BUFFALO, N.Y. — Many holiday traditions are changing this year due to the pandemic. And the annual post-thanksgiving party known as the World's Largest Disco is certainly among them.
Each year on the Saturday after turkey day, the convention center is transformed into a huge dance floor and jam-packed with costumed partiers, the polar opposite of social distancing. But rather than packing it in for a year, organizers are going virtual.
From 8 p.m. until midnight on its website, they will be showing video and reliving moments from the beginning, 1979, right up until last year.
Disco founder Dave Pietrowski says it is important to keep going. One of the big reasons is because they donate more than $300,000 a year to Camp Good Days and Special Times.
"Our whole mantra here was two-fold. the first was to keep the event alive in everyone's mind,” Pietrowski said. “And the second was to raise money that we are traditionally giving them, so we're selling t-shirts, we're selling sponsorships, we're selling song sponsors."
Petrowski says they have already sold more than 500 shirts, most of their annual sponsors have returned at a reduced price, and other sponsor sales are going well. Even so, their annual contribution to Camp Good Days is expected to be much lower. But the disco will go on, online.
For more information about the virtual event, to buy a shirt or to make a donation, click here.