As warmer weather returns, so does Provo’s social scene — and students are finding new ways to dance.
For a while, people living in Provo were driving out to Salt Lake City to attend bigger clubs that hosted silent discos, like the very popular choice, Why Kiki. Silent disco fans have recently found more options in the area, with events like Dizzy Disco and The Rise.
Emma Woods, a senior at Brigham Young University graduating in elementary education, shared her definition of what a silent disco really is.
“A silent disco is basically a big dance party, but instead of there being a ton of music, super loud, and everyone's listening to the same song, everyone has their own individual headphones, and they can choose. Usually, it's like three different channels that have different genres of music, and you can listen to them and dance,” Woods said.
Silent discos have been growing in popularity over the last year, with many people in Provo stating they prefer these events to normal parties because of the ability to choose their music.
John Gilbert, a BYU student who has helped create and DJ for Dizzy Disco, said he believes the ability to switch music stations is a draw for these events.
“I just hated a lot of the music that was played, and I never had an option to choose what I wanted. And so for me, when I went to one, I was like, this solves a lot of the problems I have with a lot of these normal dance parties. So that's why I ended up starting mine,” Gilbert said.
For many people living in Provo, silent discos feel like a newer trend because of the recent increase in local events. However, silent discos have actually been a party phenomenon since the early 1990s.
Morgan Weyland, a BYU student studying statistics, has been attending Dizzy Disco events consistently for a few weeks. She shared her experience attending her first silent disco before they were offered regularly in Provo.
“I had heard of them, and then while I was on study abroad in London, we heard that they were going to do a silent disco in a crypt right by the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. So, a bunch of us, maybe like 30, all went in this giant group of Americans, and we did a silent disco on top of the graves of people that have been dead for hundreds of years, and it was really fun,” Weyland said.
Woods worries that much of the attraction surrounding silent discos could be tied to a deeper issue within the generation most drawn to them.
“There are so many times that I've been to dance parties, and I'm like, I can't listen to this song one more time, or the song's going on way too long, and it's nice to be able to switch it. Which could have to do with some of our instant gratification issues, like we want what we want when we want it,” Woods said.
While Gilbert supports this idea, noting that the main audience tends to be college-age students or Gen Z, he and Weyland both said they see silent discos as more of a trend than a long-term solution to that issue.
“If I were to guess, my first instinct, because I think this is kind of a fad right now, I don't know if this has a ton of staying power. But, I'd be happy to be proven wrong,” Gilbert said.
Gilbert believes that, like many other trends, silent discos will continue to rise in popularity for a time until the trend eventually becomes overpopularized, leading to a decline and a return to traditional speaker-based dance parties.
For now, though, silent discos seem here to stay on Provo weekend schedules, where the party sounds different to everyone in the room.