Silent Sky Festival - Opening Night

As I looked down from the 60th floor onto the sprawling metropolis below, I thought two things.

This is my city.

This is my home.

Recently I bought a yearly pass to the Observation Deck of Sunshine City in Ikebukuro, as it was very reasonable and not too far from home. While it’s not quite as grand as Tokyo Sky Tree with its extra height and taller ceilings, its nowhere near as crowded and has a bit more of a homely feel to it. It’s somewhere I can take ownership of and come back to whenever I feel like it. A private club of sorts.

Discovering that they would be holding regular silent disco parties here, I was intrigued (especially as opening night was headlined by one of my favorite DJs). Though to be honest I had no idea what that meant at first. A silent music festival? Isn’t dance music usually kind of…loud?

Turns out you all get to borrow headphones and listen in your own space. And if you don’t use the headphones, you’ll be able to enjoy the views in silence as usual, save for the people jumping up and down with silly grins on their faces.

There are two rules to enjoying silent disco parties.

If you know the song, sing as loud as you can.

If you don’t know the song, dance as energetically as possible.

Given that I was in the pop section, I had to go with the latter. Fortunately, I was enthusiastically guided by the DJs, who were so good at this I thought they were silent disco experts (and this being Tokyo it’s not implausible because there’s so many subcultures), but I think they’re just good at generating physical energy. There were so many Japanese cultural references that most of them went over my head, but it was pretty easy to follow the crowd who were much more aware. There’s always someone who knows what’s going on.

In contrast, the Dance section was more reserved and refined, positioned near the bar. Many people were content to just lounge around and sip cocktails while enjoying the terrific views. And thanks to the music being an option you could basically toggle on and off, you didn’t have to shout at your friends like you would in a regular club.

Billed as Silent Sky Fes as in festival, it certainly provided that atmosphere. There was a magician, there were dancers, and they had all the regular exhibits including the hall of mirrors and the Virtual Reality experiences. Do note that you’re supposed to be sober when you do VR, so if you are going to a Silent Sky event in the future, do the VR before you drink! On the other hand, drinking before dancing will probably help you, so go right ahead if you need it.

In any case, the most important thing is to dance (because no one will hear you sing).

The next Silent Sky Fes will be an EDM night on December 22, followed by Techno Night (January 26), Rock Night (February 16) and a Disco Night (March 16) in the upcoming months.

For more details: http://www.silent-it.com/silentskyfes

Tickets: https://silentfes41.peatix.com/