Circuit party

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A circuit party is a large dance event. It extends through the night and into the following day, almost always with a number of affiliated events in the days leading up to and following the main event. Proto-circuit parties in the late 1970s, the precursors of what later became circuit parties, were called disco parties. They lasted only one evening and were held in various large venues in metropolitan areas with large gay populations.

Circuit parties were first developed in connection with the early tea dances, attended by a subset of gay men, as well as theme parties held on Fire Island, in the days before the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. They came to resemble underground rave parties in some respects, but differ in that circuit parties are highly publicized and professionally produced, and tend to attract people from a wider age range and a broader geographic area.