On Thursday, Sept. 27 from 8:30 p.m. to 11 p.m., Silent Lights 2018 will be held on the Smith Plaza.
The event is a silent disco that will feature six DJ’s throughout the evening with three DJ’s playing at a time. All of the music will be color coordinated for ease of syncing the sound to your headphones. Changing the channel on your headphones connects you to a different DJ on stage.
For example, if you want to hear what the green DJ is playing simply switch channels and you’re listening to that music as your headset glows green.
This is the second year that Silent Lights has been brought onto campus. Student Special Events (SSE), the ASUNM agency that puts on the event, said that they are excited to have it come back this year.
“The whole idea was put to the side last year with (us working on) Party in the Pit, so coming in this year it was something we all were looking at bringing back,” Xavier Vallejo, director of SSE, said. “Especially with the renovations of Smith Plaza, that way we could highlight (the renovations).”
In addition to the color coordination from stage to stage, there will be immersive art experiences and other light shows for attendees to interact with while listening to the music.
“We’re hoping to have a fully immersive experience with a 360 degree take on it, where literally anywhere you look there is going to be something there,” Vallejo said.
As for music selection, there is going to be a variation of genres. Each stage will be playing a different genre that audience members can easily change between.
“We’re going to have a dubstep stage, that one is for people who are looking for a bit of a harder sound, we’re going to have a stage that is more focused on house music so something that is chill, cool, calm and collected,” Vallejo said. “We’re going to have a top forties hip hop stage as well.”
Silent Lights is a part of the homecoming week celebration and is free to UNM students, though non-students are allowed as well, as long as they are with a student.
“We are trying to focus the event on UNM students, but we do know that it is a good community engagement event as well so as long as someone has a UNM ID they get in and bring someone else as well,” Vallejo said.
The whole event was set up and run through several departments, including SSE, ASUNM, Lobo Spirit, University Communication & Marketing or UCAM as well as other external companies.
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Silent Lights is a first come, first serve event, with only 1,500 pairs of headphones available to students.
Tiffani Watteyne is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted by email at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @tiffanirosew.
