Red Parrot — New York City (c. 1980 – 1988)
Operating in the early to late 1980s, Red Parrot Club was one of New York City’s largest and most electric nightclubs — a hybrid disco, concert hall, and spectacle space that captured the excess and energy of the era.
Located on West 57th Street, Red Parrot was massive by nightclub standards, known for its sprawling dance floor, cages, theatrical lighting, and crowd sizes that rivaled arena shows. It hosted an astonishing range of performers — from Madonna and Grace Jones to George Clinton, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Divine, and Bow Wow Wow — blurring the line between club night and live concert.
While not exclusively a gay venue, Red Parrot drew a mixed, fashion-forward, queer-friendly crowd, reflecting the porous nightlife boundaries of 1980s New York, when disco, punk, drag, pop, and art worlds collided nightly. It existed in the same ecosystem as Studio 54 and Danceteria — places where queerness, music, and spectacle overlapped without needing labels.
Red Parrot closed in the late 1980s, but its reputation endures as a symbol of maximum-scale nightlife, when clubs were big, loud, glamorous, and unafraid of chaos.
