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Unsilent Night

A wonderful swirling boombox Christmas caroling parade through SF
By - posted 12/18/2015 No Comment

Unsilent Night” is artist Phil Kline’s free outdoor participatory sound sculpture played through smartphones and boomboxes where the audience becomes the performer.

“Carolers” play one of four tracks of music downloaded to their smart phone, or anything that amplifies music, together comprising “Unsilent Night.” The public ensemble will walk a carefully chosen route through San Francisco, creating a unique mobile sound sculpture.

Everyone presses “play” at the same time and revelers hit the streets surrounded in a wash of beautiful noise and holiday ambiance.

If you’d like to do the traditional route through the Mission (or would like to double the fun and do the stroll again), there’s an unofficial Unsilent Night meeting up at Dolores Park at 7 pm.

13th Annual Unsilent Night
Saturday, December 19, 2015 | Meet at 4:45 pm
Civic Center Plaza, McAllister St, SF
FREE – RSVP on Facebook

How to Participate in Unsilent Night
The event begins and ends at Civic Center Plaza (on the grass — across from City Hall). Bring your own boombox, laptop, phone or ipod with speakers. There will be cassette tapes and CDs available for handout. We recommend that you arrive a few minutes early.

Get the Music:

  • Cassettes: They will hand out a limited number of cassettes for those who bring a boombox.
  • UnsilentNight App: Apple iOS | Android. Requires wifi to download. It plays one random track at a time.
  • MP3s: Download one of the four .mp3 tracks below.