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20 YEARS OF DISCO THROUGH EVENT FLYERS

A Disco Donnie Presents retrospective

From what began as a party movement delivered by word of mouth and hand-written flyers on brightly-colored construction paper, Disco Donnie Presents (DDP) stands by its dedication to bring musical credibility, innovative productions, professionalism and excitement back to the live show experience. From explosive, eye-catching visuals to lineups that reads like a ‘who's who’ of electronic music, the promotions company maintains a robust force in the dance music scene to this day.

To commemorate DDP’s 20-year-anniversary, we asked Disco Donnie to share a retrospective, documenting the company’s evolution through event flyers. Watch the Disco unfold.

 

The DJ is God
"The event series 'DJ is God started after a minister contacted me because he wanted to start a rave church. I met with the guy and he was a total lunatic, but I started thinking about it. When he started talking about how he wanted to do a rave/party and that it was kind of like a church, I looked at it like the crowd is facing the stage and the way its set up- people are raising their hands and halleluiah kind of stuff, I was like ‘okay’ – a show with the DJ within that realm at the party, the DJ is our God. I thought it was an interesting concept." 

The DJ is the Devil
"It really came from the church thing. The DJ is the Devil was just me showing the other side of it. There’s a negative side to people getting caught up in drugs or dropping out of school. Some people took it too far."

Attack of the 50 ft Raver Zombies
"I took something from my childhood [zombie movies] that I was interested and basically tried to relay it and make it into a party." 

Zoolu
"There’s a parade in New Orleans called Zoolu but it’s spelled ‘Zulu’. So the first year, we basically just changed the spelling. Back in those days the parties were always named after something else. I used to got the grocery store and look at detergents and you had 'Ultra Fab' or something like that so we did a party with the same logo called 'Ultra Fat'. It’s not rocket science but at the time it’s what everybody was trying to do." Fun Fact: The baby in the above flyer is Donnie's son. 

Psychadelic Pimp-Daddy Land
"The goal was to try to string together as many words that are nonsense, but turn out right for a party name. I was making fun of rave party names but what I ended up doing was creating a monster. Other people started naming their shit sillier stuff. It was a game." 

Supa Phat Hong Kong Phooey
"I used to watch that cartoon all the time and I thought Hong Kong Phooey was funny. It’s pretty silly on it’s own but then if you add some rave names to it it’s really ridiculous but it caught on with people." 

Caffeine
"Caffeine was a brand that basically started touring, and we did really well with it. But I didn’t wan to keep doing 'Caffeine 1' or 'Caffeine 2' so I took party names such as Caffeine Mr. Green Jeans from when I used to watch Captain Kangaroo every morning when I was a kid. It way out there in left field, and I wanted to see how far I could take it. The show sold out no matter what. We couldn’t have put any more people in there. I guess half of the names were entertaining to myself. I was just trying to keep it interesting for everybody, myself included. How about that?"