The below review was written by Peter an avid party goer living in Amsterdam about the Rapido King’s Day Edition 2019 which took place at Paradiso on 28th of April 2019. The opinions expressed in this review are his and his alone.
Rapido, my favorite hedonistic cesspit. Where I mentioned before that Funhouse is my first love, Rapido may be my last. The party has a high production value with plenty of attention to detail, an amazing venue and a very interactive crowd. It is organised three times per year Sunday afternoon/night. The whole experience always feels super smooth: getting in is a breeze, there’s rarely lines anywhere and the personnel at Paradiso is lovely.
The bulk of the party takes place in Paradiso’s main room where circuit house is played, not the poppy-remix type you hear at Funhouse but more like actual tribal house. In the main hall you can clearly see that Paradiso is a former church. The room has a very high ceiling and is surrounded by two balcony rings supported by pretty iron columns which give the place bit of a steampunk-like feel. Most of the dancing happens on the ground floor and its raised areas. There’s no shortage of lasers and lights and there is always some giant sculpture-like funky creation suspended over the DJ. The lower balcony ring is usually not that busy, but since this edition was packed people were actually dancing there. The upper balcony is the designated play area and tends to be well visited. When it comes to good views while bottoming Paradiso is second to none.
Paradiso offers lots of space to wander around. On the first floor is the entrance to the balconies as well as a small room, which during Rapido has DJ’s playing a bit more mellow after-party-like sets. On the basement level are the toilets and a lounge area with beanbags which is supervised by a drag queen giving performances and preparing free fruit snacks for anyone who wants them. There’s also masseurs there for those willing to pay.
Even though the lines for the toilets are quite manageable, it’s impossible for me to keep Rapido pee breaks under an hour. The hallways in front of the toilets are a bit of a social hub. I run into friends, have a talk, agree to go dance with them, they go for a pee first, I wait and start talking to some random guy, some other friend shows up and joins in, I realise that the person I’ve been waiting for for 20 minutes went “poof!” in a pink cloud of x. You get the picture. It’s a lot of fun.
The crowd at Rapido tends to be very friendly and comes in all sizes, shapes and ages with the majority being between 30 and 60. The types range from normal guys to twinky to sporty. Although on average people look quite good, showing a somewhat larger belly is definitely not unheard of. People tend to be quite approachable at Rapido; even the distractingly handsome ones who at some other parties can be a bit standoffish are totally fine to talk to here. There’s a lot of overlap in audience between Funhouse and Rapido, but many prefer Rapido for this reason.
This is one of those parties which can be whatever you want it to be for you. You can dance till you drop, talk people’s ears of or have an all-day orgy. If you can’t stand circuit house you’re in for a rough time though.
This edition of Rapido once again was a blast. The music was spot-on, the venue was packed and the crowd was very cheerful. I spent most of the day bouncing around on the afterglow from last night’s Spielraum (plus some extra’s), and it was an overall effortless and blissful experience. There was an afterparty, but I always feel a bit depressed about swapping beautiful Paradiso for boring old WesterUnie. I decided to skip it, spare a free day and just go to work the next day, which went pretty ok surprisingly enough (I still have my job).
Party & Venue Information
| Party type | Circuit party |
| City | Amsterdam |
| Type of audience | Age range 18-80 Audience: everything, twink, bear, jock Attitude: friendly, approachable, flirty, cruisy, social Very few women |
| Outfits | Shirtless, non-functional gay sportswear, rubber, leather |
| Music | Instrumental circuit house |
| Performances | There were a number of performances by gogo dancers. |
| Sex | Yes, large play area, some funny business on the dance floor as well |
| Venue | Paradiso, a late-nineteenth century former church, one of the most iconic concerts halls for pop and rock. |
| Security | Checks at the entrance |
| Facilities | Cloakroom Payment methods: pin or cash Drinks prices normal Lounge yes Toilets enough Smoking room yes |
