Published
Wed, Nov 28, 2018, 13:44
- Some say the trend, which sees groups walking and dancing through the city in wireless headphones, is becoming a menace.
Edinburgh residents are putting pressure on the local council to clamp down on noisy and disruptive silent disco tours.
A growing trend since the early '90s, silent discos replace soundsystems with personal wireless headphones, in theory minimising noise pollution. However, several companies in Edinburgh have been combining silent discos with walking tours, resulting in large groups dancing and singing in the streets. The music is mostly pop, indie and disco classics.
"Silent discos are not silent," Conservative city councillor Jo Mowatt recently told Edinburgh Evening News. "There is a lot of whooping and screaming, especially when you have 40 women on a hen party... There is also the safety aspect, as who is going to have to step in the road due to the groups taking up the pavements?"
Disgruntled locals have filed complaints to the council, though the tours are unlikely to be banned outright. Because the companies take bookings online or in shops, they don't require a special license for trading on the street. Rather than pressuring the authorities to pass new laws, Mowatt thinks the answer could be lying in plain sight. "I am always wary of introducing new legislation," she said. "I feel there may be something in the legislation box already at our disposal."
Despite the recent wave of anger, the council has announced plans to host its own three-day silent disco event to celebrate the coming New Year's Eve, known in Scotland as Hogmanay 19.
Watch a video from one of the tours.