Imagine a clubbing party where the only sound on the dance floor is that of shuffling feet: no speaker system, no thudding, repetitive beats and no high decibel music which grates the neighbours.
The sound-of-silence disco, a phenomenon that hit the European club scene about five years ago, has now reached Malta’s shores with a couple of companies offering the service.
Essentially, this is how it works: punters are given wireless headphones on entry, complete with volume control. They can then turn the volume up to 11 and dance all night without waking up the neighbours.
There is no speaker system but instead the music is broadcast via a radio transmitter with the signal being picked up by the headphone receivers worn by the participants. Usually clubbers can choose from two channels, or two DJ options.
Mark Vella, director of Powerhouse, an audiovisual production company which organises these events, said silent discos were very popular with corporate travellers. “Themed dinners followed by silent discos are very popular with people who are here on conference travel,” he said.
It became so popular that the term ‘silent disco’ was added to the Oxford Dictionary in 2011.
The main plus point is that no party permits are needed and people can literally dance the night away as it can go past the noise curfews; the neighbours would not be calling the police to complain of noise pollution.
One clubber who attended silent discos at music festivals in Europe said that they can be “quite lonely”.
“I felt like I couldn’t have a conversation because everyone was just lost in their own music. It’s good for 20 minutes but not more,” Martin Cook said.
Mr Vella disagrees and actually feels that silent discos are perfectly conducive to conversation “because you don’t have to make yourself hoarse over the noise to try and talk”.
His enthusiasm stems from the fact that silent discos had been his dream for more than 30 years. “At the time we only had the Walkman but I always dreamt of organising a silent disco in Mdina, the silent city, with everyone dancing to music on their Walkman,” he said.