Students danced, listened to music and drank hot chocolate at a silent disco organized by the Student Activities Board (SAB).

The silent disco, held Jan. 14 at the Red Wolf Center, was planned as part of the Spring Wolves Up Week event to provide students with activities to participate in for their first week back at school.

Tyra McMahan, SAB president and sophomore pre-professional biology major from Malvern Arkansas, said she helped organize the event alongside other members of SAB.

“The main purpose is to give students a welcome back on campus and a relief maybe before a harder semester,” McMahan said. “Campus life outside of classes is really important.”

Silent discos operate like a rave, except rather than playing music through speakers like a typical rave, attendees wear headphones that play synced music.

Chase Duncan, a sophomore business administration major from Batesville, Arkansas, said his experience at the silent disco was a “10 out of 10.”

Duncan said the headphones had an option for changing between several channels that played various songs. He said this meant two students could be dancing right next to each other to two different songs and even genres.

He said events like the silent disco are a great time for people with different backgrounds, cultures and upbringings to come together in the same place. 

Duncan said “Crunk Ain’t Dead,” by Duke Deuce, was his favorite song that played while he was on the dance floor. He said it hyped him up and brought back memories of playing football in high school. 

“When I came to A-State I was kind of like an outcast and events like this helped me meet my best friends,” Duncan said. “Building community is important and doing things like this helps you find more community and be more plugged in.”

Members from the 747 College Ministry (747) volunteered at the silent disco as well.

Emma Riley, a graduate student studying social work from Plano, Texas, is the associate director of 747. She and other volunteers served hot chocolate for students waiting outside the Red Wolf Center and bottled water for students taking a break from dancing.

Riley said 747 has a long history of working alongside SAB and has a good relationship with members of the organization.

“It’s been really awesome just to be able to partner with them and step in and serve in different ways that we can,” Riley said. “We always love to just help out and be available for them.”

Dylan Poush, a 747 intern, volunteered by handing out bottled water to students at the event. The senior business administration major from Mountain Home, Arkansas, said the ministry has a great connection with SAB and usually comes out to help when they organize big events.

“They really do the big stuff and put on the big events and we’re there to come help and also share who we are,” Poush said.

Poush said while he thought the silent disco was successful for SAB and 747, the turnout was noticeably smaller than when the same event was held last Fall. He said the smaller attendance was likely due to the cold temperatures causing students to want to stay inside.

“It’s a great event, I just don’t think a lot of people knew about it and a lot of people didn’t want to go out through the cold,” Poush said.

The SAB president said over 1000 students attended the silent disco last fall and over 500 attended this semester. She said the turnout is usually higher in the Fall because there are more incoming first-year students looking to attend new events.

McMahan said SAB started planning the silent disco event in the Fall 2024 semester. She said SAB rented about 500 headphones from Silent Events, a nationwide supplier of headphones made specifically for silent discos.

The next event hosted by SAB will be “Howl on the Hardwood” from 5 to 9 p.m. on Feb. 12 at the First National Bank Arena. The event will be held during double header basketball games between the A-State men’s and women’s basketball teams. Between the games, SAB will organize a pep rally and host giveaways to attendees.

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