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Wireless headphone technology has allowed party organisers to do away with booming speakers and instead pump music directly into party-goers ears over an FM radio broadcast from the DJ booth.


The silent party was previously trialled at the Big Day Out festival in 2006 but, aside from one-off discos, the concept has yet to take off in Australia.

David Lewis, the 24-year-old proprietor of newly launched Headphone Parties Australia, said two Sydney CBD nightclubs, another in Kings Cross and several private party hosts had expressed interest in the concept.

There were also queries from Melbourne and other cities, but Sydneysiders are likely to be the first to get a taste of the technology within the next three to four weeks.

"It has been done in the past but I believe we are the first business to really take it on at this scale and take this approach with it," said Lewis.

"The response so far has been very very strong from a number of nightclubs in most of the capitals."

A main selling point of silent parties - aside from the noise benefits for neighbours and parents - is the fact that people can set their own volume levels. Ordering a drink or chatting with mates can be achieved without losing your voice by simply taking off the headphones.

And Lewis said people would get a good chuckle out of watching fellow revellers dancing and singing without the aid of backing music.

"Particularly when you start getting things like the retro hits playing and people are really getting into the whole dance moves ... it's surreal, it really is," he said.

Another benefit is the ability to play multiple styles of music - retro and electro house, for instance - in one room.

"The sound quality in the headphones is absolutely brilliant and it's without the noise interference that you'd typically have in a club such as people knocking over drinks and hens parties causing a ruckus and what not," Lewis said.

But the idea isn't without its pitfalls - after the Big Day Out silent party in 2006, the organisers complained that 20 headsets were stolen. Lewis said an alternative would be to ask all party-goers to bring their own MP3 player with an FM receiver.

The most well-known silent parties are those held at the Glastonbury music festival in Britain and Electric Picnic in Ireland. The concept has also been adopted by Britain's T in the Park and Connect festivals, the Benicassim festival in Spain and various other events throughout Europe.

The silent party concept was the brainchild of two Dutch DJs, Michael Minten and Nico Okkerse, who held their first event in the Netherlands in 2002 before bringing the idea to Britain.

"This is something that is so different that it's memorable, and people are going to keep coming back for it," Lewis said.

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SMH story

Thought this was a brilliant idea. Alas I'm getting a bit on the old side to benefit from it but 15 years ago I would have loved it.

Anyone been to one? What was it like?

My sister and I attended an affair at a civic center a few months ago in Denver that had a silent disco set up in one corner. I had never seen anything like it before and had a good laugh because it IS strange to see the people moving and dancing about with no apparent music playing. But curiosity got the better of us and we just had to try it. We checked out the headphones at the entrance, put them on, and danced away. Good dance songs playing and we had a blast! I'm pretty sure that we were all dancing to the same song and my husband, watching us from the sidelines and taking pictures of us, had a good laugh too. You know how people wearing headphones will shout when talking to a person not wearing headphones, thinking they need to get above the volume of the music? Well, some still had trouble in that area and were shouting to the people on the sides not dancing. It was hilarious. I think the idea is a neat one and if I had the opportunity to listen to a different type of music, (disco not being my style) I may have danced more than just two dances.