More than 1.9 million people visit Toronto’s CN Tower in an ordinary year. They come for the panoramic views, and on a good day, it’s still possible to see the mists of Niagara Falls more than 100 km away. It was the same in the ‘80s and ‘90s, when George Andrew was working at the building, and he never tired of that particular perk of the job.
So when Andrew found himself on the main observation deck last April, he was transfixed by the windows yet again. That night, the glass was foggy with condensation, but Andrew couldn’t have been happier about it. “It took me right back,” he says. For a DJ, that’s a beautiful sight to behold; it means the dancefloor is packed and hopping.
In a moment when Toronto venues such as Sneaky Dee’s are facing demolition and headlines about Canadian spending habits suggest nightlife caught COVID and never recovered, it can be hard to believe this chapter of Toronto history ever happened. But once upon a time, the CN Tower was home to Sparkles, the highest disco on the planet.
For a little more than a decade, Sparkles was a place where locals could bump and wiggle with out-of-town party people, celebrities and even the occasional dancing bear — 346 metres above the ground. And to mark the CN Tower’s 50th anniversary, pop-up events have been planned to re-create the scene. The next party, in celebration of Pride, kicks off Friday.
Welcome to Sparkles, Toronto’s ‘loudest free-standing structure’
In 1979, the Toronto Star described Sparkles’ decor as “moody and exciting,” though fixtures such as the vinyl booths were designed to withstand daytime visitors to the CN Tower, including school children on field trips. As Star reporter Caitlin Kelly wrote, “presumably the tinted mirror, tivoli lights and cobalt blue bars can withstand jammy hands.” At night, visitors would dance in a room filled with neon sculptures and 7,000 lights. Here, the disco is seen in a promotional photo from the early ’80s when the space was also used for live-to-air radio broadcasts. (CN Tower archives)
The club originally launched in 1979, three years after the CN Tower opened its doors. It was a bid to keep the crowds coming after dark, and according to the New York Times, which covered Sparkles’ star-studded opening that October, the observation deck would undergo a quick change every night when the daytime tourists disappeared.
To transform into a cutting-edge disco, the room relied on “swinging doors, hidden cabinets and mirrors.” Sparkles was outfitted with smoke machines, a motion-activated laser system and embedded strobe lights in the dance floor. According to the Toronto Star, the combined effect was “absolutely blinding” (in a good way), and locals flocked there, ready to pay the cover charge ($2 to $5, depending on the night of the week).
The Times raved about the room, calling it “an electronic wonderland of computerized effects, pulsating sounds and gyrating dancers.” One of the bold-faced names in attendance for Sparkles’ kick-off weekend was the British pop star Lulu. She declared the place incredible before sharing this back-handed compliment: “I was in Toronto 12 or 15 years ago, and it was a real hick town. But now it’s simply supah.”
Two months later, CBC News brought a camera to Sparkles for New Year’s Eve. With the ‘80s dawning, the disco era was losing its sheen, but a rep for the club was unfazed by changing trends. Pop music may change, but Sparkles was in it for the long haul, she said. “If having a good time goes out, we’re in trouble. But until then, I don’t think so.”
WATCH | CBC Archives:
The manager of Sparkles, a disco in the CN Tower, tells a CBC reporter she doesn’t believe people will ever stop wanting to have a good time. Recorded in 1979.
By 1981, the party was raging so hard, residents wondered if a disco disaster was imminent. One concerned citizen wrote a letter to the Toronto Star: “Could the energetic dancers at Sparkles … bring the whole structure crashing to the ground?” David Garrick, then general manager of the tower, insisted the mighty spire could withstand the impact of a 747. A little dancing wouldn’t hurt anybody, and there were no intentions to shut down the fun. But by 1991, the party was over.
Sparkles didn’t close exactly; a rep for the CN Tower prefers to use the word “transitioned.” Horizons, a resto-lounge playing light jazz, soft pop and R&B, opened in its stead. Today, the tower’s main observation level can be booked for private events, but it’s rare anyone goes there to dance among the clouds.
How Sparkles came to shine again
“Sparkles has this sort of lore about it,” says Shawn Whalen, marketing manager at the CN Tower. Whalen’s been on the job for three years, and when he first heard about Sparkles, he was dazzled by the news of its very existence.
