A ‘Silent Disco Dance Walk’ Will Groove Through Cambridge Next Weekend

Silent Disco Snow Day/photo provided

It was January in Montreal—which is to say, freezing.

But as Lilly Wang surveyed the crowd at Igloofest, Montreal’s outdoor winter music festival, she was struck by something: Despite the single-digit temperatures, “these people were dancing and embracing life and choosing to be happy.”

Inspired by her experience, Wang—who is a local producer for Daybreaker, the early morning rave—decided to create something similar back in Boston. The result is Silent Disco Snow Day, an event slated for February 4 that Wang describes as a “one-mile, outdoor, silent disco dance walk.”

Using the app EchoMe, which allows groups to simultaneously listen to the same music via individual devices, participants will sync up to a shared playlist. With each person listening through his or her own headphones, the crowd will groove its way from Harvard Square through parts of Cambridge and Allston, eventually settling down for an indoor afterparty at an as-yet-undisclosed location.

“It was really born out of the intention to give Bostonians and people living in the city a really fun and accessible way to combat seasonal affective disorder,” Wang says. “I’m transforming the four to five months of winter here as an opportunity for an outdoor dance experience.”

Wang purposely made the event free, to keep it open to all. Anybody who’s interested may sign up for the disco walk portion of the day, but due to capacity limits, the afterparty will fill up on a first-come, first-served basis. The first 110 people who arrive at the walk’s meeting point, the Charles Hotel, will be granted entry.

“The dance and the music really help people beat the winter blues,” Wang says. “I want to give people something to say ‘yes’ to.”

Free, 2/4, 2:30 p.m. Meet at the Charles Hotel Courtyard, 1 Brattle St., Cambridge. Register here.