Why I Started Silent Disco Boston
It was the middle of November when I moved to Boston. The leaves were beginning to fall from the trees and autumn slipped through my hands as fast as I had found it. The days grew shorter and the sun was setting as early as 4:00PM. With the pandemic getting worse with each passing day, I had anticipated a long, withdrawn winter. I knew I would be spending a lot of time alone, especially because I had just moved to a new city where no one knew my name. I began to walk around the Charles River each day to stay connected to the world, and myself. Every day I would use my 1-hour, 3-mile walk around the river to think. I thought of my business, my love life, my future and what the upcoming months would bring for me. It was something I began to look forward to each morning. It was a special, sacred time kept only for myself.
One day in particular, I was strolling down Longfellow Bridge thinking of my 26th birthday in Oakland. My friends and I had put together a Silent Disco party that we held on the green grass surrounding Lake Merritt (the lake I used to walk every day when I lived in the Bay Area). We met in the early evening on a warm summer’s day in August. The lights glistened around the lake and the buildings shined their reflections across the water. We danced until it was dark outside. To this day, it is one of my favorite moments of my life.
Silent Disco is interesting. Imagine people dancing together, listening to music they can hear only through wireless headsets. It’s an independently euphoric experience that’s easy to get lost in. Yet, at the same time, it’s an experience that feels incredibly unifying and electric. Silent disco brings people together.
I made up my mind that I wanted to do it again. I wanted to bring Silent Disco to Boston.
Right then and there, on Longfellow Bridge, I registered the Instagram and TikTok accounts for @silentdiscoboston. First of all, I couldn't believe I had scored those usernames and I also had no idea what this would turn into. All I knew was I had a vision. I imagined my newfound friends meeting at some of Boston’s most idealistic locations; The Common, Public Garden, and Esplanade to name a few. I envisioned bringing strangers together from off the street. I imagined that people would gather and dance and find connections that I knew so many people were starving for, especially after a year like 2020.
I thought of Silent Disco all winter. I talked about it with friends (who truthfully didn’t seem as jazzed about the idea as I was lol) and planned to invest in the project come Spring. I thought if the experience was a success, we could raise money and become a nonprofit organization. But what would our cause be? I reflected on this for months. It wasn’t until halfway through February that the answer revealed itself to me. After talking about it with my Head of Communications, Maria DeSalvo, she suggested that the money should go to our scholarship fund for Personal Brand Accelerator. I beamed. This was something I could get behind. We would raise funds and accomplish our mission of helping aspiring entrepreneurs build their personal brands. Our vision as an organization is that every student who goes through Personal Brand Accelerator would know who they are and live their truth out loud. The funds raised through Silent Disco would help us accomplish this.
April came around and I knew it was time to pull the trigger.
I had my assistant, Sachiko Hagiya, research companies to purchase headsets from and we landed on the company Silent Sound System. I ordered the headsets and they arrived two days later at my apartment. I opened the box in excitement. I couldn’t believe they had arrived so quickly. They were perfect, exactly like the headsets I had imagined in my head. I texted my friends to meet me at The Boston Common on Saturday evening at 6PM. I wasn’t sure what the turnout would be, as it took some convincing to get people to agree to come. (Apparently, not everyone is keen on the idea of dancing in the middle of a park with headsets in broad daylight. Who knew?)
Saturday came and I was nervous. Was it a mistake to invest this much money in headsets? Would people actually show up? Would people think it was fun or would this experience be a total bust? I began to feel anxious. Maria helped me pack up the cooler and the headsets; we left my studio and headed to The Common. We laid out our blanket and I set up the generators. People began to arrive and sit down beside us. Many introduced themselves for the first time to each other and luckily, everyone seemed to mesh together. I began passing the headsets out one by one and people gradually began moving their bodies to the sound of the music. First, we swayed to the music sitting down. Then, before I knew it, people stood up and began dancing with zero inhibitions. We danced for hours...into the early evening and as the sunset behind the city lights. It was everything I imagined it to be. At one point I looked up to the sky, music filled my ears, and I savored the moment of a vision coming to life.
“This is going to work,” I thought.
When you’re granted a vision, I believe it’s a sign you’re meant to carry it through. The “how” may not always reveal itself at first, but take heart that every great and perfect thing once began as a fleeting thought in someone’s head.
Without vision, nothing would cease to exist. Vision is what enables us to plan our futures with wisdom and imagination.
The only limitations we are met with are the ones we place upon ourselves. What’s a vision that you see for your life?
I’m not sure what @silentdiscoboston will become, but I have a vision that it will become something big. I know it’ll be an organization that’s responsible for helping our future students discover who they are and build their personal brands. I know it will unify people and fill their hearts with love and joy and happiness. I may not always know the “how,” but I have a vision. And I plan to see it through.
Be sure to follow @silentdiscoboston on Instagram and TikTok so you can join us for a dance at our next location and help us raise money for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to build their personal brands.
Photos: Jeremy Cangiano
