My 40th Birthday Party with Silent Disco

Last weekend I celebrated my 40th Birthday! I have no idea where at least the last ten years have gone, I imagine it has something to do with raising a young family ?. The days are so long, yet the years so short!

On my thirtieth birthday I was newly pregnant with twins, I was sick as a dog and feeling fairly miserable all round. I vowed then, as I watch my friends party their 30th’s away, that I would have a big bash for my fortieth and to be honest, it’s been in the offing since then!

Mr P is 40 within a few weeks of me and since we have so many mutual friends (we’ve known each other since school – I know!) we decided to make it a joint bash!

We had a blast of a party to mark the occasion with headphones on hire from the fab folks at Silent Disco Direct who are based in Bradford! Here’s all about the night and how silent disco’s change lives…

Caffe Marconi

We chose the fabulous Caffe Marconi in Harrogate to host the party! As you know, I love to support an independent business and they have a great space, amazing customer service and top notch food and drink, so it made perfect sense!

I loved that we could have the whole venue to ourselves and we were made to feel very relaxed and their fabulous hospitality meant we were able to feel like we were in a home from home. They closed early at 6pm for us allowing us time to set up and get the bar ready for the evening.

The party had a really chilled feel to it, with friends and family being welcomed with Prosecco and Peroni and served Caffe Marconi’s unique recipe stone-baked Italian Pizzas.

We really wanted somewhere that was not a typical ‘function’ space, and having the waiting staff serve the food straight to guests from the oven made it very relaxed – there was no buffet in sight. I couldn’t have picked a better venue if I tried, it was all perfect!

My Mother in Law made us an amazing cake to serve for afters, which she’d cleverly created into a ‘4’ and a ‘0’ depicting our individual interests, the blog even got a mention and it tasted delicious too!

Then it was time to party! We’d booked an incredible DJ, Mark Green, who spent time chatting through our music tastes before the night and really nailed all the tunes for us based on our suggestions! Mark was brilliant I would highly recommend him! He was especially perfect for the Silent Disco given that he had to mix two live soundtracks all night long!

Superb Silent Disco

But by far and away the best thing we did all night was hire in the Silent Disco from Silent Disco Direct in Bradford! Now because I’m forty, I’ve never been to a silent disco before – and if you haven’t either – you have no idea what you’re missing! It was the hit of the night!

You book the number of headsets you want online from Silent Disco Direct and they deliver them for you and then you hook them up to your music system or with your DJ. It’s really simple to do yourself!

We had two channels of music, both played through the wireless headsets. Mr P (being a little more on-trend than me) loves his old school Ibiza, whereas I’m more of a nineties Pop sort of a girl.

The headsets light up depending on what channel you’re listening to – so in an instant you can see which set is more popular with your friends! I was on ‘red’ all night and Mr P ‘blue’. You can change between each channel on your headset by simply flicking a switch. So if you see the room suddenly light up blue you know you’re missing a good tune on the blue channel and vice versa! It was great!

We had no idea how the silent disco was going to go down at all, having (along with the majority of our guests) never been to one before or seen one in action! But it was amazing. The headsets arrive all fully charged and ready to go and you can just set them up yourselves with an iPod and a wireless device they give you to broadcast it from, but our DJ sorted all that for us!

James and I did a little ‘Thank You’ speech to kick things off, which meant we gave everyone a headset and delivered the speech through the microphone over the headsets (the perfect way to get everyone involved straight up!) Then the music started and as soon as the tunes came over the airways into your ears that was that, everyone was dancing! It was amazing to watch!

There were of course a few folks who don’t really enjoy dancing but just wanted to listen to the music and some others who just wanted to chat without their headsets on! It was ideal as it meant that our friends and family who did just want to catch up with each other could talk to each other normally without having to shout to be heard over the dancefloor music and those who wanted to party on, could happily do so in their own little world!

I did think the silent disco could mean a lack of atmosphere in the room, it turns out it was the total opposite. There was still some background music playing for the ‘chatters’ but those with the headsets on were all dancing like no one was watching! I think because you’re in your own little headset world, it felt like to me, that I was just dancing around to a fab tune in my kitchen – everyone lost their inhibitions instantly, it was very immersive!

You could easily seek out other ‘same channellers’ as you by the colour guide and sing and dance away with them like you would normally in a club and then it was just the two or four or six of you all in your own little dance world. At some points it became an entertainment in itself to try and persuade others to tune in to your channel as they were missing something good!

The sound quality through the headsets was great and the wireless connection was fab, you could even wear them outside or when you went to the toilet away from the dance floor which was kind of surreal!

Because the headsets light up they created a great ambiance in the room so there was no need for fancy lighting effects. Lots of passers-by were stopping by the windows and peering in to see what the crazy folks at the party were up to! At one point all the kitchen staff came to see us all dancing around like loons to what appeared to be the sound of silence! Although to be honest when you took the headsets off for a minute it was far from silent with Beyonce being screamed out by a dance floor of folks who had no idea whether they were in tune or not, not that they even cared to notice!

The headsets were perfect as a party host too as it meant when it was time to say goodbye to guests at the end of the night I could slide my headset off and chat to them about the evening and say a proper farewell without any shouting necessary!

One of the reasons we booked a silent disco was because I love to dance! I didn’t want to go to a club as it’s too noisy, you loose people and by the time you get to 40 you want to be able to sit down every now and again (although I don’t think anyone actually did all night since they were having such a blast!) The Silent Disco is perfect for venues like Caffe Marconi where they have last night noise restrictions, meaning you can party till the early hours without worrying about restrictions!

By the end of the night at 1am, there were around fifteen of us left of the dance floor and they were all on the blue channel bar me (ravers!) but I didn’t care one jot as I was enjoying partying with my music with my nearest and dearest who were all having the best time too! I can’t wait to go to my next silent disco, it was seriously the most fun I have had in ages and we had loads of lovely comments from our guests saying what a blast they’d had too! We all LOVED it! I honestly can’t recommend it highly enough as a form of entertainment and for a great party vibe!

My fortieth was back in December but I was feeling pretty good about it before the date came around! I think you’re 30’s are hard work, you’re trying to get on at work, build a home and raise a young family. I feel set to embrace my 40’s with a new enthusiasm for a new chapter in my life and move forward! Now, who was it that said Life Begins at 40?! I’m certainly ready to party it all over again and can’t wait to go to my next silent disco!

Disclaimer: The fab folks at Silent Disco lent us the headphones for no hire charge for the night though we did pay them their full deposit. The views are my own.