hear about this until just now.
Thought: You need to do an entire show that discusses, in depth, how and why such a thing has even occurred. Maybe get someone who's an expert on viral marketing, another who works in net communications, some ipod owners, some general participants, etc. This definitely deserves more analysis.
no, UN-SILENT NIGHT maybe.....!
go do something political, and stop giving my generation a bad name.
i went to my share of flash mobs (very similar) but given what is going on in the world how can you just not use this kind of power to do...nothng.
that's SILENT NIGHT, Brian.
This sounds so pathetic. The last thing I want to sound like is some puritanical nincompoop but this kind of event is narcissism turned up to 11. You are going out in public to dance but don't want anyone else to share your music? You don't want an audience to hear what you are dancing to?
And this guy also claims that such a spectacle won't be a distraction. No, of course not; what more normal public display could there be than to see a bunch of jerks cavorting to and fro in total silence?
I'm a tough guy and I don't dance but this sounds amazing!
I felt as though this was a great parallel to life in NYC. A mass of people that you seem to be entirely unconnected to yet as you stop to watch the group you find a similarly in so many that surround you.
here in Montreal some people tried to organize a similar event last week and received a cease and desist order from organizers (I *think* organizers from NYC). ANyway, thought that was pretty lame and somewhat interesting.
The point with these events like these is that people come together and have fun. However silly or pointless they might be (not to say the rilent rave was so), the event transcends its initial intent and becomes a unique experience. The Pillow Fight at the Union Square also triggered similar feelings for a lot of people.
Didn't you take this idea from Jonathan Lethem, who has talked about something similar and makes fun of it in his novel "You Don't Love Me Yet"? Wouldn't you like to give him credit?
The music festival Bonnaroo has had a "Silent Disco" tent for the past few years where a DJ will play and spin music and a number of festival-goers wear headphones and all dance together in silence. What is different with this tent is that everyone is listening to the same music, I believe.
I took some photos. Check them out here. It was great to see the reactions of people who had no idea what was happening.
http://tinyurl.com/454v3h
That sounds like it would be a very creepy thing to watch...
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