It was a sticky, summer night in Queens, New York. My V-neck so overburdened by humidity and sweat, it resembled a sun dress. But that didn’t stop me from throwing back a Long Island Iced Tea ( don’t judge me) and exploring the increasing popularity of ” quiet clubbing”. At first glance, you’d think you just walked into a flash mob of psychopaths; a giant cluster of people belting out a mixture of “Show Me Love” and Journey’s greatest hits all while fist-pumping and swaying to silence. Taking a closer look, you notice the quiet clubbing fundamentals : headphones, music, and a crowd.
The spectrum of quiet clubbing ranges from mainstream productions at the Governor’s Ball music festival to underground word-of-mouth parties. This particular party was thrown by Quiet Events founder Will Petz. His interpretation involves wearing headphones illuminated by 3 colors, each dictating widely different music stations. This made one of my favorite past-times, judging people solely on their musical tastes, SO much easier. However, quiet clubbing is all about fun, meeting new people, and dancing your ass off.
Besides a hangover, all club-goers universally understand the result of screaming your drink order to the bartender, yelling your phone number to a new potential date, or belting out a herding call when your boy Mike strays from the group: sounding like a 80-year-old chain-smoker the following morning. However, all you gotta do while quiet clubbing, is slip off the headphones and have a normal conversation. That way you can save your vocal chords for something worth yelling for; a taxi.
