CASE 1
Boogie Shoes
26th, Nov 2019 / COVENT GARDEN
“Boogie Shoes is a woman-led silent disco party in the city streets. During this experience, participants will walk through the beautiful throngs of London with continuous uplifting music and fun commentary. All participants are encouraged to sing like nobody's listening. ” —— Boogie Shoes official website
In 2019, November, 26th, Boogies Shoes is hosting one of its regular "Queen band themed tours" that takes place in Covent Garden, London. This event starts from Covent Garden tube station, two organisers distribute neon headphones to everyone and guide participants through the one-hour journey while listening to classic tunes by Queen. Yep, the organisers are not (entirely) the DJ, Queen the legendary band is. However, it is worth noticing that the organisers do have microphones to speak to the crowd. In this case, it usually would be cheering words such as "Are you ready for the next song?" "Show me your smile!" "Dance, no one cares about you!"
The event has two organisers. One (Ruth) is more in charge of uplifting the energy within the crowd, facilitating fun interpersonal engagement such as saying hello to people in the restaurant outside the glass, creating a round circle in the middle of the pavement, trespassing into a cafe and starting a flash mob; the other organiser (Ruth's colleague) takes more responsibility in taking care of everyone's safety when walking through busy London roads, watching out for cars, reminding which way to turn, etc, serving more of a "safety keeper" and "way-shower" role in the experience. Both of them are highly energetic and engaged throughout, singing, dancing, being credibly open and elating.
The energy is incredibly contagious. Although, as the theme of this particular tour is Queen (the band), the familiarity of Queen's songs plays a big role for one's experience: the depth of involvement and the feeling of contagiousness. In another word, the more of a die-hard fan you are of Queen's, the better experience you'd get from it.
Although participating in the same event, everyone has their very own journey. Some collide, some shared, some co-vibrated, some "together alone" or "alone together".
Take a look at the video and the field notes to see how is it like :)
#silentdisco #silentdiscoboogieshoes #silentdiscolondon #christmasinlondon
Setting spirit
Monday??
20:40 pm
Ruth：“Nobody is gonna notice us. We are hidden!”
Energy-consuming job
"It seems to me that this is an energy-consuming job, both of the organisers have strongly contagious aura around them. This job cannot be done by one person, I feel. Because we are constantly crossing the busy roads, going into little alleyways around Covent Garden, Ruth (one of the organisers) is cheering us up, encouraging us to sing along, while her colleague remain responsible, aware, even alerted with the surroundings, traffic, to keep us safe, lead us the way. "
My zone, my secret gang
“When we are very much in our 'zone', it could actually get quite dangerous because of distraction when you are in the middle of the road - you can't hear others - beeping sounds from cars, shouting from the pedestrians, no, nothing. " Busy London life is shutdown from your headphones. No, I mean, not shutdown. It is more like you always know you are part of this crazy busy crowd, but still being able to enjoy your own world with THIS crowd: the people who are also part of our Boogie Tour Gang. Our secret gang!”
Let's get weird!
“Ruth encouraged me to wave and say hi to random people. I felt shy at the beginning. Then a couple, looks like they are in their 60s, and are not part of us ran into me. It surprises me because they know what song we are listening to - perhaps it's because some of us were singing along so they knew. The couple joined me and danced around me for a little. I no longer feel that shy anymore - if the people who are not part of our Boogie Tour gang can be this engaged and energised, I feel I can push my boundaries a little more and get weird.”
Joined-fun: dimension crossing
“Whenever people bump into me, sing and dance along with me, even though they didn't wear headphones, they are not from our tour, but they are happy like kids, this makes me so so happy. I feel like I can share my secret tune with them. That moment is like two paralleled dimensions crossed for a moment. I loved it.”
Walking through alleyways in Covent Garden, friendly strangers say hi and join to sing and dance along.
(Video credit: Rui Luo)
“You don’t know you’re beautiful, that’s what makes you beautiful.”
“I remembered we were singing 'We are the Champions' by queens at Leicester Square. I am pretty sure that I was giving all of myself to the song, singing like no one cares. Didn't give a damn about how I sound. I just sing. Then one of the homeless men, with dreads, looking all hyped up and hippie, came up to me wanting to say something. I was with headphones and I pointed out to him using sign language I invented, that 'hey, not now! I can't hear ya! So then he shouted at me:'I said - YOU SOUND REALLY GOOOOOOD!!!' I heard him and we had the tightest hug ever!” I then replied (I mean shouted back): 'I don't even know what I am singing! But thank you!!!”
Flash mob, unintended
“I thought this was Silent Disco so we are not supposed to make noises. But we ended up singing, dancing, even started a whole flash mob in Pret A Manger. I wonder where the boundaries of 'being silent' is. It felt like we are being intrusive in a public space, breaking social norms and rules, leaving traces, noises all over then turned around like nothing happened. Can be annoying but in a hippie way.”
“When we were doing the flash mob, or simply wearing the neon shining headphone walking confidently in groups on the road, it was hard for people not to notice us I guess. We made them curious what this is, they would probably ask the organiser and check out the event. Good way of promotion. Kinda smart.”
Flash mob at Pret A Manger singing Bohemian Rhapsody (watch till the end for a meme!)
(Video credit: Rui Luo)
Feeling awkward & estranged
“I joined because my parents love the band. I barely listened to Queens to be honest, very much unfamiliar with the tracks. I feel kind of reluctant to participate because I don't know the lyrics or the beats. It would be okay to dance to the beats if I don't know the lyrics. But for me, it was like I know either of them, which makes my dance weird, too. I feel awkward, so I turned off the headphone and 'back to reality' during the tour. I still wore the headphones and marched along with everyone else, because I don't want to make other people think that I estranged from them.”
Finding harmony
“I have been to other Silent Disco events, but they were all set in an indoor space and people were dancing to techno music. Boogie Tour is like a journey, you get to travel and explore London, while listening to the legendary Queens. It does make it hard to dance while walking, to be honest. My feet were not tapping on the right beat as harmoniously than that when I danced to repetitive techno tracks.”
“With techno beats, you just have to get tuned in and dance to the beats. But once the music has lyrics, I just couldn't stop wanting to sing along. Compared to the techno Silent Disco, this is more like a group karaoke on the street, I think.”
Just another simulation
“I know how strange and confusing it can feel for the 'outsiders' who don't know what we were doing. I got stared at a lot as if they were telling me: 'what the heck are you doing?' But I just thought to myself that we are from different simulations of the game, they are just NPC from another world. Well, of course, whilst I think that maybe at that time, they were thinking the same thing, that I am from another world, so to speak. I should say that seeing from the perspective that we are temporarily living in different simulations and playing different roles as NPC, allows me to be full of myself, my 'role', and enjoy the party on the street.”
Make one yourself
“The experience gives me the courage to throw my own secret party. Everyone can create their own party. Everyone is their own party, in fact. Then, you embrace people to come and join you.”
