One of the strangest, and most destructive, professional sports promotions of all time, Chicago’s infamous “Disco Demolition” night, is the subject of a new documentary, which you can watch in full now.
The doc, from Red Bull Music Academy, is a 15 minute look at one night in 1979 where Chicago’s White Sox baseball team went up against the Detroit Tigers on the city’s South Side Comiskey Park. Essentially, fans were invited to bring disco records to the stadium, which would later be collected and blown up on the field. The stunt was organized by anti-disco shock jock Steve Dahl who chose the July 12 doubleheader, giving fans the chance to buy discounted tickets ($0.98) with the promise of destruction between games.
Ultimately, what went down was, more fans attended the game who were interested in the explosion than the actual teams, charging the field in a pseudo riot, causing damage and dangerous conditions, which forced the days second game cancelled. Further from this, a wider social conversation was stirred given the homophobic and racial connotations of the “Disco Sucks” movement, of which makes for the bulk of the documentaries content.
Watch the documentary HERE and check out the news clips from the event below.