Shoes squeaked against linoleum floors, and voices sang along to DJs’ sets on Thursday at Champaign-Urbana’s silent disco at The Canopy Club.
In an email, the club reported that “roughly 100+ students came out to bear the sub-zero weather” for this unique event. The event, powered by Hush Entertainment, embraced traditional party music with an innovative technological twist. Music blared not from the club’s speakers but from the wireless headphones worn by each attendee.
“The inspiration behind the silent disco actually came when I went to a wedding in Jamaica,” said event organizer Denzel “Rollie” McCauley. “One of the activities was a silent party, and they had three DJs, three different channels and each DJ played in a specific genre for the entire time. It always kind of stuck with me.”
Some of the genres featured on various channels for this event included EDM, Latin, Afrobeats and R&B, which club-goers could flip through at their discretion.
“We really wanted to — in choosing DJs — have a variety, so that anyone who walked through the door at any point in time would have something that they’re comfortable with but also something they’re maybe not used to listening to as often,” McCauley said. “We’re trying to push people’s comfort zones.”
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Organizers accomplished this mission, as guests from numerous backgrounds found the setup — three DJs operating sets simultaneously in the same room — to be an excellent opportunity to push musical boundaries.
75-year-old University alum and Champaign resident Marcey Goldstein arrived as the doors opened and tore up the dance floor despite not knowing the songs beforehand. She reminisced about the first silent disco she had experienced, which drew her to this event.
“What was cool was you could very easily see what station people were listening to, and so if you’re listening to that station and you see that group, you just go in, and you start dancing with them ‘cause they’re all dancing to the same music,” Goldstein said.
Christopher Edison, freshman in Media, shared this sentiment.
“People, I’ll notice they’re on a different channel, so I’ll change the channel and be like, ‘Oh, this is a good song to play,’” Edison said. “So I’m essentially widening my music taste by being here.”
With headphones and stage lights illuminating the 200-person capacity opening room of The Canopy Club, DJs and representatives from the company supplying the event’s headphones commented on their expectations for the night’s atmosphere.
“This one, we’re in a smaller room; it’s going to be a lot more intimate, and I’m actually really looking forward to that,” said local DJ Zach White, who manned the EDM station. “I think smaller, more intimate shows and sets are a lot more fun, just gathering the people, dancing with them, enjoying the music together.”
Given that three extra bins housing about 150 spare headphones were provided by Nick Dimas of Hush Entertainment and associate Kameron Nelson, all players involved in making this effort a reality were prepared to tackle any technical or logistical hurdles.
“I think the biggest thing that makes me happy — people come to our events, and they’re happy for three, four, five hours,” Dimas said. “That’s kind of my happiness. People have hard lives; people have things they’re doing with classes, assignments, different things going on, so to come to our event and kind of let loose for four to five hours, it makes me happy.”
Providing a safe, sanitary and stable environment for attendees, as well as DJs and staff, resulted in the event being a smashing success. Audiences broadened their music tastes, organizers saw the fruits of their labor and DJs enjoyed this unconventional platform for self-expression.
