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.
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 after police abuse and before the beginning of the health crisis of HIV/AIDS. 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.