But they may be on the wane domestically, and the future of the circuit is in question, thanks to the decline of LGBTQ community strongholds and the rise of new sorts of dance culture.īack in 2007, I questioned whether circuit parties were dying. Since their birth in the 70s, the circuit has grown into an international phenomenon, with parties blossoming throughout Europe, Latin America, and, more recently, the Asian Pacific Rim. Or, they can be wild, like at New York's Black Party, with 'strange live acts' that have included erotic use of a boa constrictor or at San Francisco's Magnitude, held the night before the Folsom Street Fair fetish festival.īut they always give attendees a space to shed social expectations, where they can be nobody but themselves. Circuit parties can be mild, like at Austin's Splash Days, held at local watering hole Hippie Hollow, or at ski weeks held at resorts in the West and Switzerland, where action on the slopes rivals that of the dance floor.
