Our story

Rapido Events, was born on the dance floor; while dancing the night away during the late 90’s/00 on many international dance floors in hotspots like Miami, Sao Paulo, New York, London, Montreal and Rio de Janeiro; the idea came up to start an event ourselves in Amsterdam and melting those great impressions all together to bring the best concept towards the Low countries.

In 2004 our journey started in Brussels and ever since then we have been famous for bringing ground breaking concepts tailored towards our LGBTQIA+ community desires and wishes.

With the arrival of Rapido at Amsterdam most renowned venue Paradiso in 2005 we created a true boys paradise; the ultimate circuit T-dance party in a top notch venue.

With thrilling lasers & lightshows, fantastic dance shows with custom made created outfits by our designer Lalo Fernandez  and a popular play-zone on the 3^rd balcony floor.

The place to be on several Sunday afternoons a year.

Over the course of time a number of other events were added to our company including special events like there are FRESH, REFLEXXX, and bringing for the first time towards Amsterdam in 2008 Offer Nissim; we had the privilege to invite him to Amsterdam 5 times (King Weekend 2008 (Escape), Pride 2008 (Melkweg), Pride 2009 (Marcanti), Pride 2011 (H.M.H.) & King Weekend 2013 (A.C.F.)).

Many singers were showcased throughout the years including Chris Willis, Shermanology, Nalaya, Booty Luv, Inaya Day, Jeany Tracy, Joy Cordwell and Kristine W. to just name a few.

We set the bar every time higher with Tissue & Trapeze artists like the amazing Les Farfadais 

We also enjoy travelling and our World Tours brought and is still bringing the Rapido concept towards Circuit Barcelona, Muccassassina Rome, WE – Madrid, Gibus Paris, SEXY Cologne, EGSW in the French Alps, XLsior Mykonos, a residency at Red and Blue in Antwerp, besides collaborations with the WEEK (Brazil) and MasterBeat L.A. (U.S.A.), we brought SuperMartXe to Amsterdam and have a long standing partnership with Matinee (Barcelona).

We took you several years in a row to the Dutch beach at our famous “Rapido on the Beach” editions.

and we offered you the chance for several successive years to dance on the Rapido float during the famous Amsterdam Canal Parade.

The last few years we have been a main sponsor of the Iran boat during the Amsterdam Canal Parade; enabling to present themselves to the world during this important event; in this way and during other occasions we keep investing and supporting our LGBTQIA+ community.

At present all our events welcoming refugees from our LGBTQIA+ community in cooperation with the Dutch COA. By this offering them a great escape from their daily routine, set their mindset on party-modus, allowing them to make new friends and moreover feeling safe and accepted.

We take care of you; from our first edition onwards offering free medical support when needed, to complementary gadgets like fans, earplugs, condoms and our traditional ice-lollies on the Rapido dance-floor!

Since 2011 Funhouse is around, a concept build around a colorful circus/fair theme based experience with dedicated main shows, the signature balloon drop and Happy House music.

As the concept is growing and becomes very popular larger editions are arising; Funhouse XL with over 3.000 happy visitors towards our largest event so far : FunHouse XXL.

Since 2016 we invite 7.000 LGBTQIA+ visitors for the Pride event of a life time :  “the FunHouse XXL - Pride Edition”. This event combines 4 late 19^th century industrial monuments - including the magnificent GasHouder to create 4 completely different club-locations, all with their own distinct feel & vibe, all linked together and accessible through a large outdoors square creating 1 magical Rainbow City Pride event.

As we listened to our community where a strong desire for a dedicated techno area was in demand we fulfilled this desire as from 2016 by dedicating one floor at the larger Funhouse XL events toward techno.

From 2018 onwards techno has a stand alone concept : B:EAST Amsterdam; defined as Berlin’s finest techno in a fantastic raw Amsterdam location, held in RADION - famous for extended opening hours and a sex positive vibe.

The techno torch has been recently taken over by Unhindered. At unhindered we bring you a divers and pure blend from exciting new and promising techno talent mixed and merged with the complete techno spectrum without being hindered by labels and boundaries : “unhindered”.

The passion and devotion of our creative teams and our focus on the unique overall experience with always your health, pleasure and convenience in our mind is what keeps us involved in our productions and keeps us at the forefront of the LGBTQIA+ event industry.

Rapido Events : Going strong with over 20 years experience in the LGBTQIA+ industry.

yours Edgar Bonte , managing director & founder