Licence renewal for silent disco refused following complaints that it is too loud

The city of Salzburg in Austria has refused to renew a licence for a silent disco clubbing event in the Volksgarten after complaints that it was “too loud and wild”.

At a silent disco people listen to music on wireless headphones, broadcast via a radio transmitter. Those without the headphones hear no music, giving the effect of a room full of people dancing to nothing. However the Mayor of Salzburg, Heinz Schaden, said it was still too loud for residents.



“Especially at the weekends the young people are staying up until 4am and later. In the summer people want to sleep with their windows open, and the noise - even from a silent disco - is keeping them up,” he said. Werner Purkhart, who’s been running the silent disco for the past four years, is not happy.

"I have seen not a single police car pull up outside the silent disco - so there can’t have been that many complaints. It seems unfair to shut down an institution like the silent disco just because of some rumours,” he said. Members of the city council are to meet with the silent disco team and if the city refuses to renew the licence Purkhart plans a “silent demonstration”.