We get quite a few enquiries from people looking to put on a small Silent Disco at home, in the garden or in a venue for the first time. Sometimes people have been to a headphone party at a festival and want to try it themselves, maybe there's a mixture of age groups to please musically or perhaps there's a noise restriction at a venue to work around.
The good news is it's really easy to put on your own Silent Disco.
Hiring 100 headphones generally costs less than £250 at the time of writing. You can also buy packages starting at £100 depending how many headphones you want.
What you need:
You can hire or buy this from Silent Disco King. You'll need headphones for everybody coming. You can choose from headphones with bright flashing lights, or the classic style. They work the same way.
You can also choose how many channels - that means how many different choices of music people can switch between. 4 channels means 4 DJs (or playlists) running at the same time.
2) Music
Whilst many festivals have 2 or more live DJs playing at once, this isn't necessary - playlists on an iPod or laptop work just fine. It's a good idea to create different styles of playlist - for example you could have a drum and bass playlist; a 70s rock playlist and a 90s pop selection for people to choose between. It's up to you!
Set Up.
You should receive your Silent Disco system well before your event (usually at least a day early). It's recommended to set up the system as soon as you receive it to make sure you know how it all works so everything runs smoothly on the day of your party.
Make sure all your iPods are charged up or have a power supply nearby, and set up the system out of the way but ideally in the same room where people will be most of the time. Each music device connects to a transmitter from the headphone socket, using the supplied audio cable. Each transmitter is switched to a different channel.
Put the headphones near the door or somewhere people can get them, and it might be worth putting up a few signs reminding people to return them at the end of the night.
Tips
If you don't know all the guests you might consider taking a deposit (such as £20/$50 or ID).
Ask a couple of friends to make a playlist each to maximise variety.