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The New "Silent Raves"

The New "Silent Raves"



“If several hundred young people gather in a crowded public place and throw a raging dance party and it doesn’t make a sound, did it really happen?” In a story on NPR, there’s a new movement of clubbers that are meeting en masse to dance to their own beat. Through social networking sites meetups are scheduled where hundreds of people show up to listen to their own headphones and dance–together but separately.

Jonnie Wesson, an 18-year-old exchange student planned a “Silent Rave” in Union Square through Facebook.

“It was actually very, very simple,” Wesson says. “All I did was set up a Facebook group and then an event. A month later, I had 7,000 people [RSVPing]. And there were 2,000 people at Union Square that time.”

What does this movement tell us about the cultural desire for both individuality and belonging?

Is this an anti-social, social event?

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