Since opening a newly renovated lower observation level in January, the CN Tower has been running public events to mark its half-century on the skyline; a birthday party at the base of the tower is planned for later this month, for example. And when the planning began, Whalen and his team dug into the attraction’s archives for inspiration. There, he came across photos of Sparkles’ heyday: there were servers in matching magenta disco-pants; dancers mingling under mirrored ceilings and sizzling neon. He and his team wanted to bring back the glitz.
In this photo from the ’80s, a crowd dances the night away at Sparkles, the nightclub in the CN Tower. When the disco was open (1979-1991), one of the bar’s signature drinks was the Heaven’s Above, a concoction involving creme de cacao, coffee liqueur, pineapple juice and rum. It will be on the menu at the CN Tower’s Sparkles Retro Pop Up event. (CN Tower archives)
In April, the tower threw a Sparkles theme party on the main observation deck. Whalen and his team pulled the original electric sign out of storage. Andrew, who was the club’s longest-serving DJ, hosted the sold-out do. His son James Jeziorski (who DJs professionally as DJ Shamz) was at his side, spinning retro hits for the 800 dancers who came to relive their disco days (or experience Sparkles for the first time).
“Sparkles certainly has a special place in the hearts of the people who are — as I like to say — fun enough to remember it,” says Whalen, and though the April pop-up was billed as a one-night-only experience, the event’s success has convinced organizers to keep bringing back Sparkles while the 50th anniversary celebrations continue.
“Could this be something that becomes an ongoing or annual thing? I think we’ll have to wait until this year closes before we decide,” says Whalen, but the next event, a family-friendly all-ages dance co-presented with Pride Toronto, will light up the tower Friday. Further dates are in the works but have yet to be announced.
At Sparkles, ‘you never knew what was going to happen’ 
(L-R) As seen at Sparkles nightclub in 1988, DJ George Andrew is photographed with pop star Taylor Dayne and Sparkles general manager Andrew Robitaille. (George Andrew)
When Andrew arrived at Sparkles it was the fall of 1987, and he remained the CN Tower’s resident DJ until 1987. He stayed on after the club was rebranded as Horizons, but it’s his run at Sparkles he misses most.
“It was the era of Milli Vanilli,” he says, and his playlist reflected the tastes of time: dance-pop, hip-hop, R&B. “You never knew what was going to happen,” says Andrew, who remembers running into visiting stars including Robert Redford, Gene Hackman and Jean-Claude Van Damme. When SkyDome opened in 1989, it became harder to find parking, he says, but that didn’t deter the hometown crowd from coming out.
“There were lots of locals,” says Andrew of the scene. “You’ve got people from Toronto, you’ve got people from the U.S and people who were visiting from outside North America.” That collision of different groups, he says, made it a unique spot to be.
And when you consider how much effort was required to get your patent-leather pumps on the dancefloor, the repeat customers must have truly loved the place. In Andrew’s day, the ride up to Sparkles was nowhere near as speedy as today’s minute-long ascent. On a bad day, the ear-popping trip could take 10-15 minutes, sometimes longer in bad weather. “You know, it took forever for people to get up there on those windy nights.” And yet, the mirror ball was spinning Monday through Sunday.
In this archival photo from the early ’80s, DJs and Sparkles guests party at the CN Tower’s disco. (CN Tower archives)
Sparkles also doubled as an entertainment venue. It hosted fashion shows and private parties. Long before Spiritualized’s 1997 gig at the CN Tower (which laid claim to the Guinness World Record for the “highest show ever”), Sparkles threw the occasional concert.
There were parties devoted to punk and new-wave records. In a 2012 history of the club for the now-departed Toronto magazine The Grid, writer Denise Benson mentions an all-nighter from 1980: “a spectacularly gay affair” organized by folks from two of the city’s now historic queer spaces, Dudes and Stages.
In 1983, the Toronto Star announced an aerobics class at the club, in line with the trend for (let’s get) physical fitness. There was even a regular all-ages party. Starting in its opening year, Sparkles was a teen hangout on Sundays, and as reported then by the Toronto Star, one of its first celebrity guests was Mickey Mouse. (He was there to promote a staple of many Canadian kids’ record collections, Mickey Mouse Disco.)
