The World's Largest Disco is an annual event held at the

Buffalo Niagara Convention Center The Buffalo Niagara Convention Center is a convention center in downtown Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern ...

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

each year the Saturday after

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...

. The event, widely popular in the area, is a tribute to the disco era and features live performances by 1970s-era musicians, along with dancers dressed in 1970s attire; it also bills itself as "the greatest

people watching People-watching or crowd watching is the act of observing people and their interactions as a subconscious doing. It involves picking up on idiosyncrasies to try to interpret or guess at another person's story, interactions, and relationships with ...

event on Earth." The current event began as an annual occurrence in 1994, but it traces its history and name to a disco held in Buffalo in 1979, featuring

The Trammps The Trammps are an American disco and soul band, who were based in Philadelphia and were one of the first disco bands. The band's first major success was their 1972 cover version of " Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart", while the first disco t ...

and Gloria Gaynor. That disco is marked in

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

as the largest disco in the history, with 13,000 people in attendance. The current incarnation of the event draws 7,000, though this is only because of capacity issues; ticket sales were capped at 7,000 after the 1997 event also drew over 13,000 fans, well over the convention center's capacity. Tickets for the event regularly sell out within minutes of being put on sale, which usually occurs in early August. The in-person event was not held in 2020 due to crowd size limits imposed during the

COVID-19 pandemic in New York (state) The first case of COVID-19 in the U.S. state of New York during the pandemic was confirmed on March 1, 2020, and the state quickly became an epicenter of the pandemic, with a record 12,274 new cases reported on April 4 and approximately 29,00 ...

. A radio broadcast on

WTSS WTSS (102.5 FM) is a commercial radio station in Buffalo, New York, branded as ''Star 102.5''. It airs a hot adult contemporary radio format, switching to Christmas music for much of November and December. It is owned and operated by Audacy ...

, which will break from the station's usual Christmas music format, coincided with an Internet stream on the World's Largest Disco Web site featuring replays of video from past events. The in-person event will return in 2021, with a capacity reduced to 6,500. The event is a charity fundraiser held by Conesus Fest for Charity to raise funds for Camp Good Days and Special Times, a summer camp for children with cancer.

References

Hundreds flock to World's Largest Disco

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

. 27 November 2008. # Watson, Stephen
World’s Largest Disco gains more national attention

The Buffalo News ''The Buffalo News'' is the daily newspaper of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, located in downtown Buffalo, New York. It recently sold its headquarters to Uniland Development Corp. It was for decades the only paper fully owned by W ...

. 29 November 2008.
Buffalo: World's Largest Disco

The Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United S ...

travel guide.
World's Largest Disco goes virtual in 2020
WBEN. Retrieved November 6, 2020.
VIP tickets for World's Largest Disco go on sale
''WIVB-TV''. August 10, 2021. Retrieved August 10, 2021.

External links

Official Web site
{{Electronic music festival Music festivals established in 1994 Thanksgiving (United States) Disco Festivals in Buffalo, New York Music of Buffalo, New York Electronic music festivals in the United States Music festivals in New York (state)

See also

References

External links