Silent disco hosted by RHA quietly owns the night

More than 500 students partied in silence at a disco hosted by the Residence Hall Association on Saturday — the largest event in the organization’s history.

Planning for the Silent Disco, which cost $4,700, began in April. RHA wants to host more large-scale events in the future, RHA President Taylor Bates said.

In the week before the event, Bates said RHA made a large promotional push. He said the organization had expected at least 300 students to attend, underestimating the actual number of participants by more than 200 students.

Bates said RHA increased the attendance limit in Fetzer Gym due to the interest surrounding the event.

“We hope to make this a traditional thing,” he said.

At the disco, students wore wireless headphones and could tune into three different radio channels represented by different colors. A green channel played music automatically selected by Pandora, a red channel played music mixed by senior Trevor Dougherty, known as good ratio, and a blue channel played music mixed by senior Emma Rich, or DJ EMdMA.

Before the event, Dougherty, who has been a disc jockey for about five years, said he was very excited to be a part of the Silent Disco because it was the first event of its kind at UNC.

“You literally have music in your head. I thought it would be really cool (to have) the chance to be in people’s heads,” he said.

Rich, who has been a DJ for about four years, said she definitely wanted to be involved when she heard about the event.

“I’ve never done anything like a silent disco. I’ve heard about them, and the idea is really awesome,” she said.

Rich, who played hip hop, electronic and early 2000s pop music, said she was most excited about the lack of inhibition students had on the dance floor.

Junior Mia Whitehead stayed for the entire event and said she had fun dancing with other students.

“I would go around dancing with people who were on the same station (as me), just random people,” Whitehead said.

Sophomore Greg Sollom attended the event for an hour and, despite his usual reservations towards dancing, said he had fun.

“I liked all of it, (and) I normally hate dancing,” Sollom said.

Junior Kelsey Williams said dancing was one of her favorite parts, and she also liked the inclusiveness the event allowed.

“I liked that everyone came together and was dancing. You could come up to any group and dance with them,” she said.

Dougherty said the event was evidence that music and partying are changing at UNC and that he wants to be part of it.

“I hope people are ready for good music because that’s what I’m bringing,” Dougherty said.

In order to host large events, RHA appropriated $14,000 for the programming budget, which is the largest in its history, Bates said.

“I’m really excited for RHA to push in to doing larger events like this,” Bates said.

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