This promotional photo for Sparkles was taken in 1979 on the roof of the CN Tower’s main pod. As part of Friday’s retro pop-up event, a selection of pictures from the nightclub’s history will be on display. (CN Tower archives)It was a different time in Toronto nightlife
Jeziorski was eight years old when his dad became a fixture at Sparkles — too young to ever watch him action. But he’d visit him there on P.A. days, helping load crates of vinyl onto the elevator. The experience must have made an impression; as DJ Shamz, Jeziorski has been working throughout the GTA since 1997, and upon learning of the CN Tower’s upcoming 50th anniversary celebrations, he thought the folks in charge might be interested in hearing more about his dad’s unique contribution to the place. He wasn’t wrong.
When Whalen and his team received Jeziorski’s email, they invited him and his dad to the CN Tower. They wanted to know more about Sparkles, and Andrew, who began writing his memoirs in 2020, could help them learn more about the photos they’d found in the archives.
George Andrew in the Sparkles DJ booth. (George Andrew)
“It was a different time in party culture,” says Jeziorski. “It’s not like now in the current market where people aren’t going out as much — and it’s just Thursday, Friday, Saturday.” Back in the ‘80s, his dad was filling dancefloors at Sparkles six nights of the week — seven if the manager couldn’t find someone to work his day off.
Still, during that first meeting with the CN Tower team, the subject of a Sparkles revival was tabled. There was only one question in Jeziorski’s mind: “What are we doing and how do we do it?
The scene inside Sparkles: A Retro Pop Up. The event was held at the CN Tower in Toronto on April 10, 2026. (Nicole & Bagol/CN Tower)
At April’s event, Andrew says he felt like he was back in the ‘80s. Old regulars came up to him all night, some with their own grown-up children in tow. “It was just very hard to explain, but there was a little bit of magic in the air,” says Andrew. “It was like stepping back in time.”
Friday’s Sparkles party is an all-ages event that doubles as a kick-off to Pride. Running from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., guests can get in with a regular timed-admission ticket (or a reservation at the 360 Restaurant if you’re fancy). Local musician and drag queen DJ Regina Gently will be playing Pride anthems and hits from the ‘70s and ‘80s.
The day Regina took the gig was the day she learned about Sparkles. And the idea of a sky-high Canadian disco blew her mind. “It feels bigger than Toronto. Like, it made me think of Studio 54 and the legendary clubs from the past,” says the artist. “I don’t think Canada in general is known for having that kind of stuff.”
Drag artist and musician Regina Gently will DJ Friday’s Sparkles event at the CN Tower. The event will be presented in collaboration with Pride Toronto. (Tanja-Tiziana Burdi)
“I wish there was a club like this now. There’s a need for it now,” says Regina. “We’re in a really crazy time. And dance, nightlife — there’s a safe haven to that sort of culture.”
“I don’t know why [the CN Tower] wouldn’t have tried this in other eras but yeah, I think people want to dance.”
It feels bigger than Toronto. Like, it made me think of Studio 54 and the legendary clubs from the past.- DJ Regina Gently
Unless it’s New Year’s Eve, the CN Tower hasn’t been much in the business of packing a dance floor, says Whalen. Post-Sparkles, there have been a few public events which have become the stuff of legend: the Vertigo rave of 1993, a 2010 NXNE showcase with Hollerado and The Meligrove Band — and in 2024, Vancouver DJ Felix Cartal packed a crowd into the main observation level for a spontaneous pop-up set.
Speaking as someone who lives in Toronto, Whalen says the CN Tower is a powerful symbol for many. If you’re flying back from a trip, “as soon as you see that big tall needle out of the airplane window — you see the CN Tower — that’s when you know you’re home. But you often don’t visit it unless maybe you’ve got friends from out of town or something like that.”
Through events like Friday’s Sparkles party, he’s hoping more locals will have a reason to get acquainted with the place, instead of viewing it from below as we always have.
Regina, for her part, has been living in Toronto since the year 2000. “I’m pretty sure I haven’t been [to the CN Tower] since then,” she says.
“If there was a dance club in it, I’d go regularly,” she laughs. “I think all of us would probably go.”