Silent Music Fest

Millions of people attend outdoor music concerts and rock festivals each year. Sound levels at most venues are dangerous and can easily contribute to hearing loss.

Why not use these events as an opportunity to educate people about the impact of hearing loss in a fun and innovative way?

Instead of using loud speakers, the concert area would be entirely silent. People would listen to the music by using specially designed headphones. By turning the volume up and down on the headphones, the device would inform the user when the sounds reached a dangerous level. The headphones could also run through a program simulating hearing loss, removing particular sound frequencies or distorting the sound.

More and more music festivals are leveraging silent discos to allow people to dance all night long without waking up the neighbors.

At a silent disco, people dance to music which is played through their personal set of wireless headphones. In 2005, the Glastonbury Music Festival hosted one of the first silent discos, allowing concertgoers to listen to music into the early morning hours without breaking local noise ordinances.

Since then, the concept has exploded in popularity around the world. In 2019, 30,000 people attended a silent disco at Lowlands festival in the Netherlands, breaking the previous world record. 

Silent discos are also becoming increasingly popular at weddings and private parties.

Music festivals are fun. Music, friends, food, and good weather can combine to create a fantastic experience. Raising awareness of hearing loss at music events can leverage this fun atmosphere to maximize the effect of the campaign on young adults.

This idea gives concertgoers a chance to experience music in a new, fun way. Instead of using the concert to hand-out flyers warning people about the dangers of loud music, the music experience itself becomes the learning moment.